Charger Nation: Game #9

CHARGER NATION: GAME #9

Charger Nation,

            I want to congratulate our JV Football team on a job well done.  Last night they won their last football game.  That puts them at 6-1 on the year.  I want to thank Coach Dale and Coach Jerry for the hard work and commitment they have put into your boys.  The future is bright with that group coming up to be varsity players the next few years. 
            Within ELCA football, we have tried to turn “Win the Day” into its own philosophy on how to conduct business.  There are five parts to winning the day and each are vitally important: Commitment, Consistency, Intensity, Execution and Perseverance.  To get out boys to be average I believe I have to constantly preach commitment and consistency.  If you are just going to be an average person you have to show up and do so consistently.  In any endeavor of life, the bottom 50% are going to be people who won’t commit and won’t be consistent. 
            My goal as a coach is to have a team that every year will be in the hunt for a state championship.  I don’t make the state championship my goal because so many factors come into play in actually winning it.  One year we should have won it but our QB broke his leg.  I don’t control that stuff.  However, I do feel I have lots of control over being contenders each year.  If we are contenders each year then over time we will win our share or compete for our share of state championships.  So here is my question to myself and our players all the time:  If just being average requires commitment and consistency, what will separate us from being average to becoming a contender?   The answer is in the last three parts of the Win the Day philosophy: Intensity, Execution and Perseverance. 
            Success is not just about showing up to work, it’s about coming to work to get better and improve.  It is coming to work with a sense of urgency and a purpose.  It is coming to work with an intentional commitment to excellence.  This is intensity.  I define intensity as focused effort.  It is hard enough for us adults to focus our minds on a task.  So you can imagine how hard it is for young boys to focus their minds.  I correlate their brains to a giant explosion.  I have no idea what is going on up there.  God has put me in the process to try and help parents get the dust to settle after the explosion.  High school boys, they just want to get to Friday night.  But it isn’t about Friday night.  It’s about getting better Monday-Thursday.  If we cannot be intentional in giving great effort and great focus on these days then we aren’t going to like where we are Friday night. 
            I get aggravated as a coach when we go out to practice and our steps are wrong.  To me, when I see kids using poor technique, that means they are not practicing with intensity.  If we aren’t practicing with intensity then we are just practicing to be average.  That doesn’t make any sense.  We film practice Tuesday and Wednesday and are trying hard to coach our boys up on their intensity in our film sessions.  It’s a hard thing to do with young boys.  I feel like I could just record myself Wed and Thursday mornings and just replay it each week as we watch practice.  Here is what it sounds like:  “This is bad effort; You’re not stepping right; Be more physical:” now just repeat that 50 times.  However, if want to be any good we must practice with intensity and I can never give up on demanding it. 
            In the same way, our growth in Jesus Christ requires daily commitment, consistency and intensity.  If I am going to grow in Christ and put on the character of Christ there is no way I can do this with an intentional pursuit of Christ daily.  An intentional pursuit requires reading God’s word and prayer.  The Bible tells that if we want Christ to abide in us we must abide in him (John 15:4).  Can we be good Christians and not be in God’s word and spend time with him in prayer?  I would ask can we be a good football team and not practice daily with intensity?  It’s not for me to answer who is a good Christian or who is not a good Christian.  But I do know we will be very average if we do not practice football with intensity. 
            I love how football and our daily pursuit of Christ correlate.  I am so often convicted of my desires to be great on the football field not matching up with my desires to pursue Christ.  Christ, our Savior and our King, is not to be neglected by worldly things that are passing away.  It is very important that we use the things that God has given us to point to Jesus Christ.  To me, football does this. I know how to be intentional in my pursuit of excellence in Christ because I learned the importance of intensity through the game of football. 
            Finally, as we discuss the five parts of the Win the Day philosophy, those five parts actually are not specifically about football.   Football is our tool to point to Christ and build young boys into men for Jesus Christ.  We are instilling values in them that God is going to us to take them so much further than what happens on a Friday night or in a game. 
At ELCA, our Win the Day philosophy first and foremost exists to identify how we are to pursue Christ.  First is my commitment.  This is my acknowledgment that I am a sinner in desperate need of a Savior and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of my life.  Secondly, I know must be consistent in my pursuit of Christ.  Third, I must pursue Christ with intensity.  It must be important that we grow in Christ and we have a sense of urgency each day to grow in him and live for him.  Fourth, this intensity each day will lead people to see Christ in our lives as Jesus Christ starts to live through us.  This will open up the door for us to love, serve and live out Jesus Christ.  This is the actual execution.  It is what people see.  This is similar to Friday nights except as Christians we have Friday nights daily.   Lastly, life isn’t always going to go our way.  We must persevere through the hard times.  Christ will see us through. 

Now, let’s BEAT Our Lady of Mercy!

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

Win the Day!

Wholly for Christ,

Coach Gess

Excellence is the character of Christ.  Win the Day builds upon this concept.