No one thought it would end this way. Joe Paterno, the legendary head football coach at Penn State University heard of his firing by the school’s board of trustees by phone last night. Just two weeks after achieving the most wins of any NCAA Division One football coach in history, Paterno was fired. His firing — a necessary action by the Penn State board of trustees — holds lessons for us all.

Almost a decade ago, a graduate assistant told Coach Paterno that an assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, had been observed forcing a young boy into a sexual act in the school’s football locker room showers. Sandusky was himself a big name in Penn State football, and he was considered a likely successor to Paterno if the head coach had retired. Sandusky also ran an non-profit organization for boys, and he brought the boys onto the Penn State campus. He continued to do so even after his own retirement from Penn State’s coaching staff.

Read the rest here.

St. Paul wrote (Philippians 3:12-14):

“Not that I have already obtained all of this,

Paul continues, “nor that I have already been made perfect…”

“But I press on toward the prize. . .

“. . . to win the prize for which God has . . .”

“. . . called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Of course, we dare not use God’s Word only as inspirational quotes. Paul’s point in Philippians is that it’s only in a Cross-centered view of Christ and His good news that we can make sense of the goal-motivated longings of our heart.”

For those weary of pressing on and pursuing see this post . . .

More on the Gospel or Good News here.

HT: Z

*************

Jordan Tanaglia pursues the Wauconda quarterback – - and he got him.

Austin Glendenning pursues breaking up a Wauconda pass. And he knocked it down.

Sophomore Kayleb Lipe pursues and sacks the Wauconda JV quarterback.

Drew Willis (#25), P.J. Gammel (#23), and Logan Lersch (#57), pursue the Wauconda quarterback deep in his own territory.

A.J. Dobson, Eric Boettcher, and Spencer Bates pursue a Wauconda running back by surrounding him.

So pursue – - at a local church.

Ask, and it will be give to you; “pursue”, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who “pursues” finds. . . Matthew 7:7-8.

If you don’t have a church home, you are invited to join us as we pursue the Truth this Fall. Sunday I will begin a new series on Romans 8. This is one of the most encouraging portions of Scripture. It shows us how we can know that all things work together for good if we look to Christ and His Word.

Our services are at 9:00 and 10:30. Children’s Sunday School is during the 9:00 hour.

To get the preliminaries out of the way:

1. Click on the images for a larger picture.
2. You will notice that I am not writing about the outcome of the varsity game, so no need to ask.
3. Given how much I enjoy taking football pictures, I’ve decided to choose one or more favorites of the week along with my reason for choosing them. I mean this not as an endorsement of my amateur photography, but rather what it represents in the games.

But here’s the point of this post.

It’s exciting for a young person to be a clutch hitter in baseball. It’s even more exciting when that same young person is a supportive fan for his classmates in a different sport.

The first picture above is my choice for picture of the week. For those who don’t follow Stillman Valley football, I would point out that this is not actually our team. Rather, it is a group of highly supportive fans. And while it’s always a little disturbing at first to see the body painting, we’ve learned to appreciate it.

In any case, I chose the above picture because it illustrates that our games are a community event. What makes this even more fun picture is that some of this group are excellent athletes themselves.

For instance, Jake McKnight is #30 in the picture. I am not quite sure what he is doing with his outstretched arm. If he was clergy I would guess that he was blessing the team. In any case, he is one of the best hitters on our baseball team, as seen in the  picture to the left when he had a very clutch hit in a post-season baseball game. So Jake is a good baseball player, but he also supports his classmates.

A couple of other pictures capture the sense of community.

From the JV game (we feed #77 at our house):

Some of you “rules Nazis” may argue that a hold could have been called on the below play. But we will point out preemptively that it was the JV game and while it may appear that he had a little jersey, this block was not executed in the cover of darkness, but rather was in plain sight of the official . . . and  an excellent run ensued.

I continue to be partial to the Stillman Valley favorite, “1-2-3-4 / you know what those cleats are for / stomp-em.”

“Retard them, retard them, make them relinquish the ball,” has always been a favorite as well.  It’ doesn’t always roll easily off the tongue, but what it lacks in ease of repeating, it makes up for with its poetry and eloquence.

From: 4-Block World

It’s been a long time since I smiled about baseball. If you had told me a Yankee would be the reason I got nostalgic, I wouldn’t have believed it.

But for Jeter to go 5/5 with the game winning ribeye, and to homer to reach 3000 is special.  My sense is that Jeter respects the game and appreciates what it means to be the first Yankee to have 3000 hits. Now he will be mentioned with the likes of Ruth, Mantle, Dimaggio, and Gehrig.

You can watch the whole at bat below, courtesy of someone videoing their tv.

I believe Jim Tressel loves God. I believe he has faith that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. I also believe that he has a real personal relationship with the one true God. During my time playing for the Cleveland Browns, I was repeatedly told of the stellar job he did representing the faith at churches, parachurch fundraisers, and other Christian gatherings. I’ve heard equally positive reports from his former players. And I don’t think he was faking.

Yet his very public moral failure, culminating in his resignation late last month as head football coach at Ohio State University, has caused big headlines and, for those who championed his faith, even bigger disappointment. Before this plank-eyed sinner begins to point out the speck in Coach Tressel’s eye, however, I need to make a clear statement: Coach Tressel’s fall is our fault. Yes, the church bears responsibility for this public debacle; or, at least the portion of the church with more than a surface knowledge of college football’s inner workings.

Those of us who have been a chaplain, coach, or player at the collegiate level know that, in certain programs, players get paid. And I’m not talking about that rinky-dink stipend check for off-campus living expenses. Because many college athletes and high school prospects are unfairly denied free market value for their services (a peripheral debate better left for another time), the “corporate” arm of many major athletic departments finds a way to reimburse them. Those of us believers engaged in sports ministry know this for a fact. For some reason we have ignored it as a non-issue. For some reason we deactivate our moral compass when confronted with it. I have an idea why.

Baseball is all about getting home. But what happens when you get there and it’s gone?

It happened to Hueytown (Ala.) High School baseball head coach Rick Patterson on Wednesday. He walked to his house only to find a tornado had taken it.

Pitchers love making saves. But what happens when the save you have to make is your sister’s life?

It happened to 15-year-old Hueytown JV pitcher Brandon Miller that same day. He was hiding under a mattress in the hallway of his house, wearing his baseball helmet, when a twister took the roof off. Then it started to take his 14-year-old sister, Sara. He reached up and grabbed her in the final fraction of the moment.

High school sports is about playing for love of school. But what happens if your school closed for a week because nobody can drive the roads to get to it?

You keep playing is what happens.

In the eye of all that, Hueytown carried on in the Alabama 5A state playoffs Monday, splitting its first two games with Briarwood Christian in the best-of-three second round. Afterward, each Briarwood player donated $20 to Patterson to help out.

And you think your team has distractions?

“Boys, if you wanna help me, keep winning,” Patterson told his players before the games. “Because as long as we keep winning, I don’t have to think about the rest of my life.”

The rest of his life is scattered over blocks and blocks of Pleasant Grove, Ala., where he and his wife, Debra, were supposed to be living. But two months ago . . .

Read the rest here.