Almost every Christian coach I know wants to have a philosophy of coaching that is positive. But in the battle of competition, sometimes we get caught up in the heat of the moment and lose our focus. We may stay positive on the outside, but inside we are feeling the tension—tension that causes us to lose that positive edge.

I have found that what we tell our athletes to think about is exactly what they will think about. We may say, “Don’t ever miss a serve on game point.” What are they thinking when they come to the line? They are thinking about not missing the serve. What do they see? Missing the serve, which is exactly what we told them to think about!

It’s hard to decide what Kara Lawson is most known for.

SEC fans remember her as the All-American from the University of Tennessee who led the Lady Vols to three Final Four appearances between 2000 and 2003. Followers of the WNBA know her as a key member of the 2005 league champion Sacramento Monarchs and now as the starting point guard for the Connecticut Sun. Still more recognize her as a member of the ESPN college basketball broadcasting team through which Lawson serves both as a studio analyst for the NCAA women’s tournament and a color commentator for men’s games. And fans of the Summer Olympics would most likely know her for the gold medal she won with Team USA in 2008.

I was raised a coach’s son and have coached football for 16 years at the college and high school levels. In that time, I’ve learned that both levels have had one thing in common. I’m not talking about blocking and tackling, but the time between the third and fourth quarters. When everyone in the stadium holds up four fingers representing that their team is going to close the game out by winning the fourth quarter.

As I was driving to work this morning, I was forced to constantly keep changing the radio station. All anyone could or would talk about was my beloved Kansas Jayhawks’ loss to VCU yesterday in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. And I just did not want to hear it.

For college basketball fans across the country, March is a bittersweet month. Because there is only one national champion at the end of the season, the vast majority of us have to end the season on some sort of losing note. And we always wind up consoling ourselves with the common thought, “Well, there’s always next year.”

I play fantasy football with my friends. Although it’s not technically a sport, it is fun. Recently, a person offered to trade me two of his players for one of mine. His players were good, but I didn’t see them as great, so I battled about this trade, I looked at player stats, future projections and schedules to analyze this trade. In the end, I didn’t make it. Why? Because I was afraid! I was afraid that the players were not going to be as good as the one I had and that the two players would let me down. I had fear that my team wouldn’t be as good, and that if I traded that player I would lose the championship.

The next week the players he offered me scored a combined 40 points. My player scored 7. In hindsight it would have been a good trade.

In a recent survey, managers and employees were asked what aspects of their job were most important to them. The results uncovered that while the managers focused on things such as job security and benefits, the employees simply wanted to know that they were contributing—that what they were doing made a difference.

In sports, rivalries are huge. And there is no bigger venue than college basketball. North Carolina vs. Duke, Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State, Kansas vs. Missouri, and my favorite rivalry, Indiana vs. Purdue. They have had some battles over the years when Gene Keady used to face Bobby Knight. Remember the chair-throwing game in the early 80's? And even without Knight, the rivalry continues. Who could forget the exciting double-overtime victory for the Hoosiers this year? This year is different for the rivalry, though. Coach Gene Keady walked into Assembly Hall for the last time as a coach this week. Often, rivalries produce ill will and bad feelings, but nevertheless, Keady was greeted with great applause and appreciation before the game.

I love to watch wrestling. No, not the slam dunk, throw-em-across-the-ring brawls you see on television, but the true competition that takes place on mats across the country during the bleak winter months. Two contestants walk across the mat and, with a steely eyed stare, get ready to engage in a battle of strength and will. After three two-minute periods of power, strength and speed, one winner emerges with his or her hand raised by the referee. Often, the loser is defeated by a more skilled opponent, but once in a while, a superior wrestler simply underestimates an opponent and that person’s abilities.

C.S. Lewis, one of last century’s most influential and prolific Christian authors, in writing about tithing said that if it doesn’t impinge upon one’s lifestyle, then he isn’t giving enough. The giving of money to the work of the Lord, he said, should involve some sacrifice.