YCA Sports Banquet

Last night was the YCA sports banquet. I had the privilege of bringing my basketball guys up one at a time and blessing them.

With my teams I don't give the traditional MVP, Most Improved, etc awards. I choose a character trait/gifting that each of them has and lift that up and encourage them to continuing developing it and using it.

This is me honoring Luke. I gave him the (Brave) Heart Award because he always played and practiced with tons of heart and passion.

As I worked through these God showed me how I need to be doing this more with everyone around me. Especially with those nearest to me. Too much of the time I find what is wrong.
What if we all continually encouraged those around us in how we see God developing them and using them?

KU Rocks!

What an incredible game last night! It's every 'worth their salt' athlete's dream to take and make the shot that Mario Chalmers made at the end of regulation. Wow! Jeff Vignery is flying high today -- he's a Creeker from Kansas and he and his family were at the game . . .

I love the NCAA basketball tourney, but I think my favorite part is where they play the Luther Vandross One Shining Moment song (last years) while they show all the highlights of the tourney. Cool stuff.

As I was laying in bed last night after watching the game and One Shining Moment (couldn't go to sleep -- still replaying that shot!) I was thinking what if a video of my life highlights was played? What would it look like? How many moments of 'shining' for The King would there be? What highlights would there be of me giving all I had?

4-0 This Week!

Just got back from a soccer game in Victoria (@11:30pm) which finished (almost - girls bus still isn't back) a long day (began at 6am) and long week . . .

On Tuesday our girls won their basketball games against SA Highlands (JV & Varsity).

And then we won 2 soccer games this week, but both were bitter sweet.
We beat our rival Carroll 1-0 on Monday night which is awesome . . . but we have so many good friends who play for Carroll (and even a Creeker) that it makes it hard to celebrate too long.
And then tonight we beat a very good Victoria team 1-0 but the girls good friend and our best forward Danielle DeLosSantos hurt her knee and it looks like a torn acl . . . life is full of crazy turns . . .

Licking our Wounds

Gonna give you a final game count from the weekend . . . Saturday didn't go so well, we were 0-4. (0-2 YCA basketball - played some giants, not to mention poor coaching!; and 0-2 KHS soccer, although 2 good games (1-2, 0-1) against two good teams from Houston and the valley.)

So, final count for the weekend 4-5-1. But it was fun! Just glad we don't have that many games every weekend!

Game Count as of Friday Night

I told you yesterday that we have nearly a dozen games this weekend.

As of Friday Night:

Basketball 2-wins 1-loss (King HS 2-0; YCA 0-1)
Soccer 2-wins 0-losses 1-tie

Total 4-1-1 Not too shabby. Coooooooold day at the soccer field!

Game Time!

Beginning this afternoon we have 3 individual basketball games (2 King HS, 1 YCA), a basketball tournament (YCA), and a soccer tournament (King HS) - between now and Saturday evening.

That's somewhere around a dozen games in the next 48 hours (and oh yeah it's gonna be lovely weather for those soccer games!) . . . we're blessed to be able to have fun watching our kids!

Need something to do in the next couple of days?

Basketball . . . and Growing Up

I haven't talked much about my basketball team at YCA of late, but a couple of things have stood out lately.

We kind of went into a funk during the holidays, and then right after. Coaching a sport gets much tougher as the season wears on - practice can get monotonous, nerves can get fragile (especially mine!).

And then early last week I starting really loosening up practice and having fun . . . and then I put in a new offense that is much more free and open (think NBA) than the offense we were running. And the kids responded awesomely. Last week we pounded two teams . . . and I must note that my Luke set his personal best by scoring 24 points in one game we won 40-23!

The principal here is, when you get in a rut, try something new! (More later in another post.)

The second thing, and the thing I was most proud of was at practice yesterday. I was running behind and got there 15 minutes late. But instead of just goofing off, a couple of the older players had organized everyone, gone through their warmups, and were doing some drills . . . all on their own!!! I was so proud of them. I didn't do anything but sit and watch for about 15 more minutes and let them do it!

It's awesome to see growth in young lives! (Or, old lives for that matter!)

Possibly the Best Video Ever!

Alright, I showed this video in worship back in January and probably watched it 10 times then. But someone just sent it to me again and I watched it and got inspired tears in my eyes again!

The combination of the story and the video may make it the best video ever. If you've got a better one please send it to me!

Check it out and be inspired!

Tuesday Thoughts

Really loooooooong, busy day.
Then tonight both our girls King teams (JV & Varsity) took it on the chin to our rival Carrol. Ouch. Maybe winning isn't everything . . . . .

But my YCA boys beat Annapolis!

Please pray for families . . . this holiday season is a really hard time in the lives of many families because of broken memories and/or the stress and pressure of the season. I've seen lots of evidence the past couple of weeks and many folks around you are hurting. How sad in what should be such a joyful season.
Be watching . . . and praying for the peace of Jesus to break through hearts.

Athletics & Jesus

The King Girls Basketball season began last night and we smoked the Mathis Lady Pirates! I'm excited about my daughters having the opportunity to play JV & Varsity basketball this year, but I'm just as excited about the opportunity God has given me with the Varsity Girls.

The Coach has asked me to come before every game and share a devotional and pray with the team. Last night I talked about one of my favorite verses, Proverbs 4:23:

"Above all else guard your heart. For it is the wellspring of life!"

I told them that the heart is the seed of life - and that most importantly the spiritual life begins with a heart focused on Jesus.
I went on to relate it to basketball - and life - in that those who live from the heart (and not just on their physical talent and/or intelligence) are those who find fulfillment and victory!

Please pray for me as I relate God's truth to these young ladies and coaches. This weekend we have a tournament and I plan on spending each pre-game talking about courage.
My hope is to be salt and to unwrap the Hope of Christ through the season.