A HEARTFELT APOLOGY

[ACPACoachRoss]

Coaches, fans and players of sixman football...

I am new to sixman football. I am also new to coaching in a christian league. I have made some of you angry with comments that certainly were not meant to cause stress or harm to you or your schools. Sometimes a post can come across cold and heartless because its just words on a page but could have actually been posted in a completely different context.

I am truly sorry if my comments were hurtfull or perceived as disrespectful to any one of you or your schools and teams.

I took over a team this year that was beaten down every week and most of the time mercy ruled last year every week. Our boys never cancelled a game and always showed up for the beat down that was sure to come. I am proud of them and proud of the coaching staff that was here that continued in games where they were constantly overmatched.

I wanted to help change our boy's confidence and attitudes about the game of football. It was important that they had a leader come in that was full of spirit and willing to stand up and say "Hey, you can be champions too!" In doing that I have come across arrogant and cocky to some of you and that was never meant to be my purpose. I just want our boys to have a different perception of the game and of themselves.

They started believing in themselves and working hard. I am proud of them for this because it was a hard thing for them to start believing in themselves.

I should not have posted teams that had cancelled games on us. I realize that often times things happen that cause the circumstances to change. I was most hurt for our boys who just wanted to play football. I realize it is an unusual year and these things are not common. We had nine teams cancel games over the course of a couple of weeks for a variety of reasons. It seemed personal but I know deep down that it was not.

I acted like a child in my response for listing these teams. That will never happen again.

I hope you will all find it in your heart to forgive me of my faults and start over anew. I want to work with you and your leagues to bring christian leaders to lead our players and fans. I want you to know that my words were not wise and I realize this but my intentions were not meant to cause disrespect.

Let's all have a great year. Let's have a year where the Lord does great things for all our players and keep us all humble...starting with me.

I respect you and know the sacrifices and hard work that goes into coaching. I am just happy to be a part of an association of great atheltes and coaches such as ours.

I hope you accept my apology and we can move forward.

With Blessings,

Coach David Ross
Athens Christian Prep academy

 

[freeagent]

Brother Ross, thank you for your words.

We may be on other sides of the field on Friday nights, but it's always important to remember that we are together on the same team with our Coach, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Pick yourself up, dust yourself off ... look in the mirror and see if there is something you did to bring about what happened, make right (remember the part in the Bible where you ask your brother for forgiveness for transgressions...) and move on. Your team deserves that.

Oh, speaking of Head Coaches ... one day, I get a roster from a team we were going to play and have a program printed. The guy sends me the player list. There as Head Coach it says, "Jesus Christ," then as Assistant Head Coach, their coach's name.

I was tempted to put our Head Coach as "God" and sell it as a Father and Son coaching duel ...

 

[freeagent]

Let me post one more thing ... got this off Casen DeLucia's message board when he ran Texasprivatesports.com (since closed) and it's a basketball thing ... but reminder of sometimes how all of us (myself included) tend to get caught up in the action of the contest and forget something important ...

It struck everyone as a little odd when a bearded man in a white robe paid His $3 admission to watch some TAPPS high school basketball. In fairness, the p.a. announcer had just prayed that the Lord would be present tonight at the game but it was more of a routine thing than anything else. No one actually expected a man with a striking likeness to the Son of God to enter the gym. But sure enough there He was, and He took a seat in the first row at center court.

Tonight's match-up was a long awaited showdown between X Christian School and Y Christian Academy, but no one could care less as all eyes became fixated on the Man at half court. No one sat by Him, He was left alone with his bag of popcorn and diet coke. Could it be...? Him? Is it possible? No, no way. Could it be...? All doubts were removed when the Man opened his bottle and soda sprayed out all over his robe. But instead of staining the robe, it remained perfectly white. The crowd was stunned. The players and coaches, however, missed this episode as warm-ups were going on.

The first half was intense. Tons of hustle, scrappy play, fouls, frustration, screaming -- nothing outrageous, just tough ball. And even though the two teams went into the locker room tied at 34, the fans were as quiet as they would be in church, seeing as how Jesus of Nazareth was sitting front and center.

During halftime, Jesus went down to the floor, with some dads, and participated in a shooting contest. He of course won by sinking 12 half court shots in a row. This was especially impressive seeing as how everyone else was taking free throws.

When the buzzer rang, the players didn't want to start the half. They gathered around Jesus. The Messiah then stood up and addressed the gym.

"These players only came over after they saw I could ball; maybe if I'd played more hoop in the Gospels they'd want to spend more time with me."

He started calling people out, "Number 42, would you please watch your language? It's not that big of a deal, but you have my name right there on the front of your jersey, remember that."

He walked up to number 10 and hugged him, "That was an amazing pass in the first half. I love the backdoor play."

He gathered both coaches, "I love your passion and energy. But there are souls in the world that need you to preach my message with half the passion that you preach the motion offense."

Walking by, he passed number 20. "Young man, remember that humility is a wonderful thing. Stop celebrating after 5 foot bank shots and stop with the overly dramatic dunks. You see these scars on my hands? You know how I got those? I'll give you a hint: It wasn't from hanging on the rim."

One of the referees caught His eye. "And you," he said. "Stop thinking you are Me, make the call and get down the court."

He then turned to the crowd and spoke, "Why is it that when I am physically here, you behave yourselves, but when I am here in Spirit, which I always am, you scream like baboons? I have told you I'll always be with you, and I am, so act like it."

He paused and continued, "Listen, I didn't come to condemn you for your actions, but to love you, and to share my love. The truth is, you serve a competitive God. My Father loves basketball -- it's beautiful, it's pure, until it starts getting infected by things from the enemy. A team of young men that works together, sweats together, prays together, and helps each other is extremely glorifying to my Father. I could have appeared at Madison Square Garden to talk about Christianity and basketball, but I don't work like that. Plus, the Knicks aren't very good anyway. Basketball is great and please keep thrilling me with great games and keep competing hard, but just remember who and what you're really playing for, and that I've already won the ultimate victory for you."

With that He left, and the second half was played. But no one really remembers who won.

 

[mtjack]

***See Above***

That is beautiful, and made an impression on this coach.

I went to church this morning with my tail between my legs after my team got their tails kicked for the second Saturday in a row. I actually contimplated staying home as I didn't want to face all the questions about how the game went, and what happened, again? I was ashamed of my effort and my teams effort, and just wanted to go hide somewhere. I wouldn't quit the boys in the middle of a season, but next year was in serious doubt.

I had, once again, lost focus on what is important. The above note about what it would be like if He showed up at our game.....? Thank You lifegate.

 

[fajitapete]

changed to PM