One of my favorite Bible stories is found in Luke 18:35-43. It is the story of the blind man who cries out to Jesus to have mercy on him. What I find fascinating is that when they brought the man...
In my last post, I discussed the value of winning. Now, I would like to talk about the value of competition. The simple fact is one cannot win if one will not compete. To compete, or to engage in the...
“I want your child to fail. I actually want your child to fail a lot.” Those were some of the first words I spoke to an audience of parents who heard me speak for the first time. Without context or...
At first glance you probably did a double take when you read the title. You may have said “Did he mean to put those words together in that sentence?” There is no doubt that this is a tremendous undertaking. My...
The purpose of this email is to bring you information that will hopefully motivate, inspire, and encourage you. It also serves to remind you of our vision and mission as well as where I believe we are at this point....
The section of our handbook that is labeled “The Purpose and Goal of Classical Christian Athletics” says the following: Key lessons taught by athletics include the competitive mindset, mental toughness, physical training, conflict management, goal setting, team building, accountability, and...
The next section of our athletic handbook is entitled, “The Expectations of our Parents.” I wanted to go over this section for three reasons. One is that most of you are parents, so we want you to adhere to the...
If I were to count up the number of conflicts over my coaching and administrating career, I would guess that 90% of them involve playing time. This is not a complaint towards parents. Actually I want to start by defending...
I am from a broken home. My parents divorced when I was in the 6th grade. I went to a rural school, was an “A” student, and played football, basketball, and ran track. One night in the 9th grade I...
I watched a show on Fox called “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.” Sixteen celebrities are put through ten days of physical and mental tests in Jordan. The goal is to finish. You are only eliminated if you are medically disqualified...
Here is the promised continuation of comments from the book Grit by Angela Duckworth. *Teachers and coaches that assign values to players without a system of drills to show improvement are fixed mindset and create an environment where the player...
I think I mentioned to you all that I am engrossed in the Fox reality series Special Forces (Wednesday nights). As one more week on grit, I thought you might find value in these quotes from the first two episodes....
I will admit that the movie Facing the Giants is hokey and not the best cinema in the history of cinema. But, I have always loved the death crawl scene. I love the fact that the boy was able to...
At one of our leadership meetings, Mr. Hinton talked about Patrick Lencioni’s book “The 5 Dysfunctions of at Team.” I think there are really good insights for us as you all begin to build your teams this season. Lencioni presents...
One of my favorite books (and movies) is When the Game Stands Tall by Neil Hayes. This is the story of Coach Bob Ladouceur and the De La Salle high school football program in California in the late ’90s and...
I never won a state championship as a high school player. I did watch one from the inside (and how it developed) when I was at Westminster (my previous school). Please forgive the length but this is a story worth...
As you get deeper into your season, here is another story on the power of goals. One of my favorite books is Goals by Brian Tracy. There is a particular story in the book that I think is powerful and...
One of our coaches sent me an article this week. This is a topic we have not ever discussed. What words do we use with players that are not getting the playing time they “want” or “think they deserve”? How...
About a year ago I ran across a book called The Wesleyan Way. It is a book written about the Wesleyan Christian Academy Men’s Soccer Program. I wanted to share a breakdown of their program with you. Robbie Hinton and...
I remember reading an article back when I was coaching football receivers regarding focus. The article had two stories. The first story was about Steve Largent. Steve, at the time (1989), led the NFL for touchdown catches above notable receivers...
The title of this article caught my attention as I looked at the front page of the ESPN app (Spring ’23). It is an article written about the French World Cup team’s victory over England in the quarterfinals. Here are...
I read an article this week about a college quarterback that wanted to transfer after his second season. He was redshirted his first year and he was played sparingly his second year. He went to his coach and asked him...