Truly Winning

Be satisfied not with producing a good record but with producing good athletes.

I have had a lot of time to think about this line. You get a lot of time to think when you are a cross country coach and a runner yourself. This past week was a hard one for me as a coach. I had to tell one of our athletes they were suspended from our league meet. We have a grade policy on our team. If you carry an F for more than two weeks in a class, you are still on the team, but you can't compete. This runner just happens to be our #2 Varsity Boy runner. Now that being said, our chances of winning a league title just got a lot worse. When I became the head cross country coach, it was my very first head coaching job after over a decade of assistant jobs. I always said that as a staff we should care more about our athletes' lives than winning. Now that I am a head coach, I get to put my theories into practice. Lets take a look at what God says.

Col 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,

When I read this verse, if doesn't seem to matter much in the grand scheme of things whether or not I ever win a league title or a state title or even one meet. What seems to matter is if I worked and coached as if God were right there next to me.

I know that in today's world of win at all cost some of you may not be able to suspend one of your top athletes. I hate to see this young man not race Saturday, but he will be a man for a lot longer than he will be a runner in our program. My prayer is that some where down the line he will pick up some nugget of Godly wisdom from me that he can cling to when his life gets rough.