Week of September 22-27

Tuesday: Home against Hartley (JV Red meal at Hogue Varsity at Palumbo's)
Wednesday: No practice
Thursday: JV GOld game at Delaware Hayes. Bus leave from Hogue at 4:15
Saturday: Game at Jonathan Alder

Endurance

Coming into the game against Hiliard Davidson I challenged the boys to look at every game as a test of enduance. Not in the mindframe of physical endurance (although we need this!) but in a spiritual way. Looking at James 1:2-6, I told the team to use every chance we get whether that be in games, practices, team meals, school or other situations to be tested in our faith. For when we are tested we develop perseverence and when we develop perseverence we are ready for anything God gives us. As we played Davidson that night it was quite apparent that God wanted us to learn a valuable lesson in desire. Hilliard Davidson had more desire than we did. At halftime we talked about having desire to play hard through an entire game, not just for a couple minutes. I think the boys understood what I was getting at and proceeded to have a much better second half. As we steped off the field that night I told the boys that although we played better and with mroe desire, we needed to have better preparation during the week. Our endurance may have sustained us for a half but we needed to sacrifice more if we want to show everyone who we really are.
I was proud of the way we went into the game agaisnt Columbus Academy! The team was focused on using the time God gave us to worship him and to "walk worthy" of being called his children. The work ethic and team chemistry in that game was a great witness to what we are learning this year. Not only was this a great win for us in terms of regional and divisional competition but this was a great boost to our morale and confidence as a team. I have reatedly told the boys to trut themsleves and play with confidence. This game really reflected this message. I am excited to begin the long stretch into the tournament now. This will give us some games to bring up some new boys, rest some players and refine some of the fringe strategies we need to address. Let us continue with preseverence in walking worthy. Be praying for lessons and encourage the boys to endure the trials we face. Let us praise Him in times of loss and victory. Let us never cease straining for the prize!

Future games September 6-12th

JV Gold: Saturday (September 6th) Noon at Bishop Hartley (no bus transportation)
Monday (September 8th) 4:30 at Bexley (meet at the hogue to leave)

JV Red/ Varsity: Tuesday at Desales, Saturday afternoon (home) Cardinal Mooney

Our first loss

With our first loss of the season behind us, I want to take some time to relfect on the progress of the team. In past posts I have dicussed lessons we have learned as a team through our games played. The game against St. Charles was no different. The beginning of the game was similar to the way we have started every game. We play our strongest at the beginning of the game and continually wear down as the closing minutes draw near. This tendency set us up for a rude awakening with almost 25 minutes left in the second half. Being down a goal was not the problem. The problem we faced was the lack of desire and heart to finish the game, although there were times in the game that I thought we could get back and even come out of the game with a win. However, my hopes were dashed as the clock ran out. The boys were obviously exhausted, frustrated, surprised and becoming angry at each other as well as the situation ( I am sure many of the parents experienced these emotions in the car rides back home after the game) which caused us as a team to fall apart. I think the game in itself was a great lesson in where we, as a team, need be in the future. After the game I told the boys we lost not because we couldn't score. We lost because we didn't want to score. I went more in depth with this reason by telling the boys that we are missing 2 out of 4 aspects of soccer that are needed to be successful on the field. I said that as a team the two aspects we DID have were #1 skills and #2 we had knowledge of the game (how to play good soccer). The 2 aspects we DID NOT have were the heart to fight and the fitness to run for an entire game. Now we can win games with just pure skill and knowledge of the game. We have actually seen this happen this season. But when we have no heart to win as a team and we are unfit, then we will never obtain the kind of season or level of play we expect to have at Worthington Christian. Our goal for this year is to be Living Sacrifices for Christ as a spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1-2). My question to the team was " How can we worship if our hearts are not in it?" This was a great lesson for us early in the season. I thank God that we have seen, experienced and now know that we are not up to our worship potential yet. So we have come to a small crossroads of the season I guess. With our presumeably hardest two games in a row next week we are staring at each other wondering who is going to step up and prove they have the heart to win and the desire to worhip with everything ounce of energy they have. This is a challenge for many of the boys. It is a challenge to me for sure. I encourage you to ponder this as a family, parent, player, or reader. Are we really worshipping God if we don't give (sacrifice) our everything to him? Are "walking worthy" yet?