CHARGER NATION: GAME #3

Charger Nation,

            I want to congratulate our middle school team on beating Pace last night.  Pace is the team that beat us last week so I’m glad our middle school could make things right (in a small way at least).  Tom Mertz is the head coach and does a fantastic job with those boys.  I see many good players on that team and look forward to coaching them in the future. 

            Tonight we have Heritage High School in Conyers.  They are a school very close to ELCA and I am excited to play the game tonight.  They are a AAAAAA school and have very talented players and big players as well.  (Some of you don’t understand all the A’s-The more students a school has in its student body the more A’s they get.  We are single A because we have 360 students in high school.  They are AAAAAA because they have roughly 2,000 students in high school.  It makes a difference because you have more boys to choose from to play football.  That is why there are different classifications.) Their best player on offense on film is #13.  He is a wide receiver who won the state AAAAAA high jump champion.  He is a great athlete and they want the ball in his hands.  And if he gets the ball he can score at any time.  On defense their best player is #53.  He plays noseguard and very good.  He is disruptive.  They have many good players but those are two to watch. 

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces stead-fastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4

            Every Friday night that we have a game I know it is an opportunity for me to represent Christ.  My goal in life is to live for Jesus Christ:  To serve and live for him well.  I always pray that I would be humble in victory and gracious in defeat.   I was really enjoying the humble in victory part.  That is easy.  I would walk across the field and say good job coach and try and say a positive word to players that played well.  I would say there was zero challenge in being humble in victory (on the surface anyway.)

            But last week God gave me the opportunity to be gracious in defeat.  What does that mean?  To be gracious in defeat means to show honor to the team that beat you.  It is hard to do.  I am a sinful man.  My flesh rages against showing another team honor or another coach honor.  What I want to do in defeat is blame everyone in the world for the loss.  Our flesh tells us it’s not our fault.  Our indwelling sin tells us to blame everyone else.  But the Holy Spirit whispers, “Die to your sinful self and show honor to the other team because it is due to them.”  The Holy Spirit convicts me to make no excuse and to take ownership.  I obey but it hurts.

            I often say that football is a microcosm of life.  In one season you go through winning and losing just like life.  In one season you go through adversity and affliction just like life.  Rather it be winning or losing a football game, a young man winning or losing a starting position, there are many trials and challenges over the course of a season.  A player and coach will feel many different emotions.  There will be circumstances to be high and circumstances to be low.  How a person manages these emotions and circumstances will dictate the overall success he will have.  Just like life, football season is a journey; it is not a one-time event.  The goal is to have a successful journey, to finish the journey well.  In any journey that is worth talking about there will be trials and triumphs.  There will be many circumstances that cause man to quit and give in.  However, it is the steadfast man who will prevail.  It is the steadfast man that will finish well. 

            Many people will say that God doesn’t care about football and it is just a game.  I would agree with them.  However, what God does care about is his children.  For those who love God, who have surrendered their life to him, who follow him whole heartedly, we are children of God.  And, as his children, God is intimately involved in our lives.  Football is what I do.  It is important to me because it is what I have been called to do as a means to build men for Jesus Christ.  I do not coach everyday for us to lose.  I do not work diligently everyday on practice plans and film study so that we may go out and make mistakes on Friday night.  We work 80-100 hours a week and it is not to lose. 

            Being a Christian, I believe in the Sovereign hand of God.  I believe that every situation and circumstance I find myself in is from God.  I am fully responsible for my actions and yet God is Sovereign over them all.  I do not understand how this works but it is clear in scripture it all is true.  I came before the Lord all weekend last week and I’m fully taking ownership for my responsibility in the loss but praying to the Lord to show me what I need to learn from the loss.  I know my mistakes caused the loss and I know God is sovereign and allowed many things to happen and not happen on that night for us to lose.  On the take ownership side of things I’m watching film and studying what I did wrong and where I can become a better coach.  On the spiritual side I’m praying and asking God to show me what I need to see about myself through that loss.  And this is life, right?  It may not be football, but we find ourselves in this predicament a lot. 

            Since the loss and this day, it is clear to me that God is constantly working in his people to be steadfast.  As I prayed yesterday morning the definition of steadfast became clear.  It gave me peace and unwavering confidence.  I don’t know what this world has for me but I live life in total confidence in Jesus Christ.  I will end this with my final thoughts on the loss that I wrote down.  These thoughts are from the Holy Spirit and a guide for me on how to live life, a lesson in steadfastness.  God doesn’t promise worldly success in this life, but he does promise us that in Him we will overcome the world. 

“The lesson: to remains steadfast.  Christ’s love for me is unchanging.  He loves me.  I have eternal life through the blood of Jesus Christ.  I am a son of God through Christ.  The Lord will never leave me or forsake me.  As the Lord’s love for me is and pursuit of me is unchanging, steadfast; my devotion, trust and faith in him is to be steadfast.   My pursuit of Christ and my love for Christ and my faith in Christ cannot waver based upon my worldly circumstances.  No, either in life or death, riches or poverty, winning or losing, Christ is my ALL in ALL.  I will be confident; I will be strong in Christ.  I will be steadfast in my successes and in my failures.  Walk with me Lord.  Come what may, my faith is strong as it is rooted in Christ and what he has done.  Me, myself, I am not strong.  Be strong in the Lord.  Put your hope in the Almighty God of the Universe.  Do you trust me? Do you believe in me?  Rest in me!  Whatever may come your way, go with Confidence: I will be with you. “

We have had a phenomenal week of practice.  Our boys have been steadfast through affliction.  I love their attitudes and their spirit.  This is one of the most pleasant teams I have coached in a while.  I don’t care what happened last week and I don’t care what happens tonight.  They are winners.  We will keep chopping.  We will never give in.  Come what may, our strength is in the Lord.  Let’s get after it tonight and have fun!

Beat Heritage!

“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: GAME #2

Charger Nation,

            Tonight we go up to North Atlanta and play Pace Academy. Over the past five years Pace has had a lot of very good players graduate from their program.  Three are at UGA right now.  When you see them tonight you will see more really talented players.  They won the AAA state championship in 2015.  They are a school that takes a lot of pride in being the best in everything they do.  We will need to bring our very best tonight.  I am looking forward to it!

            

“Do you see a man skillful in his work?  He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.” Proverbs 22:23

This past week marked the fourth week we have been practicing.  This week I finally felt like we were in a spot where our boys were beginning to understand conceptually what we want out of them.  (I said starting too—we are not there yet.) When we run an offensive play, we ask eleven guys to do individual things that produce a unified result.  To be a great team each of those eleven boys need to know what they are doing and they need to know why they are doing it.  When they understand why they have a specific assignment they can then begin to understand the importance of mastering the technique we demand.  If they do not understand “why” they will not understand “how” in the way that will empower them to be great.  

            The cognitive understanding of why we are asking them to perform a specific task and how it fits into the overall structure of the play empowers them to value the technique at which that specific task must be done.   We are getting close to this understanding of why and how to do something.  As coaches we start off the year with: “do this.” Through film study the boys can watch themselves and the total structure of the play and begin to grasp the why and the how.  At practice I am saying, “Take this step and do this.”  When we watch film of practice and games they are seeing why they should take this step and what happens when they do or they don’t.  They also see how what they do fits into the overall structure of the play.  This knowledge should empower them with the desire to perfect their technique.  

            In perfecting his technique, developing his skill, is where an average player becomes a good player and a good player becomes a great player.  However, it is not easy.  To develop great technique, to perfect a skill, requires not just going to work each day, it requires effort, discipline, and focus the entire practice. And this is where you lose most high school kids.

            The challenge for me as a coach is to get everyone to understand the difference between showing up to practice to get through it and showing up to practice in the pursuit of excellence.  I’m sure you have the same challenge with your children in getting them to understand the difference between showing up to school and going to school in pursuit of excellence.  It is in the effort, discipline, and focus that will turn school into a pursuit of excellence.  We know this. We teach this.  The challenge is getting the boys to own it!  

            When we add effort, discipline, and focus to our going to work we will start to develop a skill.  We will find that we will become very good at what we do.  We might not become the best, but we will become our best as we develop skill.  In proverbs we read this about skill: A man skillful in his work will stand before Kings.

            I have been harping on this one all week to the boys. I see many of you showing up to practice at the end of practice.  This is probably when I’m yelling the most.  The last hour of practice is when the boys lose focus; they lose their will pursue excellence.  When they lose focus their effort and discipline is gone.  They move from the pursuit of excellence mode to get through practice mode.  We must demand they focus.  We must demand they give effort.  We must demand they be disciplined.  And in this a great skill will be developed.  

            For us at ELCA, football is just a tool to build men for Jesus Christ.  We do not teach them to be great for worldly glory.  I do not coach it for worldly glory.  The only reason I want to win is because I hate to lose.  But I don’t pursue winning for worldly glory.  I don’t even know if we pursue winning at ELCA.  The focus each day is becoming our best.  We do not know what that is but we are working hard everyday to be our best.  We want to master our technique and, therefore, skill.  We are not doing it in pursuit of winning or being the best.  We just want to be our best.  Our goal is to maximize the ability God has given us for his glory.  

I believe that if we can get your son to understand the energy, effort, and focus it takes to master his football skill, there will be no end to what great things he might accomplish in this life in his real job one day.  If you can learn to be focused, disciplined, and give great effort in full pads while the sun is beating down on you for three hours, there is no end to what you can accomplish one day.  I believe the effort, discipline, and focus we are demanding from him on the football field will carry over into his pursuit of excellence as a husband, father, and employee as he grows older.   In this, what your son becomes in the future, this is where we hope to see winning.  Winning on Friday nights is meaningless if these young men become losers in life.  

            “He will stand before kings.”  This isn’t telling us to do what we do so we can boast in our accomplishments and get worldly glory.  It is saying that if someone is skillful in his or her work, the world will take notice.  Chic Fil A is always a good example.  They mastered the chicken sandwich but more importantly they mastered the skill of customer service.  I don’t go there necessarily for the chicken sandwich (but it is good).  I go there because I know it is clean and friendly.  And even though people in the world hate Chic Fil A because of its strong Christian values, Chic Fil A is going to keep growing and expanding because they are skillful in their work. A little old chicken shop thirty years ago in South Atlanta has grown into a world-renowned fast food powerhouse because they are skillful in their work.  

            And to make all of this skillful work more powerful, we do not do it to stand before kings, we do it for the Almighty God of the Universe. We do it for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  We do it that others may see Jesus Christ working and moving in us and through us: “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”  Matthew 5:15

It’s Game Time!!!

“The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.” Proverbs 21:31

BEAT PACE!!!!

Wholly for Christ,

Coach Gess

Charger Nation Game #1

Sign right outside the weight room painted in 2008

            Game #1 is here.  There was a little more intensity this week as we were preparing for an actual game that will count.  No: A lot more intensity!  Last week in the back of our minds we knew it was just a scrimmage and it didn’t count.  This week, we were working diligently to make sure every thing is perfect.  It was game week and everything matters!

            Tonight we have Morrow High School.  Morrow is an AAAAAA school and if you go back five years ago they were awful.  But recently they have become good and have some division 1-scholarship type players.  #1 and #3 are their highly touted guys everyone talks about.  Overall, I think their team speed is very good.  It is a great matchup for us.  It will be a challenge and that is just what we need. 

           

DEMAND EXCELLENCE…TAKE OWNERSHIP

       When I first got to ELCA these are the two things I would say and discuss all the time.  Twelve years later these are the two things I say and discuss all the time. 

As we prepared this week we demanded that players be at their best.  We demanded they do the little things right.  Practice film is critical for us so we can review the details of our technique and overall precision.  It’s either excellent or we are coaching how to do it so it is excellent.  There is 0 tolerance for anything other than perfection.  You get 11 guys pursuing excellence at their position and you will get precision. 

            But in order to get excellence, you need kids who will take ownership of the details of their position.  I love film because they can’t make an excuse.  They can’t lie about what happened.  It is what it is.  “Take ownership and do it right!”  As coaches we can’t go out there and do it for them.  All we can do is coach them to do it right and show them how they aren’t doing it right on film.  We have to demand excellence from them on the field and in film study and then they must take ownership of the process. 

            This is an all out war every week.  By our sinful nature, we are not naturally a people who want to demand excellence.  We want to talk about excellence cause it is such a pretty word.  But we do not want to demand it.  On Wednesday this week it was really hot.  The sun is beating down on us and we are all crumbling under it.  I’ll run 60-70 offensive plays in team at the back end of practice.  So at about play 40 I’ll start feeling sorry for the boys cause I know they are hot and tired.  I can see them hot and tired.  (Ya’ll don’t know this but I’m naturally a soft person. I am way to nice. I have a heart and that is a curse for a football coach.  I’ve prayed for God to remove my soft heart but he won’t).  But I know I can’t get soft on them.  I know I can’t feel sorry for them.  I know I must turn it up a notch.  I must get after them.  I must demand excellence from them.  I don’t want to yell at them.  I don’t want to make them keep going.  I feel sorry for them.  But I know, I know, if I get soft on them they will never become their best.  If I let them stop, they will.  If I let them fail, they will.  So I press on.  I demand excellence from them and they respond.  I honestly believe in the last 15 minutes of practice on Wednesday we made more strides as a football team than we have all off-season.  I could have folded.  I wanted to.  I felt sorry for them.  But we demanded excellence and the boys responded (they took ownership.)

            As I write the following thoughts below you have to understand that I feel as if I am your assistant dad with your boys.  When they fail, as you hurt so do I.  I desperately want them to do right and succeed just like I want my own son to do right and succeed.  Over 12 years I feel like I have raised 100 teenagers.  I know them and I know them well.  I know their little manipulative games.  And I know you and me, as a team together, we must have 0 tolerance for their excuses and demand excellence in everything they do if they are going to be successful.

            As parents as we raise our children we fight this battle everyday that I described above as a coach in the hot sun.   A coach and a parent fail in the same area: Softness and follow through.  We have high hopes for our children.  We even envision what they will be and how they great they will be.   We want excellence for our child.  But the problem is that child.  No offense to anyone because some of you think you have perfect children, but teenagers are a walking screw up (that is the best word I could use to describe what I deal with on a daily basis.)  Do not get me wrong:  I love them and they do things that are amazing at times.  But they are going to mess up.  They are going to do things to break your heart.  And this is where the talk of excellence and the demanding of excellence separate good parenting from bad parenting (just like good coaching from bad coaching.)

            To demand excellence you must require ownership.  Ownership of one’s actions and life is a lost value in the society we live in.  Everywhere you look people are griping and complaining.  People are making excuses and blaming others.  We do the same as parents.  When our child messes up it breaks our heart.  But instead of having our child own their mistakes and their screw-ups we blame someone else.   When they fail a test they tell us the teacher isn’t teaching and the class is too hard.  And we listen and feel sorry for them.  Then we are blaming the teacher.  Oh, we desperately want excellence but we just want the teacher to give it to them.  We want success for our children but we expect people to give it to them.  As you all know, that is not how the world works.

            Now understand this: I say a teenager is a walking screw up but make no mistake, they are very intelligent.  They are so good at what they do.  They manipulate us into thinking the teacher actually isn’t teaching.  They manipulate us into believing that their teacher actually has something out for just them.  Out of 350 students in high school that teacher just hates him for no reason.  They will convince us that there is this great injustice by the administrators at ELCA against just him.  They are masters at it.  Oh, they know:  If they can deflect the blame just a little bit and get your focus off them they can get out of the mess they think they are in.  And they do it because it works!

            But parents (and I am preaching to myself because I am soft on my own kid and yours sometimes), taking ownership is all about him.  If we are going to demand excellence then we must demand our child take ownership.  Ownership has nothing to do with what someone did or did not do to me.  Ownership has everything to do with me and how I respond to every situation.  If I raise up a football team that is allowed to make excuses and pass the blame, if I foster this environment, we are going to be weak mentally and fail in big time situations.  In the same way, if I raise up Uriah allowing him to make excuses and pass the blame he is never going to become a productive man. 

            And this is what it is all about: God has given you your son to make him into a man for Jesus Christ.  God has given football to us for it to be used as a tool to build your son into a man for Jesus Christ.  God has given us ELCA as a school to grow young girls and boys into Godly men and women who will shine as lights for Jesus Christ in this world.  Read the Bible: Nowhere does God allow anyone to make excuses and pass blame.  He demands and preaches ownership.  He rebukes grumbling and disputing.  He is Excellence and he demands we become like him.  He demands we take ownership.

            Praise the Lord.  I am soft and weak.  I am a sinner.  I don’t fully understand excellence and often times find myself not taking ownership.  But for those who are Christians, God has sent his Holy Spirit to live inside of us and convict us where we are wrong: To grow us up in Christ likeness.  I don’t know how to raise my child correctly as God would have me do it.  I don’t know how to coach these boys correctly as God would have me do it.  But the Holy Spirit leads me and guides me in the way I should go (Psalm 32:8).   Trust in the Lord, He will keep you and he will lead you.  Pursue Excellence.  Demand Excellence. Take Ownership from yourselves and especially your children!  They are the only investment God has given us that matters.  “He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:24)

Our boys are trained and ready!!

BEAT MORROW!

“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

2018 Seniors after the Stockbridge Spring Scrimmage

  

CHARGER NATION 2018: GAME 0

CHARGER NATION,

          Once again, football season is here.  The boys are excited here at ELCA are excited to finally play and hit someone other than themselves.  They have been working hard all year for precious games like tonight.  As coaches and fans we have been eagerly waiting the 2018 football season since we watched the 2017 football season come to a close. It is time!

            Tonight we go up and scrimmage Marist.  Marist has been the most successful private school football team in the state of Georgia since the 1980’s.  The reason why they have been so successful is their had coach Alan Chadwick. As you watch the game tonight, know you are watching one of the greatest in his profession.  I have great respect for men like Alan Chadwick who has been able to be a successful head coach since 1985 at one school.  A man who stays at one school for 33 years is truly a man of loyalty.  I do not know him at all, but his reputation as a man of integrity precedes him everywhere he goes.  He became Marist’s head coach in 1985 and has compiled a winning record of 364-68. Last year they finished 14-1 and were the state runner ups in AAAA.  

            Playing Marist tonight was strategic on my part in two ways: 1.) I have found that there is no greater way to learn from a coaching legend than to go play that coach; and 2.) There is no greater way for our boys to become better football players and a better team than to go face an extremely tough challenge right from the get go.  We have a great opportunity tonight.  

“Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” Psalm 34:8

         “I don’t taste anything Lord.  I don’t understand this verse.  I want to taste it, Lord.  Lord, I want to know what this means.”  These were my thoughts as I read this verse at the beginning of the summer.  This past off-season has been strange for me.  The spirit within me was not at peace.  For whatever reason I was restless and overwhelmed from the beginning of last football season.  There was no major sin in my life.  I was diligent in my pursuit of Christ.  I was diligent in trying to be a good husband and father.  I was coming to work everyday and doing my best.  But something was off in my inner being.  I was blind to what this could be and even blind to that something was off.  (*I am not saying I didn’t sin.  We all sin daily.  There was just nothing egregious going on to cause this restlessness.)
                So I came across this verse and I was honest with the Lord: “I don’t taste it.”  When you are restless on the inside you don’t have peace.  You do not feel freedom and this is a dangerous place to be.  But I know that I am supposed to have peace and freedom in Christ.  I knew this to be part of tasting and seeing the Lord is good.  My relationship with Christ was very much like looking at a chocolate bar and knowing what it supposed to taste like and desiring it very much.  But when you bite into it you can’t taste anything.  It would be perplexing and confusing, right?  I know what this [the chocolate bar] is supposed to taste like, but I do not taste anything. 
                But, praise God, he opened my eyes.  What happens in life is so subtly and sneaky this world creeps in and takes over.  Instead of identifying as a Son of God through the blood of Jesus Christ, we allow the world to creep in and identify us.  We know not to strive for worldly identity but we blindly do it anyway. 
                Not arrogantly or on purpose, I had allowed winning and state championships to become my identity.  I would never say it out loud but I was consumed with this underlying current in my inner being: “We have to win.”  Many coaches suffer from this.  Many of you who are successful in what you do, your identity is your success.
                We all struggle with this: “I have to …..” complex.  You fill in the blank for yourself.  And many people might think these things are good and it is why you are successful.  But God despises our idols.  He despises our “I have to…..” mindset.  And if you are a child of God he will foil your attempts for worldly acclaim and glory.  He might even give you your “I have to….” just to show you what a wretched and despicable God it is.  Make no mistake, you will become a slave to your “I have to….,” and it will destroy you.
                It was clear, I could not taste and see that the Lord is good because I was so fat and full of my pursuit of this world: The pursuit of winning.  Jesus showed me that you truly cannot serve two masters: “You can serve winning and it will eat you up and spit you out.  Or you can serve me and I am the ultimate victor conquering death and saving your soul.  What you desire I have in abundance.  You were made for my glory, not your own.  You will not find rest until you fully surrender to serving me and not yourself.  Come and taste that the Lord is good.  For you were dead in your sins.  You were an enemy of me.  You deserved the wrath of the Almighty God whom you rejected.  But, through God’s great mercy and grace, He sent is Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for your sins.  He who knew no sin became sin for you.  You who are not righteous are now proclaimed righteous through the blood of Jesus Christ.  And while you were dead in your sins I opened your eyes to these wonderful truths and called you to myself.  Ponder these things.  Pursue these things.  Rest in these things. Taste and see the Lord is good.” 
                And through the struggle and toil of the summer begging God for freedom and to taste and see, he showed me how you cannot dabble with the gods of this world.  They will kill your soul.  They will destroy your family.  They will destroy your relationships with friends.  They will slowly enslave you and suffocate you.  But praise Jesus, who came to give us freedom from the enslavement of sin. 
                I don’t say I lost my way but I did lose my perspective. But praise God: He is faithful.  He keeps us.  He does not allow any of those who are his to wander away.  In fact, not only does he keep us, he sanctifies us.  He grows us in Christ.  He showed me: “You taste that worldly success?  It is bitter.  It does not satisfy.  In fact, you will drown in it.  It will suffocate you.  It is empty and hollow.  Come and live fully for me and I will give you joy, peace and rest.”
               
I am fired up and excited for tonight.  We have worked hard.  Our boys are excited and ready.  I can’t wait to play!

“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