Athletics at RVA is looked at much differently that your typical high school. One of the primary differences between RVA and most schools is how we measure success. As coaches, we teach our student athletes that success is measured not in wins and losses but by our attitude improvement and our testimony.
Kids with a positive attitude go further. Sports provide an opportunity to accept challenges and grow through adversity. Our players learn that if a referee makes a bad call they can grow angry, whine and complain or use it as motivation to play harder. Lessons from sports can apply to all of life.
Success is also measured in improvement. Never be satisfied with where you are today. Instead, pursue excellence and become the best student, athlete and person you can be. And, most importantly, do so for the glory of God. The moment we stop growing, we begin to decline. So, our players are daily challenged to grow and improve.
Coach: “What’s my job?”
Players: “To love us.”
Coach: “What’s your job?”
Players: “To love each other.”
Everyone: “Let’s play like it!”
The above exchange is how one coach ends every practice. Young ladies and young men are growing up in a very self-centered world. One of our goals is to help them understand the value of teamwork. The more unselfish the athlete, the more he contributes to the overall success of the team. There’s an old saying in sports, “There is no I in team.” So, we emphasize teamwork as a fundamental philosophy. It centers on attitude and improvement. It is another life lesson we pray our players take with them into the future. As Christians we need to practice teamwork and unselfish attitudes in all we do. Christ teaches us to do so. What better way to emphasize the valuable lessons then through sports.
We pray before every game. We usually pray for both teams to play safe and injury free. But we also pray that we will be more concerned with our testimony than with our game. As coaches and athletes we represent more than our school, our family or our team. We represent the Lord Jesus Christ. We will not tolerate “trash talk”, or whining or profanity because it reflects negativity. Instead, our teams are asked to pick up an opponent who has fallen, pat both teammates and opposition players on the back after a good play. Encourage one another and thus reflect the Lord.
Our league votes for the most “Sportsmanlike” team in each sport. Each term a school is chosen for a best sportsmanship award as well. Season after season our teams have won individual sportsmanlike awards and RVA has won the overall sportsman and character award on numerous occasions. Boys basketball went undefeated in league play the last two years under Coach Wally Coots. This year they won by an average margin of victory of 30 points. Normally, opposing coaches wouldn’t vote for someone who beat them badly. However, we won the most sportsmanlike team award again. The basketball players never “rubbed it in”, made fun of the opposition or showed poor sportsmanship in any way. So, we once again won the award. We share with our kids that the most important trophy we won this season is not the league championship trophy but the sportsmanship trophy.
RVA measures success in athletics differently. Whether it’s first term girls basketball or guys soccer, second term field hockey, guys basketball, or girls soccer, or third term volleyball or rugby, all measure success in more than league titles or box scores. Instead our teams chose to teach life lessons concerning attitude, the pursuit of excellence and representing Christ well. Win and loss records will soon be forgotten. However, as coaches our prayer is the lessons our young athletes learn will make them better human beings and stronger Christians. We play, live and work to the glory of GOD!
Wally Coots
|
