It seems like, in this day and age of the free agent, the pressure on our coaches to win is heavier than ever. Everyone is chasing the brass ring. More and more coaches just want to land that next big job. They are constantly looking at the green grass on the other side of the fence. Don’t get me wrong, I am an extremely competitive person, myself. I can’t stand to lose! It seems, however, that just like everything else, we have taken the “win at all cost” mentality to a very dangerous level.

I’m a coach, and I understand that we coaches are always looking to move up. You start out as an assistant and are so excited when you become a head coach yourself. You think you can build up a small-school program and then move on to the next division. You get that big-school assistant job and are looking to move into to your dream job: the big-school head coaching job.

The problem in this is that what we are basing our self-worth on (our status as a coach) will eventually leave us high and dry. I am ending my first decade in coaching, and I have yet to have a year either as an assistant or a head coach in which some problem did not come up. It might have been a difference in philosophy with another coach on the staff. It might have been that you didn’t push an athlete as hard as you think he should have been pushed. But, if we are not careful, the problem might outgrow the coaching realm. It might become a spouse who feels neglected from the work we put into our sport. It might become a child at home who never sees his or her father. Whatever it is, we must be prepared to know how we are going to face these challenges.

God desires so strongly that we turn to Him. If we do turn to God, He will see us through the storm. If we do not turn to God, we will constantly fight an uphill battle that, in the end, will cost us more than a win on the field of competition. We will lose part of our very lives.