Coach...you're late.

On Friday I walked into the gym to see my players doing some static stretching on their own. I heard one of my players say, "Coach, you're late!" I looked around and all of my players were accounted for and waiting for me to arrive to begin. My heart rate raced as I have a tremendous fear of letting down the team by not being ready for a workout or practice. Then I looked at my watch and it said 5:47 am. I set my watch ahead so I am not late to anything. So the time was actually 5:42 or 5:43. That means that I was really 17 or 18 minutes early for our 6 AM workout. The great thing was that our players were really early and they were ready to start...so we started.

It was just like every other day we have had so far this fall. I have been charting it and we have been starting an average of 12 minutes early every morning. That is a credit to our players who have made it a priority to be early. In our first team meeting in program history our players were all sitting in their seats 25 minutes early. I called our AD, who was our first speaker, and told him we were ready to start and his only response was, "Wow, OK, I am on my way."

That is exactly why these young ladies were recruited to this first team. I felt that they would establish all of the traditions that we wanted started and handle the little things among themselves so that I could concentrate on coaching.

We are off to a great start...and they are going to have to be earlier on Monday to beat me there!

Blessings,

Coach S

"Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." Matthew 24:44 (ESV)

New School

Our girls, Marisa and Kylie, have just transferred to Prattville Christian School. Click on the title link above to go to an article about the spiritual development of their football program....just awesome! God is Good!

Blessings,

Coach S

Finding Balance

My family attended Landmark Church of Christ in Montgomery this morning with 10 members of my team. The preacher, Buddy Bell, had a great message about balance in life. I think alot can be learned for a team and it's individuals from the following point he made in that sermon:

Balance requires three elements;
1. A reference point - where am I right now? honest evaluation of status quo.
2. A clear objective - where do I see myself at a fixed point in the future?
3. Constant correction - How am I going to navigate the distance in between

Great stuff! Thanks, Buddy

Blessings,

Coach S

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Magical Eagle Powers

There is something special about this team. Everyone is now enrolled and locked in. 15 young ladies that chose to become Lady Eagles on the first ever team here at Faulkner University. As I write, I am in my office that overlooks the gym. It is 5:17 am and I am waiting to see the ladies and encourage the ones who show up at 6am for a voluntary workout. They are going to jog a one mile course mapped out by Graduate Assistant, Amanda Pence. Then they will do some ab work and the gym will be open for them to shoot some shots. It is voluntary, but I have a feeling everyone will be there.

I have felt very good about the basketball talent coming in with our first recruiting class, but I have felt even better about the calibur of human being in this class. On Monday night, we had our first team meeting scheduled at 8 PM. Everyone was putting their notebooks together, in their seat, and waiting on me to begin at 7:40 PM. There is a spirit about our young ladies that suggests that they are ready to go. I initially intended to wait and give them a little bit of time to settle in before beginning workouts, but they are ready so I must be ready and that is why we have the voluntary work out this morning.

In our meeting we discussed all of those things that coaches talk about when they want to set the tone. We discussed our philosophy and some of our academic expectations like sitting in the front row in class and the lower level of the gym for chapels. We laid the foundation for our meeting this next Sunday night on the standards that our players wish to establish and hold each other accountable for. However, the thing that motivated me the most was sharing a verse that I believe God put in front of me before the meeting specifically for the team. It is Romans 15:5-7.

I was sitting in my office the afternoon before the meeting reading out of a devotional book for female athletes called, In Him. It is written by a good coaching friend, Vicki Benson. Coach Benson coached at a school in Austin, Texas called Hyde Park Baptist. We played them in a Bi-District game two years ago and struck a friendship. She is now at Georgetown High School as an assistant coach in one of the traditional girl's basketball powerhouses in Texas. Her devotional focused on Unity. I was trying to find something that could help convey my desire that they glorify God in everything they do as valuable pieces in our basketball puzzle. I am going to close the blog with this section scripture and you can put together the value of this passage for a brand new collection of eclectic personalities as they start the process of becoming a team.

Blessings,

Coach


"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God."

Romans 15:5-7 (NIV)

Future Lady Eagle?

I had a great workout tonight. Probably because it was at the 8th grade level. My daughter Kylie is committing herself to making the Middle School team this year and I am committed to helping her get there. My rule of thumb with my kids is that I am not going to push them into anything, but if they say "Dad let's go the gym, or workout, or to the golf course", I drop everything and take them.

Tonight was Kylie and I's first workout. We started in the fitness center at our apartment complex with some walk, jog, ab work, and very low weight bench press (so we don't crack her little twigs in half!).

Regardless of the player, whether it is my child or not, it is always fun to coach someone who is self-motivated and makes working out a "want to" and not a "got to".

My prayer is that our players at Faulkner are "want to" players and not "got to" players. They were recruited because I determined that they loved the game and had a great work ethic...I hope I was right? We will know soon now that our freshmen are on campus and our transfers will be here this weekend.

I am excited about our first meeting on Monday night.

Maybe one day Kylie will get to be in that meeting?

Blessings,

Coach S

"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men"
Colossians 3:23

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

The Path

Coach Kat and I along with the rest our coaches and Faulkner and some local friends of the University had the great opportunity to visit with Brad McCoy for a luncheon today. For those of you who don't know him, Brad is the father of Colt McCoy who is the prolific quarterback from the University of Texas who hurt himself in the national championship game this last season against the Tide.

Admittedly, most of his speech was a commercial for the group he now works with, Flippen. However, he did have a great comment about coaching and parenting that I think is very relevant. He said that good teachers and parents "prepare their kids for the path, not the path for their kids".

This is a great point. Many parents and coaches try to manipulate the road that their kids are on to make the journey easier and painless. This tends to cripple their children when they are faced with true adversity. The preparation in a kids life needs to be relational in terms of how to prepare their minds and bodies for a bumpy path. They need to be taught persistence and resilience to navigate whatever trails are in front of them.

This is a great lesson in coaching. I have always tried to prepare my teams in special situations so they are not surprised by anything and have poise in the face of adversity. I need to be better at doing this with my children for the adversity they will have in their life.

Blessings,

Coach S

Proverbs 17:17 "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity."

Wetumpka?

It has been a full time job moving into a new apartment. I remember hating the moving process when it was just Darla and I as an energetic, young, married couple. It is excruciating now that there are 6 of us and two are at an age where for every two things you put away, one ends back out on the living room floor. I am eternally grateful for the guys from Westbury Christian School who helped us load the big moving truck and the guys from University Church of Christ who helped us unload it.

I am in the process of changing our address with the myriad of entities that it is necessary to change it with. I got a great email this morning from my good friend, Chris Barbee. Chris is with alumni relations at my alma mater, Grand Valley State University. His comment when he replied to my address change request was, "I can honestly say that I have never met anyone from Wetumpka, Alabama". He now has that claim to fame as we moved to the great town of Wetumpka. Don't ask me how to properly pronounce it, because I don't know.

There is alot to like about Wetumpka. It is a small town of just a few thousand people, but it has a Walmart and all the fast food places necessary for a life on the go (except Krystal). It is nestle in the hills and rivers north of Montgomery and the people seem very friendly and open to new neighbors. My two favorite things about the town are that the high school nickname is still the Indians. That tells me that they don't buy into alot of the political correctness that abounds in our society. I also like the schools and everyone has been friendly to us that we have met in town and at the church. Marisa and Kylie are now enrolled in school and they start next Monday.

My first impression of Wetumpka and Elmore County was also memorable. The day after we moved in I ran out to get a new dryer electrical cord at the local Russell Do-It Center (aka hardware store). When I got to the light to turn, the sheriff pulled up next to me. He waved. I waved. He rolled his window down and I did. We had a conversation right there at the red light about him growing up in Wichita Falls, Texas, our just moving in, the fishing being great, my tail light needing replaced, the town being a great place to raise kids, and a hearty welcome. I love that! Needless to say, the police in Houston have a different demeanor.

I grew up in a very similar small town and I guess Wetumpka makes me regress to a very good childhood.

Well...gotta go for now... I need to pick up a football schedule and check on season tickets. My Friday nights are scheduled for the next 12 weeks!!!

Blessings,

Coach S