#TigerBaseball Varsity beats Circle 9-8 in 8 innings. SUPER gutsy win! Very proud of our players. 15 hits as a team and K Cannon, K Brown, and N DeLoera were excellent on the bump! Zero earned runs allowed.
Huge bounceback win! We’re blessed with great, tough kids.
#ThePack
#TigerBaseball run-ruled 11-1 by Augusta in 5 innings to open the season. Back at it tomorrow vs Circle HS, 3pm first pitch.
Wasn’t our day! Nobody feels sorry for the defending state champs! And we do NOT feel sorry for ourselves. Time to do battle! We are here for it!
#ThePack
The post-Ash Wednesday reports stream in. Huge crowds. Bigger crowds. Packed pews.
The perennial response to the question of "why?" - when it's not a Sunday, not an obligation - often alludes to "getting free stuff."
That's the response of bored, even cynical institution-centered bubble dwellers.
Isn't it obvious?
People flock to Ash Wednesday because they *know.*
They sense the truth about themselves: that they were created by Love, for Love, and they have failed to love.
They want to grow, to change, to be freed from the enslavement of the flesh and the prison of the world's promises.
Ash Wednesday offers a clear sign, first, that they are not alone in this suspicion about themselves, about the purpose of life.
Secondly, the clarity of the call offers a way forward.
For decades, Christian leaders have operated on the assumption that people are turned off by anything but affirmation of their okay-ness, that the Good News is actually "you're just fine as you are right now." - that "salvation" = being rescued from a negative self-image.
The Ash Wednesday crowds tell us - if we listen - that 21st century human beings actually still get reality, at some level, the reality of which those ashes are a sign: we're broken, we're sinful, we know that sin is death, but in this mess, we are loved, that, as one homilist put it this week, "Our salvation is God's project" - and this place, this crowded place of mercy - is the place to start breaking free, and here, with the crowds, we're not alone.
Kid showed up 10 minutes late to practice last Thursday.
Freshman.
Third week on the team.
Still learning how everything works.
I didn't say anything.
Just moved the practice forward without him.
He jogged up, quiet, and slid into the back of the group.
Everyone kept moving.
During the cool-down, I saw two of our leaders pull him aside by the fence.
Couldn't hear what they said.
Didn't need to.
Just watched them talk — calm, serious, no raised voices.
The kid nodding.
Listening.
Thursday afternoon, 4:47 PM, my phone buzzes:
"Won't happen again, Coach. My bad."
I never tell new coaches this is what's possible because they don't believe me.
They think you have to enforce everything.
Make the call on every situation.
Be the one who holds the line.
But when your architecture is clear — when everyone understands what the goal demands — the team regulates itself.
Those leaders weren't doing me a favor.
They were protecting something they built.
I don't police alignment.
The standard does.
LEADERSHIP DOESN'T HAVE OFF-DAYS
Tim Tebow was a legendary college FB player. Even though his playing days are over, he's still making a positive impact with his "Night to Shine", which celebrates people with special needs.
Good leaders make people and situations better.
In a world of woke Team USA members like Hunter Hess & Amber Glenn trashing America at the Olympics, be a Tamyra Mensah-Stock.
“I love representing the U.S. I freakin’ love living there. I love it, and I’m so happy I get to represent USA!”
With a week to reflect, I’m convinced this was the greatest moment in sports history.
A 2-star recruit leads the worst program ever to a national championship, beats his hometown team that wouldn’t let him walk on, and finishes it by running over the same guy who knocked him out the year before, with his mother battling MS watching from the stands.
If it was a Disney movie, you’d say it was too much.
@pntrack@TupperCoach Players roll a big cube, has different conditioning drills on it. Worst one is a 4-3-2-1. One side has a free pass. Makes a game out of the accountability factor. Works great. I stole the idea from a great coach I worked for and its pretty widespread I think.
@pntrack@TupperCoach Did you teach them that with zero consequences when they broke the rule? And if you say they never broke the rule, im sorry but I dont buy it. Nothing wrong with accountability. Great cultures are highly accountable. We use dice for breaking of most team rules, works great.