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!