CHARGER NATION GAME #3

Charger Nation,

            Tonight we have game #3.  We will be traveling up to Knoxville to take on Knoxville Catholic (KC).  KC plays AAAAAA in Tennessee and has been the best private school in the state the past few years.  They have many notable players with college scholarship offers.  If you are watching tonight: #1, #8, #24, #31, #68 are the ones that really jump out on film.  All the players are good and the offensive line is the biggest we have ever seen.  All that being said, we have our good players as well.  This is going to be one heck of a game!  I plan on going up there to win—not just have a good experience!
As I met with the seniors last night I discussed with them one of the reasons I love football.  Tonight it will be very good players going up against very good players.  One great battle tonight is Harrison Taylor and Tyrese Black against both of their tackles.  One of their tackles is 6’6 320 and rated the number one player in Tennessee and the number 2 offensive lineman in the nation.  The other one is 6’7 310.  I am sure each player will have specific plays they win.  However, I believe someone will emerge as the victor come the fourth quarter.  I believe the fourth quarter reveals who is in better shape and has the most fight in them.  
Even when one of our guys might be outmatched, if he has more fight in him and a never quit mentality he can find himself the victor in the fourth quarter.  It is why we say Keep Choppin’ at ELCA.  No matter what happens on an individual play we will never stop Choppin’ away.  Our goal is to wear you down, break your will and win the fourth quarter.  That is what I love of football.  It is a whole game of teaching perseverance.  Never stop, never quit: Keep Choppin’.  No matter what happens, do not start feeling sorry for yourself and making excuses to yourself.  Command yourself to get back up and Keep Choppin’.  It is only with this mentality anything good can happen.  For if you start believing you can’t and you start making excuses the next action you will take is quitting.  At ELCA our young men are taught year round to fight and work hard, to give great effort every single second, and to never ever make excuses.  These lessons we have taught our young men: This is what I am so excited to watch and see tonight!
We teach your boys that when they hurt a little bit to suck it up and Keep Choppin’.  We teach them that when they fail to not make an excuse to why they failed, but to take ownership and Keep Choppin’.   We teach them to quit looking for reasons to whine, grumble and question everything but rather to roll up their sleeves and work hard each day: Win the Day!  We teach your children everyday to quit doing things half way or doing them just to get through the day: Do everything all throughout the day that you find yourself doing with Excellence!  We teach your children to do things without self as the main focal point: Serve the man next to you and count him as more significant than yourself. 
All of this we are teaching them requires a complete dying to our sinful self.  For it is natural to be lazy, to complain, to make excuses, to blame, to grumble, to dispute, to be angry—I could go on and on.  This is why you will see all the ELCA shirts the boys are wearing with G220 on them.  What we are asking the boys to do is die to self.  We were born into sin and therefore enslaved to the sins I mentioned.  We can’t help but complain.  We can’t help but make excuses.  We can’t help but be lazy.  We can’t help but to seek our own glory.  We can’t help but to be angry.  We can’t help but to look for reasons for the world to be against us.  Our hearts are evil and its logic is self centered and chaotic.  This man or this woman that we were born, he or she is absolute chaos.  All the sins the Bible mentions, I find those living in me.  I see them—I hate them! 
Praise God there is an answer—G220—Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is not longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  The only way we can become a person of sin and absolute chaos to become the person God created us to be is by taking this sinful person that I was born and crucifying him with Christ.  And it is no longer he who lives.  I can see this guy in me and he must die daily!  This naturally sinful person that blames others, makes excuses, seeks glory for himself and a multitude of other sinful character traits; this person must die—he must be crucified with Christ.   After surrendering all that I am to Jesus Christ as King, that wretched man is now dead (but I have to kill him hourly) and it is now Christ that lives in me.  And Christ gives me the ability to do everything out of love and service.  He gives me power.  Now the world isn’t against me because Christ is for me.  Now I don’t seek to make excuses but rather take ownership of each and every situation.  Now I do not seek glory for myself but for the one for whom we were made to bring glory: Jesus Christ.  Now I am no longer enslaved to my sinful life that only makes my life chaos: For I am now free to see sins destruction on my life and my logic.  Christ has come to transform everything about us and make us a beautiful creation in Christ.  
This humble warrior mindset I pray for our boys and that I expect them to play with: It isn’t normal.  There are many warriors that play for their own glory.  But we are seeking the young man who will be a warrior but yet not do it for self.  We want him to be humble and love and serve others: It is not about me!  This is uncommon.  This isn’t natural.  This is of Christ: “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ that lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.”  G220!

BEAT Knoxville Catholic!

“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