My Coach and the Softball Revival

This is Cordova Baptist Church in Cordova, TN. It looks pretty much like it did years ago when I was in 8th grade. I first went there because it was a requirement. At the time I didn't understand why, but they told me I had to go to the "revival" there before I could be on the church softball team. It was funny. I knew nothing about church and nothing about softball! What was I thinking? This mandatory revival was life changing and it became the glue that held my moody adolescent life together. The idea that God and the people at that church cared about me for no apparent reason was amazing.

Throughout my high school years I played on softball and basketball teams coached by the same person who coached that first softball team I joined. I attended Bible studies, Sunday school, Wednesday dinners, and something called Acteens (which I never figured out what meant.) Many many times it was my coach who picked me up in his old black truck, along with several other girls, and hauled us out to the church. I think I could hear that truck coming as soon as it turned into the neighborhood it was so loud. I fondly remember throwing bats, balls, water jugs and a Bible into the truck and then climbing in myself for the breezy ride out to the country church. Hours later he would drive my sweaty and bruised, jammed finger self back home. I was an athletic wreck!

I laugh now when I remember that as athletically challenged as I was, many years I served as team captain. It didn't occur to me that I might not be qualified for such a duty. Must not have occured to anyone else either! I think it may have been more due to the fact that I wasn't afraid to pray out loud in front of other people.

We lost almost every game, but it didn't occur to me to give up. I can truly say that our satisfaction came from just getting to play. I don't remember ever feeling any less of a person for losing a game. I think it's because I felt so important to the coach, my team, and God.

I don't know what drove my coach's dedication to a bunch of girls who couldn't seem to win a game, but I sure am thankful. We need more people like him in this world. I think of all the students I come in contact with who have such low self esteem and lack of purpose, and I wish they could have an experience like I did. I could have easily grown up feeling like a failure, but thanks mostly to him, it was just the opposite. I felt comfortable in many different types of leadership as I went through school. What a gift!

I have recently made contact with my old coach after so many years have passed. His wife tells me he is still coaching and is still tough and stubborn. I believe it. But it also makes me happy to think that other kids are getting the benefits of his coaching. Maybe as I get to know him as an adult I will be able to understand his caring dedication to us as kids.

So Coach, if you are reading this, I hope you can see how much you mean to me. I'd like to see you in person again some day as long as you don't have a bat and a practice ball in your hand . . . I still bruise easily!