SPRING GAME, May 17th 2019
CHARGER NATION,
It’s May 17th
and it’s game day. I’m writing this at
5:30 AM on Friday morning and Uriah has just woke up telling me he is ready to
get up. So we will see if I can stay
focused. And, I always have the English
majors out there telling me I spelled a word wrong or grammatical errors. My mom is a reading specialist and she likes
to correct me. Just so everyone knows, I
write these things at 5 in the morning on Friday and have to be done by 6 or
630. I type as thoughts come to my
head. I don’t have time to edit. I’m trying to deliver motivating content so
excuse my errors. I’ll make a lot of
errors coaching tonight too. I’m doing
my best.
Tonight we
play Stockbridge. They are always good
and talented. Coach Whitley has been the
head coach for the longest time but he left in January to become the head coach
at New Manchester in Douglas County.
Coach Boyd has been the Defensive Coordinator at Stockbridge and he is
now the head coach. He has always done a
fantastic job on defense. I am excited
for him and his opportunity as a head coach.
It will be a fun and challenging game
tonight. I am excited for our boys. We have a lot of talented young men and many
competitions for starting positions. Our
goal each year is to find 22 guys who can play, 11 on offense and 11 on
defense. Some years we have 22 and come
years we don’t. I believe this year we
do. As coaches, we have the puzzle pieces;
we just have to figure out where they go.
We have had a great two weeks of practice and found out a lot about our
boys. Now it’s time to throw them into
the fire and see how they compete when the pressure is on!
“Take away the dross
from the silver, and the silversmith has material for a vessel.”
Proverbs 25:4
I am sure I
have written about dross before. Dross
is the impurities that get on gold and silver and turn it into a different
color. You might have a beautiful silver
ring or necklace, but if you leave it out and don’t take care of it, it will
turn an ugly yellow color.
When I am
coaching I go to practice each day thinking about removing the dross. I believe have the potential on our football
team for a beautiful vessel. But right
now, there is a lot of dross and we have to scrub diligently in order to remove
the infirmities. On a football team, 11
players must act in unison.
Individually, they all must have great technique and understand their
responsibilities. Then, they must be
able to process and react with great technique to many different
scenarios. At this point, technique is
not perfect. They do not understand
fully how their responsibility meshes with the other 10 guys. We are constantly demanding excellence in
their effort and attitudes (which have been great by the way). All of this is dross. As coaches, we are going out everyday to
practice and we are cleaning it all up in desperate hopes of creating a
beautiful vessel. We demand they come
and watch film so they can see for themselves the infirmities. Our desire is they see the dross and make a
commitment to removing the infirmities and creating a beautiful vessel.
This is a
long and hard process of removing the dross.
Sometimes with precious metals you can scrub the infirmities off. But often times extreme heat and fire is used
to melt the medal to remove the impurities.
Silver and gold are heated to remove the dirt that cannot be removed
through scrubbing. Fire and heat is also
used to melt in order to strengthen and shape.
Intense pressure and heat cleans and shapes. Sometimes we must polish but often times heat
and fire is required to produce a beautiful vessel.
As football
coaches, we are going to do whatever is necessary to remove the dross. Sometimes a gentle correction will get the
job done. But often times the only way we
can remove the dross is through fire. We
will do whatever is necessary. Many kids
can’t handle the dross removing process.
Many will quit. This is why we
say: “Those who stay will become champions.”
We know many will quit. We hate that
they do. But to make it easy so they
will stay prohibits us from creating beautiful vessels. There are young men who want to go through
the fire because they want to become their absolute best. And this is our aim: To help these young men
become all they can become. To make it
easy is to fail those who desire excellence.
“Since we have these
promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and
spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”
2 Corinthians 7:1
For me,
football is a metaphor for the Christian walk.
I was born totally depraved. This
means nothing was good inside of me.
That doesn’t mean I wasn’t a nice person. I was.
It means I was 100% committed to myself.
I would be nice if someone was nice.
But, due to my sin nature, I could hate and rage at anyone who offended
me, didn’t think like me, or was against me.
Pride, lying, arrogance, envy, lust, wrath, jealousy, strife,
bitterness, griping, complaining, etc.; these were natural responses inside of
me. To reject God’s commands and to be
selfish was woven into my DNA.
Your boys
are no different. They are sinners. They are bent to do the wrong thing. We all are.
It’s exactly what I mean when I say totally depraved. I have had parents tell me: “My son would
never lie to me.” I am always amazed at
the naivety of parents. I lied to my mom
and dad all the time when I was doing wrong.
To think my son won’t do the same is foolish. I expect kids to lie. In fact, when I sit down with them to tell
them what they did wrong, it is not an open discussion. I’m not looking for them to offer their
opinion on what happened because I expect them to lie. I understand sin nature because A.) the Bible
tells me; and B.) I am a sinner.
Coaching
high school boys, or in your case raising them, and demanding excellence from
them seems hopeless. Demanding that they
take ownership, respect everyone, be thankful, be loyal, have integrity, be
courageous to do right, be steadfast in trials, have discipline, be humble;
this just all seems like an impossible task.
And it is if you look at it in the moment.
I say Win
the Day, because I know everyday is going to be a war. Not just with myself, but in coaching these
boys. I know I am going to be
disappointed by their behavior. I know
their lack of understanding to what I am preaching to them is going to be
discouraging. However, I am committed to
the fighting the war. And in a war many
battles are lost, but it is the one that quits that loses the war. We will lose battles with these boys as we
shape and mold them, but every battle we lose is a teaching moment with
them. Every time there is a battle it is
an opportunity to remove dross. This is
a long and tenuous process.
There is
nothing harder than raising teenagers. I
often say there is no difference than my 6 year old and a 16 year old except a
16 year old has a sex drive. DANGEROUS! They
are young and dumb. They have no clue
about life. They have no clue about
right and wrong especially when it comes to girls, but about everything as
well. And I see a dangerous thing from
parents: Parents leave them to their stupidity with no correction. Worse, when their children mess up (which is
daily), their own mom and dad make excuses for them. What I see is parents running from the battles. In their desire for peace, they lose the war
for their son’s soul. It’s
disappointing, it’s sad and it’s scary.
I hear some
coaches all the time say they can’t wait to practice. When a coach says that I automatically think
they are a bad coach. Practice is a
grind for me. I do not look forward to
it. It exhausts me. You know why? Because I go out there fighting
a war. I am going to correct every
mistake. I am going to demand excellence
in effort and attitudes. Often times
their wills are directly opposed to me.
To create a beautiful vessel it is hard.
It is a war. Sometimes I just
want to quit it’s so exhausting. BUT YOU
KNOW WHAT-we can’t quit. If we fail to
fight we fail the most important calling God has given us: To raise these boys
us in Jesus Christ.
Mom and
Dad, as we go forward, let us not grow weary of fighting this war. Let us not capitulate the manipulative requests
and desires of our children. We are in
the business of creating a beautiful vessel.
To not expect it be easy. Expect
a war with 1000’s of battles. Don’t even
expect to see a finished product while they are in high school. The battle’s you embrace daily and the
excellence you demand daily, this will not return void. Your son will turn into silver at some
point. But if you do not fight the war,
if you give into your child and become his best friend, the beautiful vessel
your son was to become will never be seen.
In fact, he will either be living with you or in jail when he is
25.
We must
demand excellence. We must embrace the
war. Mom and Dad, we are here for
you! We can be your greatest asset as we
demand excellence from them and do not tolerate their foolishness. However, you must keep them with us!
BEAT STOCKBRIDGE!
“The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the
victory belongs the Lord.”
Proverbs 21:31
Wholly for Christ,
Coach Gess
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