Preach It! Eagles! Preach It!
Spent the month of January coaching the Hillcrest Middle School Boys basketball team. Most of them had never played basketball before and we had a rough start. Our first game we lost by 50 points! Yes, I said 50! Our second game we felt really good because we only lost by 30. Funny how your perspective changes when your expectations are tempered by reality. Our third game we only lost by 4! hahahahaha We’re 0-3 and are excited.
After losing several other games by just a few points we then went on a winning streak and “lo and behold” we made the playoffs. Seven teams in our league and we finished third. So yesterday we played the second place team and found ourselves down by 10 points early. But the Hillcrest boys rallied and ended up winning the game by 8 points which means today at 3:00 p.m. we play for the league championship! Who would have thought that was even possible?
What’s exciting for me though, far beyond the chance to be league champs is that for the past 6 weeks we have had a chance to mentor these young men spiritually. My assistant coach Mike Johnson, who coached on a D-1 level for 17 years, and I have made sure that at every opportunity we have talked about them becoming Men of God!
About half way through the season I talked to the 12 of them (yes, there are 12) about how Jesus had 12 disciples and that those disciples changed the entire world with the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They then started referring to themselves at “The 12 Disciples” and when we break the huddle after timeouts they like to holler in unison “PREACH IT!”
Yes, I hope we win the game today for a truly amazing basketball season for a bunch of boys who’ve never played before, but MORE IMPORTANTLY I hope that these 12 boys grow up to be 12 preachers who will help point the world to Jesus!
PREACH IT! Eagles PREACH IT!
