“It makes me feel good that FCA cares about it’s people!”

That was a common statement after a week of clinical exercise testing at the FCA World Headquarters in November. This effort, led by the FCA Health & Fitness Ministry, was designed to help our FCA team improve its health so that everyone involved could have the strength and energy necessary to perform at the highest level. FCA President Les Steckel put it best: “We believe that our initiative to serve our people on the front-edge of ministry will define us as an organization that genuinely invests in the personal and professional development of its people.”

For the second year in a row, the Drake University women’s basketball team was the preseason favorite to win the Missouri Valley Conference, but the Bulldogs have learned that preseason rankings mean nothing. When it comes to the season itself, anything can happen. And they mean anything. Last fall, Drake, a private university in Des Moines, Iowa, entered the season as a team loaded with talented veterans.

There’s not much about Anthony Parker that isn’t unique. Among NBA starters, he’s probably the only one who can rattle off useful phrases in Hebrew — something he picked up while dominating the European League from 2000-2006. He’s also the only playoff-caliber shooting guard who really does have the potential to be shown up on the court by his little sister. (He refers to little sis, All-American Candace Parker, as the Parker.) And he may be the only person who can read or owns a TV who’ll defend the good reputation of the NBA.

My favorite scenes from the Rocky movies are the training scenes. They are vintage Stallone — the intensity, the discipline, the passion! I have vivid images of him punishing a side of beef, trudging through the heavy snows of Siberia and running mile after mile before the sun rises. Even though the outcomes of these fights were decided in the scripts, real-life outcomes are often determined by how we train and how we get ready for the inevitable storms of life.

There was a powerful calm in the air as Barton College Head Coach Ron Lievense prepared for the start of the 2007-08 men’s basketball season.

Alone in the Bulldogs’ locker room in rural Wilson, N.C., Lievense moved quietly from locker to locker, praying. He prayed not for a return of the international fame that accompanied Barton’s national championship victory a season ago, but for each of his players, that they would look to the Lord for guidance and give Him the glory in all things.

For more than 30 years, women’s basketball coaches have stood on the shoulders of Kay Yow. An undeniable legend in the sport, her bio reads like an excerpt from “College Basketball’s Most Desirable Accomplishments.” But when thumbing through the pages of that biography, note that Yow’s fiercest competitor hasn’t been on the court.

Three times the North Carolina State head coach has been diagnosed with breast cancer, most recently stage IV in November 2006. But likened to any other rival, she has shown up for cancer’s game, determined to fight.

Old habits and patterns can be tough to break! Persevere!

If you are not eating breakfast, you are missing the most important meal of the day! When Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection, He said, “Come and have breakfast.” It was a time of nourishment—physical,  relational and spiritual. Too bad most of us just rush into the day, undernourished physically and unprepared spiritually.

Breakfast is essential for consistent energy, focus and concentration, easier weight loss and more consistent moods. But just eating breakfast isn’t necessarily going to get you started on the right foot.

For a time, Iver McDonald was superhuman. Well, not really. But at least she felt that way. That’s what can happen when you’re young and brash and enter high school as an elite softball player good enough to make the varsity as a freshman.
 
“I had this horrible attitude,” she said. “I thought I was the stuff in softball—like I walked on water. I thought I was invincible, that nothing could touch me.”

But things weren’t going so well in her personal life.

It was a first for the two brothers, playing on the same Major League field.

Graduating from the childhood batting cages of their backyard, life had come full circle for Matt and Jonny Diaz. Their parents smiled from the stands; they couldn’t have been more proud. Each young man had followed his own individual calling, but this Saturday night they both found themselves delivering for Braves’ fans at Turner Field—one with a bat, the other with a guitar.