You Are Here > Popular content / Popular content
Duke Preston can still hear it now.
“Duke!”
His father’s deep, booming voice echoed throughout the cavernous racquetball court. Just moments earlier, assistant coach Raymond Preston had addressed his son’s freshman football team about a party that had taken place the weekend before. The unsupervised event resulted in a substantial amount of underage drinking—including participation by the younger Preston.
And with his father’s firm, beckoning call, Preston knew he was busted.
I must admit that one of my guilty pleasures is to watch MMa (mixed martial arts) fights, particularly fights in the UFC. Mixed Martial Arts is a hodge podge of wrestling, boxing, taekwondo, jui jitsu, and other fighting styles thrown into an 8-sided cage. Fighters battle for 15 minutes (25 minutes for championship bouts) until someone is knocked out, the referee stops the action, or a fighter “taps out”. The act of “tapping out” tells your opponent, the referee, and the millions watching on pay-per-view that you gave up because you are feeling immense pain brought on by your opponent.
You don’t need to join a gym or buy a lot of fancy equipment to make improvements in your health!
Trouble and being troubled are two completely different things. Trouble is being down by a run, nobody on base, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and our worst hitter coming to the plate. Being troubled is having no strategy for this scenario and not being prepared to accept the possible consequences that are about to come.
As coaches, there will be many times when we will have to declare to our team, “Don’t worry, everything will be okay.” We might even complete our short speech with the same words that Jesus did: “Believe in me.” But if we haven’t demonstrated believability to our players, these words will have absolutely no value. Without having the same credibility that Jesus had, our words will be like wisps of air.
If you are frustrated from hitting a plateau in your progress, take these tips!
One of the Division 1 schools in my area entered its conference tournament as the number eight seed and appeared to be a long shot to win it all. The head coach for the team admitted they fell short of expectations, but that the one goal they could hold on to was winning a conference tournament championship. Despite the odds, the team achieved that goal by knocking off the first-, second- and fourth-seeded teams, earning an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament in the process. As one player said, the team put it together when it counted most.
How important is breakfast for your kids’ performance in school?
I was blessed to be able to baptize my daughter in our church a couple of years ago, and since that time I have paid close attention to her spiritual walk. I am a coach, and am used to observing commitment in sports being followed by an intense and disciplined approach to attaining goals. A side effect of my chosen profession is that I tend to view most things in life through the grid of a coach. Spiritual disciplines are no different to me than some others. No excuses! Get to it!
This year, the UConn Huskies played the Oklahoma Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl. Going into the game, they were massive underdogs. While they’d been 8-4 and won the Big East Conference, many considered their conference and schedule weak. Thus, the Sooners were highly favored to win the game.
What does it take to win the game? The answer to this question often dictates the primary philosophy that coaches use as the basis of their decisions. Under ever-increasing pressure to win, every coach and player has been encouraged to bend or break the rules. In the world of sports, why is it so difficult to discern what constitutes cheating?
This week, Reggie Bush became the first Heisman Trophy winner to forfeit his trophy. Amid a world of controversy surrounding reports that he had taken money from sports marketers while at USC, Bush made a move that no one had ever done before by giving his trophy—which he won in 2005—back to the Heisman Trust.
This devotion isn’t going to side one way or the other with Reggie Bush’s actions. Instead, we’re going to use the situation as an opportunity to evaluate the awards we’ve been given as athletes and coaches, and to, perhaps, think about them in ways we’ve never considered.
Ministry
Sport
Book of the Bible
FCA Bible Topic