relationships

relationships
31 years coaching experience/Worked Camps/Clinics on 6 Continents

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Ordinary Doing The Extraordinary


History is full of famous people who have fought for rights, have fought for justice; we know their names and something about them.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Gandhi

The Apostle Peter

Nelson Mandela

Lech Walesa

Benazir Bhutto

But before they were famous people who fought for these things and therefore created icons who will be known forever, they were ordinary people.

No person who has endured horrible treatment and/or brought about change is a super human.

They were a little kid at one point doing little kid things, growing into an adult who then became the icon we know.

They were an ordinary person who chose to do extraordinary things.

It's up to us.

It's up to you.

What do you choose to do?!

Monday, January 16, 2017

What Could I Have Done?



As a teacher, I am around lots of people each year, most of them much younger than myself.

I hope as I teach that I am doing more than just conveying history or Government or Sociology, I hope I am conveying some of my principles and morals.

I try not to be pushy, but I want the students to know that there are rights and wrongs and that I am here for them.

But you spend only so much time with them each week.

Your players, however, are a different story.

You are around them a lot more and more closely sharing your life and values.

When either group fails in life from divorce to drug addiction, I care many times too much.

But former students I can handle better than former players.

What could I have done differently?

What could I have done so when they got out into the real world, they didn't become part of the problem instead of part of the solution?

I realize that at some point they have to accept responsibility for themselves, but what could I have done?

What could I have done?

(Prayers for a former play who is battling his demons with drugs and today had a real bad episode)

Friday, January 13, 2017

Every 26 Seconds...


Every 26 seconds a child is trafficked in the world, usually for sexual slavery.

Support Destiny Rescue who is doing something to stop those unthinkable crime upon humanity.

Click Here to go to Destiny Rescue's website.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017


American Idol, Well, Okay...Silver Creek Idol


My 8 year old son has learned more than the average 2nd grader being around high school boys so much being a coaches son. I know it, we fight it and we try to correct some of his, um, misbehavior because of this.

However, he has had many great role models growing up.

From guys who play hard, care, compete, are fundamental and then guys like SC's Cam Stephens who teach him how to be a great person.

Cam does all of the things on the court we ask, but also is respected by everyone.

I'm glad there are guys like Cam that my son can look up to and idolize.

I Have No Idea


What my family would do without basketball...I'm sure we'd figure something out, but it means so much to us.

Monday, January 9, 2017

2011


So much has changed...

Some People Pay to Watch Their Favorite Basketball Players



I helped raise mine!

The Guy on the Right


My boss, Brandon Hoffman, the guy on the right is the master mind.

Congrats on your 100th career victory vs. Borden the other night.

Can't think of a better person I want to share basketball experiences with.

Change Isn't Always Painless


A few years ago, I transferred from my dream job coaching and teaching at Henryville High School. It was something that even I never foresaw happening and especially to my current job coaching and teaching at Silver Creek High School.

HHS and SCHS are rivals and when I say rivals, I mean that in not a good way...at all.

I grew up in a home where SC was the enemy, the villain and there wasn't much about them that I liked.

But then I grew up and I experienced life and realized how petty and dumb that rivalry could be.

My wife is from Sellersburg (home of SC), it is where we live and where our children go to school. I had come to really enjoy being around people from the area, but still...I was from Henryville and that is where I would retired as an educator.

Or so I thought.

Before the tornado, I wanted my children to have their own lives separate from me as a teacher. After the tornado, I didn't care about that anymore.

Instead of bringing them to the school I taught at because I knew too much and had too many bitter feelings about that place because of a small few people.

People who I felt were ungrateful for the amount of time that I put into something away from my own family.

People who didn't always make my job easier in the classroom.

And people who didn't seem to care that these things were going on.

So I wanted my children to grow up somewhere other than that school that I attended and worked at. Because of that they attend the school in the community we live.

And I transferred to be close to them as as well as issues that finally made it enough for me to continue on at HHS.

Like...

In 2011, I had panic attack, but didn't know what it was. It happened in my classroom and scared me very, very much.

I went to the emergency room and people in the building knew where I was, yet when I arrived back two days later, I was told my lesson plans were bad.

Nothing was mentioned about my health.

I was not asked if I were okay or if there was anything I needed help with.

I was critiqued in a callous way for what I had gone through.

After the tornado in 2012, while we were in Scottsburg having school because the tornado tore down HHS, I joked we weren't going to do much the rest of the year. Our principal had even said same thing, he just wanted us to get through the last month of school.

But the student spread it around and I was scolded via email, not face to face and questioned that I was not doing my job. I had worked for my years as a teacher and for multiple administrations and had never been questioned if I were doing my job especially via gossip from a student.

Finally, when arriving back from Indonesia and missing the first week of school. I was not asked about my trip to Asia (not many teachers from this area go to Asia), but was reminded many times at what had been done for me leading up to school and that first week.

I do appreciate what was done, but I had finally had enough.

These are just the final things that did it for me.

I was like a cup of water being filled with more water and it starts to run over the glass...at some point you turn the water off or dump the glass.

I felt it was time to dump the glass of the negativity (maybe mostly perceived by me) and move on.

Many understand this, but because of misinformation (it happens) many, many do not understand including many people that I care about.

But I am coming to grips with that fact.

I don't like it, but I cannot control them.

I am so thankful for the people who supported me while there including the students!

I have relationships that I will always cherish even if they don't feel the same way.

I will always love my alma mater, but I have learned to love it's rival, too.

Friday, January 6, 2017

Children Are Affected by Our Decisions


If I had no need to work a job, no need for money to pay a mortgage, etc, I would get into sports ministry.

And not just any sports ministry, but definitely aimed at children.

As adults, we have made and will make many decisions that get us where we are.

Sometimes for good and many times for bad. That doesn't mean we shouldn't continue to help those adults to get out of their situations, but children are different.

Children are along for the ride.

They often haven't decided their paths for themselves.

They are the victims of the decisions made by the adults surrounding them.

That's who I'd minister to.

That's who I will continue to reach out and minister to.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Monday, January 2, 2017

Ephesians 3:16-21


I love to travel.

I love to help.

I enjoy seeing how blessed I am.

I love to see how blessed others see themselves with less than I have materially.

But when I come home, it is hard for me to unpack all that I see and encounter over seas versus what I see in my own house and all around me as people here complain.

I don't know if I will ever know what to do with that knowledge...

But it does motivate me to continue to try to make a difference.