Mr. Heisman

I have had the great pleasure of getting to know Charlie Ward over the last three years. Coach Ward has the football coach at Westbury Christian School for the last two years as a head coach and he was an assistant for a year before that. I had met Coach Ward when I worked a camp that he ran at our school when he was an assistant coach with the Houston Rockets. Shortly after that summer camp when Coach Jeff Van Gundy and his staff was let go as coaches of the Rockets, he took a job on campus at WCS. Charlie is one of the most humble and Godly men that I know. He only speaks when spoken to and every word that comes out of his mouth is thoughtful, spiritual, and encouraging. His humility was present when he moved into his office at Westbury Christian (which is a make-shift office built in the cafegymnatorium). As I was walking by, I asked him if he needed help unpacking. He said no and that he didn't have much stuff to unpack. I asked him where he was placing his Davy O'Brien and Heisman trophies and he just looked at me out of the corner of his eyes as if to say, "I don't really talk about those things much". His glance suggested that those are not things he specifically wants to display or be known for. Mr. Heisman was Mr. Humble.

This morning I had the opportunity to attend a breakfast at an Outback Steakhouse in Sugarland, TX. It was a Men's devotional breakfast. It was great to see all of my buddies from Westbury at the breakfast. I was blessed to be surrounded by strong Christian men at WCS that had fun with each other, but held each other accountable. A great lesson for teams...fun, but accountable. I got to sit next to two men I recently became friends with. One man's name was Shane and I met him for the first time this morning. The other man's name is Ben Edmiston. I got to know Ben this last basketball season. He is the husband of one of my Westbury assistant coaches, Kelly Edmiston. Kelly was a critical key to our championship success this last season because she has a degree in social work/ministry from Abilene Christian University and half of my team was certifiably crazy and unpredictable. Without her spiritual guidance and mentoring with our girls, we would not have been able to keep things together. She has made me realize that the number one quality that I want in the assistant coach that I will hire at Faulkner is not necessarily a basketball mind or playing pedigree, but a heart for serving Christ using basketball as a tool to develop servant leaders. I really enjoyed seeing Ben. He is a Barnabas... very smart and always encouraging. He is most impressive because of the patience he shows in being married to such a high maintenance chick like Kelly! Just kidding, Kel. Anyway, the speaker of the hour was Coach Ward.

Coach shared some keys to navigating through life that I thought were really good and worth documenting. They all start with the letter P. They are the Process (and patience), Purpose, Potential, Prioritization, and Proceeding without Procrastination. These are great thoughts that he backed up with scripture as usual. The thing that he mentioned that caught my attention more than anything else that he said, however, was that he took his walk with Christ seriously when he was on the national stage as a college football quarterback on a national championship team and as an NBA player and coach. He said that he wanted everyone that he came in contact with to see him more as a Christian than an athlete. He has lived that message out over his career and he continues to "walk the walk" The lesson for our players next season is that we need to keep the first things first and stay focused on Christ. Satan will try to use basketball, boyfriends, academics, and social situations to distract us from our one purpose in life...the glorification of God through our deeds. We can't let Satan win. We will be held up as role models and be watched very carefuly on and off the court. What we do must match closely with who we say we are. Lesson learned from Mr. Heisman.

Blessings on a great weekend and have a great Lord's Day tomorrow,

Coach

"We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us..."
2 Cor 5:20