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
