Trouble often seems to be waiting around every corner of daily life, especially for coaches. Whether it is a troubled player, an unfair referee, a nagging parent or an unreasonable principal, coaches can count on difficulties. They come with the territory!

Thankfully, Jesus never pretended that life would be a luxury cruise. “You will have trouble,” He told His disciples. In fact, difficulties are guaranteed, an inevitable part of living in a fallen world. Jesus didn’t deliver the trouble; He just knew it was coming.

Most of us, at some time, have found ourselves at “the end or our rope” or at the end of our own strength emotionally. Maybe we were so tired at practice that we were disrespectful to a coach, a trainer, or teammate. Most of us have been let down by someone whom we look up to because they were at the end of their rope emotionally. Maybe a friend lied, or our parents left, or our coach blew up and disrespected us.

Hockey Chat:  What if you were to get to spend a month with Wayne Gretzky (or Martin Brodeur for you goalies) and they spent day and night giving you tips and coaching?  That would make you pretty great.  But if the month was over and you went back to playing your way and forgetting everything you had been taught, losing your talents you had been just gained.  It would seem foolish.  Like a waste of a great opportunity. 

Depending on the golf course, the average PGA golfer will take roughly 280 shots during a four-round tournament. Within each one of those swings there is an enormous amount of pressure. For some players, one shot could make the difference between picking up a weekend paycheck and making an early exit—the difference between retaining a tour card and going back to qualifying school.

Aaron Baddeley fully understands all of the ramifications that accompany golf’s micromanaged scoring system. He has missed the cut by one stroke and made the cut by the same paper-thin margin. Baddeley never takes his position on the PGA for granted but somehow finds relief from the inherent stress with a special technique.

Duke Preston can still hear it now.

“Duke!”

His father’s deep, booming voice echoed throughout the cavernous racquetball court. Just moments earlier, assistant coach Raymond Preston had addressed his son’s freshman football team about a party that had taken place the weekend before. The unsupervised event resulted in a substantial amount of underage drinking—including participation by the younger Preston.

And with his father’s firm, beckoning call, Preston knew he was busted.

One of the Division 1 schools in my area entered its conference tournament as the number eight seed and appeared to be a long shot to win it all. The head coach for the team admitted they fell short of expectations, but that the one goal they could hold on to was winning a conference tournament championship. Despite the odds, the team achieved that goal by knocking off the first-, second- and fourth-seeded teams, earning an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament in the process. As one player said, the team put it together when it counted most.

Growing up with two older brothers meant I never got anything new. I was always dished secondhand items:clothes, sporting equipment, and toys. My big day came when I was eight years old and my dad bought me a new lacrosse stick. It was a glorious moment. The lacrosse stick glowed from newness. That experience marked me as a young athlete. It passed through my hands first—not second, third, or fourth!

God does not want our secondhand glory. Secondhand glory is taking credit when God should be getting the credit first. It is subtle. As athletes, it is easy to take credit because we are always getting it from teammates, coaches, and fans.

Hockey Chat:  When the NHL moved from a 3-man officiating system to a 4-man system it was to tighten the fairness of the game. With instant replay of goals, fair scoring has been pretty accurate as well.  This keeps the players to the rules and holds them to their penalties.