Thank a Coach

Odds are that if you're reading this, you once had a coach that made a lasting impact on your life. As I write this week’s blog, it is Thanksgiving Day, 2009. Early this morning my thoughts were directed to all that I have to be thankful for and I was reminded of my high school baseball and golf coach. Most of us athletes just called him "Hack". (Great name for a golf coach!) His real name was Mr. Harry Ramseyer, but few students called him Mr. Ramseyer. No one dared call him "Harry"! A few athletes called him "coach", but most of us who knew him well and loved him, just called him "Hack". That's what he wanted us to call him. What an impact he had on my life! He was always willing to confront and correct bad character which had often manifested itself in bad behavior. One time he told me, “You’ll never be a good golfer because you can’t control your temper!” As a Christian, I was convicted and challenged by that thought. I wanted to be a good golfer and began to realize that I couldn’t dwell on that last shot and get angry or frustrated with an unfortunate result that sometimes happened even after a well planned and well played shot. I had to forget about it and prepare for the next shot. Hack’s willingness to confront my frustrated and sometimes angry spirit on the golf course made a huge difference in my life.
Sad to say, I didn’t even think about my testimony as a believer and my responsibility to “rule my spirit” until years later even as I began my own coaching career. Verses like Proverbs 16:32 and Proverbs 25:28 convicted me about my temper and my example to the young athletes under my care. God used James 1:20 to challenge me about my purpose in being a coach. That verse says, “For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God”. I began to realize that if I was going to have an eternal impact on my athletes, I couldn’t be spewing my anger and wrath over them when they made mistakes or didn’t do things exactly the way I wanted them done. My whole perspective on coaching changed. In order to make an eternal impact on these young athletes I needed to model Jesus Christ before them. I also needed to biblically confront wrong attitudes and bad behavior in order to help them grow in their relationship with the Lord through the experiences of athletic competition.
This is our goal at CSPN. That you will consider how God can use you to make not just a “lasting impact”, but an “eternal impact” on a new generation of athletes. So, if you once had a coach that helped mold your character, or challenged you in your walk with God, take time today to send a thank you note.
Thank you Hack, for the difference you made in my life.