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Hockey Chat: For those of you that play or have played on league teams you know the feeling of working and hustling through the whole game but just can’t get one past the goalie. Meanwhile the other team got a couple biscuits in the basket and all your hard work still came up a loss.
I love March Madness! I grew up playing basketball, continued through high school, and then cheered for my older brother throughout his college career. I coached the game for a number of years, as well. To me, nothing beats the passion, desire and determination that these collegiate men and women display during the "Big Dance." I love watching teams overcome large deficits in order to advance to the next round. Unfailingly, the commentators state again and again how poised these teams are, and I must agree. The teams that prevail are clear-headed and focused, and they stick to their coach's plan.
This was my first year ever as a football coach. I was unsure of what to expect, but I went into the season with one goal: being satisfied not with producing a winning record, but with producing winning athletes.
Billy Graham once stated that one coach would influence more people in one year than the average person would in a lifetime. This was an idea I took to heart. At the beginning of the season, I had no idea who my players were or what their backgrounds were like, but I did know one thing: while they were on my team they were going to learn not only about football, but about life and God.
When I played college football, our coach insisted that we wear our helmets from the moment we left the locker room until the end of the game. We were only allowed to remove our helmets during half-time while in the locker room. He was adamant that our helmets stay on during the course of the game. I always complied, but thought this demand was a little excessive. Everyone understands the merits of wearing a helmet during competition, but few would understand the necessity of wearing one otherwise.
For four years I watched my little girl, Julianna, walk, run, and twirl her way through our church. For thirteen years I watched another girl in our church, Kindra, live her entire life confined to a wheelchair. One Sunday, Kindra’s mom brought her to church with a new spring outfit. I noticed that there were new shoes, but they sat in Kindra’s lap. After the service, Kindra’s mother gave the shoes to my wife with the request that our daughter wear them. For the next few services, I observed the mom watching Julianna move about the church property in the shoes that Kindra could not wear.
Speed skater Kristen Talbot made headlines in 1992 when she gave up her Olympic dreams to donate bone marrow to her critically ill brother. Talbot proved that she wanted to keep her brother in her life and was committed to doing everything she could to support him during his physical illness, even at the expense of the hard work and practice she had put in on the ice over the years. She demonstrated extreme personal sacrifice to benefit someone she loved.
Often we take our brothers and sisters for granted. We do not carve out time from our schedule to spend with them. We don’t invite them to join us in activities. We don’t ask about their days or show interest in their lives.
I was the youngest varsity basketball coach in Indiana. I studied older coaches to gain knowledge, but one area to which I never paid enough attention was when to talk and when to keep quiet. I learned the hard way: by my second year of coaching, I’d received more than ten technical fouls, not for bad language, but for opening my mouth at the wrong time. These failures made me wonder if I’d ever master control over my tongue.
Solomon knew that there is a time for speaking and a time to guard our mouths, and many of us would do well to learn his lesson. All too often our lips keep moving when we should be listening. We fall too easily into traps made by our own speech; we forget that if our mouth doesn’t open, we will not be creating a trap to fall into.
When I was in college, our FCA leaders were called the “God Squad.” We represented most sports and held each other accountable for our actions as ambassadors for Christ on the court and field. I remember after one game in which I got into a fight on the basketball court defending my point guard. My fellow squad members prayed for me that it would not negatively impact my testimony. I realized then for the first time that my life was either all godly, or all compromise. I apologized publicly at the next meeting for not representing Christ in public.
Hockey Chat: There are many players who are great in there own mind. They lead the team in ice time because they won’t line change. They lead the team in goals but have zero assists. They don’t have any penalty minutes because they never bother to play defense.
I don’t know if any of you saw the Jets/Dolphins game yesterday or if you caught the highlights on SportsCenter, but if you did, you probably saw the clip of Jets strength and conditioning coach Sal Alosi tripping Dolphins CB Nolan Carroll as he was running down the sideline. Alosi was quick to apologize and make amends with the offended parties, so I’m not by any means pointing fingers at him. It was probably just a very bad decision made in the heat of the moment during competition.
After a season of high school football and a season of coaching my oldest son’s YMCA basketball team, I now find myself coaching my two sons’ 10-13 year-old PAL football team. Our first game was Saturday, and we were winning 13-7, but we were looking at third and 18 from midfield. I looked at my 10-year-old quarterback, David, and told him “Bunch Left, Bootleg.”
Hockey Chat: Being a great hockey player takes a great amount of work. To reach to a level worthy of playing in the big leagues, guys persistently work at their skills. Things that were once difficult become easier with practice.
Basketball fans can still hear the words, “And now, the starting lineup for your Chicago Bulls . . .” The words echoed as Pippen, Grant, Cartwright, Armstrong, and Jordan were announced. High schools and colleges still imitate these now famous words.
Glen is a high school football coach. He's not much different than other coaches. He's driven, tough, motivated and strong-willed. However, like many coaches, Glen developed two different lifestyles: a good coaching lifestyle and that of a struggling alcoholic. As these two lifestyles ran their courses, they eventually came crashing together. He continued to coach, but the drinking took its toll. Several DWIs mounted up, and eventually the alcoholism caused more issues. Glen came to the end of his rope.
Hockey Chat: In the Stanley Cup Finals 2004, Calgary’s Ville Nieminen's hit on Tampa BayVincent Lecavalier in Game 4 of the was definitely a cheap shot, taking a run at him from behind and smashing his head into the glass. As a result the Flames’ top defenseman had to sit the next game out on suspension, hurting his team this time and not the opposition. Many would say that ugly hit deserved revenge. Rather than take a cheap shot in return, the biggest retaliation a team can have is winning the game by playing hard-nosed, fair hockey. That is exactly what the Lightning did by taking the series and winning the Stanley Cup.
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