ELCA FOOTBALL: STATE CHAMPIONSHIP 2018

ELCA FOOTBALL: STATE CHAMPIONSHIP 2018

Charger Nation,

            The day has come: State Championship 2018.  This morning we have the privilege of loading up the busses and playing in the Mercedez-Benz Stadium.  We play Athens Academy and all of you know Athens Academy.  They are the same team we played last year.  Many of their best players you remember from last year are back this year.  They have a great coach in Josh Alexander.  I would say the strength of their team is their defense.  When I watch film I always come away thinking how feisty their defense is and how they do not give up many yards.  Offensively, they want to run the ball in many different ways.  They have two very good running backs.  They have great special teams because they have a great kicker.  Yes, I am describing a team you would expect in a state championship game.  Besides playing last year, we don’t really have any similar opponents from this year.  We really don’t know how we stack up until we get out there and go at it.  It is time!

I cannot be more proud of what our boys have accomplished this year.  This 2018 ELCA Football team came in with 13 seniors and we were replacing 13 starters off of last year’s state championship team.  We knew we had talented athletes but much of that talent had not started a varsity football game.  Could those talented players become football players?  Could those seniors become leaders and take control of the locker room and the football team?  This team had to develop an identity and a chemistry if they were going to make it back to the state championship.  I felt we had the talent but could we become one?  Could we die to self and become a team? 

They only way to forge chemistry and to develop an identity is to go through hardship together.  The 2017 team, that group of seniors, we were always able to rally behind losing 49-7 in the state championship game their freshman year.  When they were sophomores they started out the season 3-3 and ended up winning the state championship.  The struggles developed an identity.  Rallying together and learning to fight developed a chemistry.  This 2018 had to endure that as well.  Losing to Pace was devastating but necessary. 

Losing to Pace taught us humility and it taught us how to persevere.  We could feel sorry for ourselves, mope, and maybe lose some more.  Or we could roll up our sleeves and continue to get better.  I know for me as an offensive play caller and then for our defensive coordinator, Brett Collier, we were figuring out what we did well.  We were trying to get the players in the right position on offense and defense.  Losing was a huge trial for us but, in the end, it was a catalyst to shaping and molding this current team. 

The other game that I believe forged our identity was the Mount Vernon game.  We were down 21-14 in the third quarter.  We couldn’t get anything going offensively.  We were struggling to stop them.  They had the ball on the 5 yard line going in to score to make it 28-14.  Our defense rose up and stopped them.  In that moment, during that goal line stand, we have seen a different football team.  There became and edge and a fight to this team.  In the last 14 minutes of the game we went on to score 28 unanswered points and have been rolling since that moment.  Our backs were up against the wall and our kids could fight or fold.  They chose to fight and they have been playing with a rage and fury that every state championship contender must have since that goal line stand. 

Those two games, those two trials, they have helped this team develop a chemistry and an identity.  All great teams have been through hardship together and overcome.  This team has overcome.  This team has learned how to be Warriors.  So here are: Time to go play the State Championship at the Benz!

“For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 13:10

            Chargers, you know very well that we use the game of football to preach Jesus Christ.  For me personally, God always teaches me many things over the course of the football season.  Each week I pour out to you what God is showing me in hopes to encourage you and point us all to Jesus Christ.  This week God has made it clear to me that I am weak.  As a football coach, I take great pride in being strong and tough.  As a football coach, I want to be mentally tougher than everyone.  If I am truthful, this is my source of pride and identity.  Deep down I like to believe I can outwork you. 

            I say God builds the house but I have great pride in our process and how hard we all work.  My pride was a little rooted in our work ethic.  But this week God let me know who was in control.  He showed me how powerless I am.  He showed me that I am not strong.  He showed me that if I try and build the house by my own power and my own strength I won’t be able to make it.  God showed me how frail I am.  God showed me that I am weak.  My heart beats because the Almighty God wills it.  My brain works because God wills it.  My body operates because the Almighty God who created wills it.  

“Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” Ephesians 6:10

            As God broke me down and made me helpless I saw clearly how weak and frail I am.  I thought I had complete control of my body and my mind but God showed me that I do not.  Every ounce of pride I had in my mental discipline and fortitude was stripped from me.  For a whole day and even a little bit longer God removed this ability from me.  As he gave Paul a thorn, maybe he has given me a thorn. Either way, He showed me that what I think is mine is not mine.  What I take a little bit of glory in he can quickly take away.  What helps me be successful in what I do, God can take it away.  It’s not mine.  It is his and it is to be used for his glory and his purposes.  I am to trust in him for my strength. 

I saw clearly how strong and powerful God is.  God took me and shook me; he showed me that anything that I am trying to do under my own power is meaningless.  He showed me where doing things under my own power will take me.  I will never forget that Sunday night I spent in the hospital begging God to help me.  I had no clue what was wrong with me except that I was not in control.  For the first time I my life I lay there helpless.  I could not buckle down and work my way through it.  For the first time I felt truly at God’s mercy.  I always say God makes our heart beat and our minds work.  I I00% believed it.  But Sunday night I experienced it.  I am weak. God is Strong.  God offers me and wants to be my strength. 

“Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.” Psalm 62:8

This is the verse I started praying that night.  No, I didn’t have it memorized.  I was reading through the Psalms looking for something to quiet my mind.  God gave me this.  God is my refuge and my strength.  God is an awesome God.  He is the Almighty God of the Universe yet he desires a personal relationship with you and me.  He is God.  He is good.  He loved us so much that he sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins.  We were helpless and had rebelled against him.  We sought our own way and this way leads only to our demise.  It leads to hell as we rejected the Holy God of the Universe.  But Jesus Christ came to reunite us with the Father.  Jesus Christ came to die for our sins.  Jesus Christ came that we may live.  Jesus Christ came that we could be strong in the Lord.  For we were weak but Christ has made us strong.  My life, my strength; it is in Christ.  God has shown me strength in Jonathan Gess is death.  Strength in Christ is life now and forevermore.  Truly, “I will trust in him at all times, God is my refuge.” 

Now—it’s time to go play this football game!!!!

“The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord!”

Proverbs 21:31

Wholly for Christ,

Coach Gess

CHARGER NATION: SEMI-FINALS

CHARGER NATION: SEMI-FINALS

CHARGER NATION,

Today we travel down to Savannah for the semi finals of the state playoffs.  I am very proud of our boys for getting to this point.  Last year we graduated 22 seniors and had one of the greatest runs in GHSA history.  Eleven of those 22 were offered scholarships.  How would we replace those guys?  Many people didn’t know what this group was going to do.  This group has met and exceeded my expectations regardless of winning or losing tonight.  They have worked their tails off and earned the right to be in this game.  I am extremely excited for them!

            Savannah Christian is a good football team.  They have very good skill players.  Numbers that jump out on film are #2, #1, #6, and #8.  Those are the guys who get the ball the majority of the time.  Their quarterback is small but he is very good.  The more film you watch of him the better he throws the ball.  He gives them the element that has made them a semifinal team: The ability to throw the ball.   Their right guard and defensive tackle has committed to NC State (#54).  On offense, they are explosive.   On defense, they are feisty and swarm the ball. 

            Many of you don’t know that before ELCA it was Savannah Christian.  All the private schools were chasing Savannah eight years ago.  I remember they went to the dome in 2009, 2010 and 2011.  They won it in 2011.  They have always been good.  There is a rich tradition of football excellence at their school.  The coach that built the program was Coach Donald Chumley.  He retired before the 2017 season after 13 years coaching at Savannah.  His record there was 116-32-1.  He is an intense coach and his teams always got after it.   There is no doubt the culture he created in his time at Savannah still stands. 

The new coach has come in and resurrected what was already there.  For your UGA fans, Demetris Robertson who you so coveted to come play at UGA and now is finally there, he played at Savannah Christian.  He is just one of a many distinguished football alumni from Savannah Christian.  The new head coach has come from Benedictine who won the AA state championship twice I think.  Being in the semifinals is not new to him and winning is what he does.  So if you have been a private school football fan for a while, Savannah Christian and ELCA in the semi-finals is how it should be.  It should be a great game tonight.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

As I reviewed Tuesday’s practice with the offense Wednesday morning I found myself getting on to the boys about their poor execution: “This is who you naturally are.  This is your technique naturally.  If you aren’t intentional about what you are doing, you are lazy and sloppy.  This is slop.  This is who you naturally are.  And the only way you can fix it is to take every single rep with great focus and discipline.  You must command your body to do right and if you do it right over and over and over just maybe you can transform who you are naturally.  Just maybe if you demand that you do it right every time, you will not naturally give sloppy effort.  But to develop such perfect skill demands focus and intensity.”

Yes, it was cold on Tuesday.  Yes, the boys had already been out there for two hours and fifteen minutes.  Yes, it had gotten dark and was even colder.  Yes, we have been practicing since the end of July.  So with all of those elements thrown in there, my offensive line resorting back to the technique they had back in the spring: SLOP!  I found myself telling each linemen that what they saw on film is who they were by nature: SLOP.  They couldn’t argue with me.  They were seeing the same thing I was.  No effort, no intentional focus on perfect technique.  They were going through the motions.  Obviously, the offensive lineman they were by nature was sloppy. 

But don’t get made mom and dad for me calling your son sloppy.  I was convicted of my own sloppiness as a Christian.  If God was reviewing my life with me on film I’m sure he would say sloppy many times:  “You’re not thinking about what you are doing.  You’re just living in your old sloppy self.  Your supposed to be progressing into a new Creation but all I see is the old slop.” 

            My job as a coach is to take a group of boys and demand excellence from them.  Execution is critical to excellence on the football field.  Each player having perfect technique is critical to perfect execution.  But perfect technique is hard and it is learned.  It is a developed skill.  It takes a lot of effort and repetition.  It requires a player desperately wanting to do it right.  The right attitude leads to the right effort.  The right effort leads to the correct execution.  The attitude and effort must be there everyday.  If it is not you get slop. 

            Ultimately you are trying to develop a habit.  You want to get a young man to the point where he can’t do it wrong because he has done it so many times that perfect technique is a habit.  But the problem is it still takes effort.  You can know what to do and even want to do it right.  But if you cannot command your body to give great effort it is still slop.  So something was slop: either their technique or their effort.  Something was causing the sloppiness.  My question to them was this: “Is that who you are?  Well it is because that is what I see.  If you are better than this than that means you are giving poor effort and this must be fixed today!” 

            I addressed the whole team before practice on Wednesday challenging them to perfect effort and execution.  The boys responded.  They had their best practice of the year Wednesday.  The footwork and the technique of all the boys was on point.  If you could go back and watch Wednesday film from August and compare it to yesterday, you would say the boys are a new creation.  The old slop had disappeared and I saw a new creation.

            And this is the goal of those who are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.  When God calls us to surrender our life to him and accept him as Lord and Savior, He calls us to become a new creation.  We are by nature slop.  When I say slop I mean sinners, sons of destruction, and children of wrath.  By nature we only seek our own way.  We are selfish.  We are full of pride, lust and greed.  I was king of the slop.  But, in Christ, we become a new creation.  He shows us how it should be.  He shows us our sin and calls us to become a new creation. 

            What I thought was cool is the boys were saying that what they were seeing wasn’t good enough.  I asked one player:  “Do you see that?  Is that who you are?  Is that the football player you are?”  And the young man was embarrassed and he said: “No.”  And of course I said: “Well, it is.  That is what I see.  That is what you see.  That is who you are.”  I am doing all of this to challenge them and motivate them.  My goal is to get a different product at Wednesday practice.  So me telling them that what I see on film is who you are is a challenge to them to not let me see that on Wednesday’s practice film. 

            Rather it is about their character or their performance on the football field, this is a constant war and battle I go through with the boys.  “You say you want to be a leader but your actions scream to me you don’t want to be a leader.  You say you want to be a great football player but your effort and your technique scream to me you don’t want to be a good football player.  If you continue down this course in life you will not be successful.” 

            It is no different for me in Christ.  Just like my objective is to create a polished leader and football player, God’s objective is to create a pure image bearer in those who are his people.  Just as I will be hard on the boys, expose their poor effort and attitudes, and challenge them constantly, so God will do the same to me.  But the goal is never to destroy and condemn.  The goal is to transform and help a young man become more than he ever imagined.  This is God’s goal.  He doesn’t want us to be enslaved to our sinful selves.  He wants a new creation:  One that will shine bright for his glory here on this earth.  And for those who are in Christ Jesus, He will do whatever he must to get us there! 

            “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”  Galatians 6:9

            I had to deal with some attitude issues this week.  I had to deal with some effort and technique issues this week.  It gets exhausting but I will never give up.  I will be relentless after them each and everyday.  You now why?  Because God does not give up on me when He should.  I give him slop sometimes and He convicts me.   I sin and rebel sometimes and God restores me after an attitude check (conviction of sin and then asking for forgiveness of sins.)  God does not give up on me.  He keeps me, leads me and guides me.  Me being a new creation is God’s doing and is by his grace.  He is patient towards me.  He does not give up on me.  Far be it from me to give up on these boys! 

NOW—Let’s go play some football!!!!

Beat Savannah Christian!

“The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.”

            Proverbs 21:31

Wholly for Christ!

CHARGER NATION: ROUND 3

CHARGER NATION: PLAYOFFS ROUND 3

CHARGER NATION,

            I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving yesterday.  Thanksgivings are always great days with the all the food, family and football.  Football on TV just completes Thanksgiving as far as I’m concerned.  Being able to practice and play on Thanksgiving weekend is even better.  Opportunities like this don’t always exist and we should take great joy and be thankful to be able to play tonight. 

            Tonight we play Darlington.  Darlington is a school up around Rome, Georgia.  They are a consistently good football team.  We have not played them since 2013.    They want to run the ball and be physical.  They have one of the top rated linemen for the class of 2020.  He is a monster and you will quickly be able to spot him.   He can pick wherever he wants to go to college and play football.  I think Nick Saban had thanksgiving with his family yesterday (that is a joke but could be true.)  They have two good running backs they want to carry the load.  #4 is a big strong physical running back and #2 is the more elusive back.  Both are dangerous.  They are much better football players than me, but I think I could get some yards running behind that big offensive lineman.  I’d give the boys the David and Goliath story but we aren’t allowed sling shots nor do we know how to use them.  In all honesty, I love watching the kid play football.  He knocks people down and then he helps them up. 

Either way—we have a lot of good players too and our boys have played many many great players over the years and have done very well.  As with any round 3 play-off game, this should be a great game. 

“Praise the Lord!  Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”  Psalm 106:1 & 118:1

            At the end of practice yesterday I challenged the boys to actually think about something for which to be thankful.  Naturally, we are not a thankful people.  We always think about what we don’t have the and how life isn’t fair.  We grumble and complain.  It is who we are.  To have a day of thanks is actually contrary to who we naturally are.  A teenage boy isn’t thankful for the car you give him, he thinks it’s your duty to provide him with one.  A teenage boy isn’t thankful for his 700 dollar phone you give him, he thinks it is your responsibility to provide him with one.  A person cannot be thankful for something they think they are owed.  We all are very much like these teenage boys.  We have things we do not deserve and never stop and think to be thankful.

            I challenged the boys to be thankful for their mom and dad, or grandmother or granddad, or just mom or dad; whoever it is that takes care of them and provides for them.  For each of the boys I coach someone loves them enough to pay for them to go to school at ELCA.  I know everyone thinks we cheat and give scholarships, but all of you who actually send your kids to ELCA know you pay tuition.  We all send our kids to ELCA because of Jesus Christ, environment, education, and opportunities.  Someone is sacrificing a lot of money so they can have the best opportunity.  I challenged them for one day to be thankful for those people who love them and take care of them.

            Why be thankful?  Because so many kids are born in this world to parents who don’t love them and don’t care about them.  It wasn’t my parent’s duty to take care of me as I thought it was.  It was by the grace of God I was born into a family who did love me and take care of me.  It wasn’t my right; it was by grace.  As I have gotten older I have learned to stop and give thanks to God for providing me with a mom and dad who loved me and took care of me.

            We sit around and constantly think about what we don’t have.  We think about this isn’t fair and that isn’t fair.  Turn on the news if you want to be depressed.  All they do is talk about what isn’t fair.  They are stirring us up into a frenzy of rage while they are making millions getting us all stirred up.  They have to stir us up or they don’t make millions.  They are getting us mad and angry while they are going to the 5,000 dollar spa and drinking 1,000 dollar wine over the weekend.  We are foolish.  We neglect to ponder over and be thankful for that the very fundamental needs we have are being met: I have water, I have food, I have people that love me.  When we stop being thankful for those things there is nothing that will ever satisfy us.  We will become the biggest gripers and complainers on the planet.  We will become like the running back in the NFL who is griping and complaining about a 17.5 million dollar signing bonus. 

            Our boys, you, and me, we are born with an “I deserve” mentality.  This mentality stems from pride, arrogance, and greed.  Pride is a liar but he dwells mightily in us all.  He tells me I am better than the next man.  He tells me that I deserve more than the next man.  With this beast dwelling in us there is no way we can be thankful for anything.  The eyes of our heart are looking everywhere to see where someone has more than me or has it better than me.  I can never be thankful for what I have because someone has more and it enrages me.  How can I be satisfied with 17.5 million if someone else is getting 21.5 million?  (You might think that is impossible.  I read the article.  I’ll send you the link if you ask.)  How can I be satisfied with getting to practice on thanksgiving when we deserve to be practicing on thanksgiving?  How can I be happy with the car mom and dad gave me when I deserve to have a car?  “I turned 16, it is my right.”  Well, that is what they think.    “You have to buy me a phone, it is your duty.”  That’s what they think.

            When I became a Christian, I learned to be thankful.  When I was 23, my eyes were opened clearly to the fact that I was born a sinful man and I was in complete rebellion against God.  In this state of sin and rebellion, what I deserved was the wrath of God.  The God of the universe who made heaven and earth, who made my heart beat from nothing, who gives me a mind that thinks; I had rejected and renounced this God.  I had spit in his face and told him I knew better than him.  It wasn’t that I was an atheist and rejected their being a God.  I was worse off.  I knew there was a God and rejected him.  Many times I had told God: “I know you, I believe in you, but I am not going to follow your ways or your laws; I will do it my way.”

Can you imagine if you went to your boss and said those words?  You would be fired.  If you were in a gang or the mafia?  You would be executed.  Those are just mere men.  We say this to the Holy, Righteous, Omnipotent God of the Universe: The Creator of all things.  Just as our children annoy us with their lack of thanks and their “I deserve” mentality, we do the same to this all-powerful God of the Universe. 

            God showed me and revealed to me this is who I was.  I was in rebellion and I knew I deserved the wrath of this God.  BUT---In his grace and mercy he didn’t leave me there.  He showed me the way to become right with God.  He showed me his amazing answer to my pending judgement of his fury and wrath.  Even though I deserve to go to Hell, God sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for my sins and take my punishment for me. 

            There was no option for me but to accept this great gift.  To get on my knees and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and surrender my life to him was the only option for me as I saw my desperate enslaved state to sin.  I do not know if thanksgiving ever meant anything to me before I became a Christian besides food, family and football, but now it means a great deal.  I deserve the wrath and fury of an Almighty God whom I rebelled, rejected, and renounced.  And even in my rebellion he loved me by sending his Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for me.  When I became thankful for this, my eyes became open to so many of his good and precious gifts he has so graciously given. 

           

“Therefore, so as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”  Colossians 2:6-7

It is a mark of a Christian to give thanks.  We realize we don’t deserve anything.  We are lucky enough to have food and water and for this I will be thankful.  This side of heaven I still have the wretched sinful man living in me.  I fail to uphold God’s law and standards often.  There are many days I fail to be thankful and I allow the beast of pride, arrogance and greed to reign in me.  God’s promise to me wasn’t that I had to be perfect from the point of surrendering to him.  His promise is he would be faithful.  That’s insane!  How great and merciful and gracious and slow to anger is our God.  We are not worthy!  I am THANKFUL!

BEAT DARLINGTON!

“The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.”

Proverbs 21:31

Wholly for Christ!

Coach Gess