Black Socks

 

Black Socks

This post, from November 1, 2017, is about a shift in my coaching philosophy!
It all starts tomorrow. We play our first game of the 2017-2018 season and we play at at our west campus, another first for us. This is a milestone year for me, number twenty at Westbury Christian School and the twentieth team I've coached. While accurate, that's also a bit misleading as one year I concurrently coached both our middle school squad and our high school varsity, a total of sixty one games in what was the longest year of my life. I also took a season sabbatical after both of our parents died within a year and I needed some time to recover emotionally. I really like this bunch of kids of which there are only seven. Only three are eighth graders- we play an eighth grade schedule- and only two of the seven were with us last year and have played in a junior high game. I'm not sure how good we will be but that does not matter. They are coachable, they work hard, and maybe their best characteristic, they like each other, something not always found on middle school girls' basketball teams. Without going out too far on a limb, I may love this team as much as any team I've ever coached and that covers a lot of athletic ground!

There will be something different about the Lady Wildcats tomorrow when they take the floor, different from all my other basketball teams. We will be wearing black socks. All my previous teams have worn white socks. It's not that I have anything against non-white socks; it's just easier to keep them uniform when they are white. I tell the girls that uniform means alike and there is a purpose to it. It drives me crazy when I see teams in basketball and volleyball wearing ten- and I'm not exaggerating- unique colored and decorated socks on the court for the same contest. But, I broke down this week and bought the NIKE socks you see above for early Christmas presents for the young ladies. (Truthfully, I have to give props to my wonderful sister-in-law, Karen, who ordered them for me on AMAZON!) We'll look good- now we just have to play good!

Do you know what's interesting? I don't care what kind of shoes my players wear or what color. As a high school coach, we bought our shoes as a group but middle school is different and shoes are expensive. It is possible we will have three brands and five colors of high tops tomorrow and it won't bother me in the least! Why does one item on the feet get on my nerves but not the other? Who knows? Why does the speck in your eye frustrate me but not the two by four in my baby blues? We seem to pick and choose our battles very foolishly and I know have done that as a coach and teacher and even as a Christian. My motto, although I might never really admit it, has probably been along the lines of what matters is what matters to me. Pretty shortsighted! Maybe I'm growing, one sock at a time. Well, it's really two socks at a time but you get the picture. Tomorrow, we'll tip off at 4:30 in our brand new uniforms and our brand new socks.... with maybe a brand new, of slightly broken in, coach. I may have some planks to get rid of! I'll let you know!

Applicable quote of the day:
You choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color. 
Gary Oldman

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Brace Yourself

 

Brace Yourself

There is nothing like coaching middle school girls! The following, from November 28, 2006, is about Athena and the most unique present a coach ever received from a player.

Christmas season is officially on. Even before the Thanksgiving leftovers are stale, the next holiday has taken over. One Houston radio station, 99.1, will play nothing but Yuletide music until Christmas night. A Charlie Brown Christmas aired this evening on ABC, a sure sign of the season. And we are still days from the twelfth month! I have to admit, I have started thinking about what gifts to buy this year, already purchasing the presents for my basketball players, One Year Bibles. (They already know so I'm not spoiling the surprise!) I enjoy giving presents and I like getting them as well. Yesterday, I was given the most unique gift of my life but it isn't a Christmas present. It's for my birthday which is not until mid-February.

What do you give to the coach who has everything? I don't need much but girls like to give presents so I accept them graciously. Even after their career with me is finished, I still pray for them and try to stay in touch as much as possible, especially with the ones who are in grades nine through twelve at Westbury Christian School. Athena falls into that category. A junior now, she was a joy to coach in seventh and eighth grades and a privilege to teach in Bible classes. Athena is consistently cheerful and upbeat and very bright. She has graduated from basketball to soccer and is hard at work becoming the world's greatest female guitarist. There is one more pertinent piece of data that is essential to this story. Like many other students, Athena wears braces. Falling in line with a recent trend, Athena's braces are changed monthly and come in a variety of colors! Constantly in the hallways, she updates me on her latest foray into orthodontic chic. And so for her birthday present to me in twelve weeks, Athena is going to let me pick the color of her braces for the month of February! Let's see you top that! I am already nervous. I am not good with matching colors and I want it to be just right. Think how much she is trusting me. This girl has known me for years, understands my fashion limitations, and still is bestowing on me the honor of adorning her very valuable and precious teeth for thirty rotations of the earth. (My bad: February only has twenty-eight days.) Truthfully, I can't say I'm speechless but I can tell you this: Athena is giving me a gift that I will never have replicated.

What makes a gift memorable or even unforgettable? Why do we remember some childhood presents but can't recall what we received on other special days? Perhaps it was the timing or the unexpected nature of the present. It could be it had no monetary value but was absolutely symbolic in nature. Maybe it was not even intended as a gift but was simply a kind remark or compliment which carved an eternal impression. Paul spoke of the intent of our giving in Second Corinthians 8: 12 when he wrote, "For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable, according to what one has, not according to what he does not have." Athena's gift will cost her nothing but to me, it means everything. You can't put a price tag on what she bequeathed to her junior high coach. Well, I have to try.
A tube of CREST toothpaste: $2.49.
Dental floss and a soft-bristle toothbrush: $4.25.
Braces and orthodontist visits over two years: $4,000.00+.
Selecting the colors of those braces for a wonderful young lady: beyond priceless.
Merry Christmas, Athena.

Applicable quote of the day:
"Give what you have. To someone, it might be better than you dare to think."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Slow To, Umm, Speak

 

Slow To, Umm, Speak

In January of 2014, the Baseball Hall of Fame class was announced and to no one's surprise, the highest vote getter was pitcher Greg Maddux, who started a tradition in my classes a number of years ago. We play the Umm Game in Bible every year. I do pretty good in most classes but some of the kids struggled. One year, Andrew Smith, one of my best students, had a difficult time even getting a word out. What is the Umm Game? Read the entry below, from September 17, 2006, to find out!

Greg Maddux is one of my favorite baseball players. In the twilight of a twenty-one year career, Maddux still has nights of brilliance. Now pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers after stints with the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves, the forty year old has possessed such good control of his pitches that Hall of Famer Joe Morgan once said that "Greg Maddux could put a baseball through a Life Saver." At 331 career victories, he ranks tenth all-time in major league baseball for wins by a pitcher. Maddux is very highly respected in baseball for his intelligence and modesty. Several years ago, I heard an interview with him that surprised me. It seemed that almost every sentence he uttered was spliced with umm.. and you know. I guess I believed someone as well versed as this three-time Cy Young Award winner would not fall into the same speech patterns as the rest of us mortals. I was wrong.

Last week, we began playing THE UMM GAME in my five Bible classes at Westbury Christian School. The rules are simple: every time one of the students says umm or uh, they lose a point off their grade individually. If I say umm or uh, the entire class gets a point added to their grade. The kids love it because they usually win, due to my talking more than anyone else. They/we don't realize how often they/we say umm in the midst of communicating. I simply try to get them to pay attention to their speech patterns. Some of the kids panic. When they consciously try to avoid saying it, they find themselves at a loss for words. Some cover their mouths as they attempt to answer a question. Umm has become an ingrained part of our vernacular, albeit an incorrect part. Don't feel bad; several of my foreign students used it last week, too. Umm has crossed borders and now qualifies as a worldwide epidemic!

Most of what gets us into trouble relates to speech. In his New Testament work, James makes several references to the connection between what we say and our spiritual health. James 1:19 cautions the reader to be "slow to speak." What I find with my students is that, like me, they speak effortlessly. When they become careful simply to avoid losing one point on a quiz, they are much less likely to say a word that costs them AND they speak with fewer words. As the teacher trying not to blurt out the dreaded umm, I muzzle myself. I am off to an excellent start, with only a couple of slips so far. (My basketball players tried to make it applicable in practice- I quashed that idea!) So, my speech is under control, at least in Room 258, Monday-Friday from 7:40 AM to 3:25 PM. How much more effective in portraying Jesus to a desperate world would we all be if we took this simple approach every time we opened our mouths to speak! Now, I just have to find a way to market THE UMM GAME to the masses!

 Applicable quote of the day:
"Greg Maddux is so good, we all should be wearing tuxedos when he pitches."
Phil Favia (Montreal Expos scout)

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Beneath The Surface

Beneath The Surface

I hate to vacuum! This is from January 7, 2014!
There were numerous sales after Christmas and I availed myself of one. Wal-Mart had Bissell vacuum cleaners on sale for only $47 so I snapped one up. Since I was in Kansas, my brother Scott helped with the very minor assembly and I was ready to go as soon as I returned to Houston. I've always maintained that I'm messy and not dirty and there is a huge difference. One nice perk that my apartment complex provides is free carpet cleaning several times per year so mine are in good shape. And yet, one scant minute after foot activating the on button, the dirt cup, where the suctioned refuse is collected in this bag-less vacuum, was full. I was shocked. I knew it had been awhile since my last vacuuming but the carpet appeared relatively clean and the amount of waste pulled out of the rug was staggering. It was either a great advertisement for the good folks at Bissell or a stinging rebuke of the surface sterility of the floor covering on which I daily tread. As a non-scientific observation, I would guess it's a combination of the two.

I would also guess my life mirrors my carpet; relatively spotless to the naked eye but not so pretty to even a perfunctory scratching of the surface. Jesus accused the religious leaders of His day of that same condition. The Savior likened their piety to eating utensils and cemeteries in Matthew 23:
25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. 27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Looks like times haven't changed much. We, or at least I, do our best to post a religious front to the world like a FACEBOOK status but lurking beneath is a different landscape, one that needs a constant scouring. That's where the blood of Jesus comes in, removing the garbage of the abundance of sin in my life. The Lord knows it's there and I know it's there but I try to sweep it under the carpet, to use a really bad pun. I am in awe how God loves me when I struggle to love me. Maybe because He remembers I am made of dust. I think I've rubbed off on my carpets.

Applicable quote of the day:

"The day I worry about cleaning my house is the day Sears comes out with a riding vacuum cleaner."
Roseanne Barr

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

The Price For Shipley's Do-Nuts

 

The Price For Shipley's Do-Nuts

Whatever it takes to motivate kids! This is from January 22, 2018!
I often ask the Lord to give me something to write about. Sometimes, I feel an inspiration and pen a new devotional and sometimes, I use something I authored four or more years ago. I can't argue either way. If I reuse one, I guess there is someone who needed it. (My guess is very few people would remember a blog I constructed somewhere between 2006-2014 anyway!) If it's brand new, I feel the same way- there's a lesson in a new lesson. Honestly, I never saw this entry coming! Not in a million years!

My middle school girls' basketball team has fallen on hard times recently. Our schedule, through nobody's fault, was stretched out almost beyond belief. We played our last game before Christmas on December 12. We last practiced on December 15 and came back to school on January 9. We went thirty days between games and twenty-five days between practices. That's a lot of rust for kids with little experience. The games we've lost since the break were to schools having bigger kids with better skills but we lost to them by razor thin margins in November and by ten-plus points in the last week. One thing we really struggled with in the past two games was blocking out. That's a skill most middle school teams are weak at and the majority of high school girls' are as well. (To the non fan, blocking out is putting your body between the basket and your opponent when they shoot the ball- physical contact is required, not optional.) So at our practice this morning, I told the girls that if they held our opponent today to ten or less offensive rebounds this afternoon, I would go to Shipley's Do-Nuts tomorrow morning and get each girl what they wanted. To cement the deal, I had them tell me what they like: glazed donuts, donut holes, bear claws, chocolate filled donuts, strawberry frosted donuts, etc. We practiced blocking out in practice afterwards, like we do several times per week, but I was pretty sure I would not have to pay up. Like I said, it's not our strength.

We wound up winning the game four hours ago, not a big surprise as we had defeated this school by twenty points earlier this winter. The game ended with us ahead by ten but it was closer than that- their girls have really improved. As we took the court at tip-off, I reminded the kids of our bargain. I told them it's not a bribe, it's incentive! In the first two minutes, we gave up two offensive rebounds. After that, ZERO! None! Goose Egg! Nada! In all the years I've coached, I've never had a team do anything remotely close to that. I'm not sure we could do it again under any circumstances but we did today! We'll see if there is carryover- we play again tomorrow afternoon, again on the road. That deal is off the table...... but for one moment in time, it worked.

Why Shipley's? It's a Houston tradition and these kids love do-nuts! So at six AM, I'll be at the nearest location to WCS placing our order and Coach Watson, who works with us, is bringing the milk. You know, I've done the opposite before, making teams run sprints if they give up more than a set amount of offensive rebounds. Shockingly, that never carried the desired outcome! What's more effective, positive or negative reinforcement? Obviously, in teaching school and coaching basketball, there has to be some of both. If you're late, you don't start the game. If you don't turn in an assignment, your grade gets dinged. That's life and that's the learning curve we navigate if we want to make our existence meaningful and worthwhile. It's the same in the spiritual realm, I'm convinced. I have some victories over sin and some defeats at the hand of temptation. But more than ever, I'm more excited over the promise of heaven than fretting about the fires of hell. No donuts have been offered but maybe there will be some with chocolate icing and sprinkles waiting for me, metaphorically, in the sweet bye and bye. And I don't even have to block anybody out. Oh happy day.

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

The Writing On The Wall

 

The Writing On The Wall

At  our basketball camp every summer, the coaches dp camper evaluations. Always, my handwriting is deplorable. I know some things improve with age but my handwriting is not one of them. The following, from June of 2006, proves the point.

I don't know how Abraham did it. God told him to move and he did. He moved with a huge group of people and a large amount of possessions. Plus, it doesn't appear there was a great of amount of time between the command and it being carried out. Next week, I'm driving to St. Louis, beginning a two week trek to visit family and my hometown. It will be all I can do to get one person on the road. There is a checklist of things for me to accomplish: take care of my paycheck, get neighbors to pick up mail, pay bills, run off maps and directions, etc. My big concern is my car. I usually fly to see family, letting Southwest Airlines worry about the details. Not this time. I had to get my Toyota checked out before the 2,500 mile road trip. Last Friday, I took my car to a mechanic shop, the Bellaire Auto Center. They were terrific! As a first time customer, there was the perfunctory paper work to fill out. I handed it back to the manager....who struggled to read my name. Jokingly, I mentioned that he should forgive my handwriting since I'm a teacher. Wordlessly, he scrawled C- across the top of my application. He was kind; I think a D would have been more appropriate! Fortunately, my penmanship didn't affect my car's evaluation. My Corolla received a clean bill of health!

The gentleman was right. My handwriting is terrible. Actually, it's a misnomer. I don't use cursive anymore. There are only two words I write in longhand anymore: Steve and Hawley and then only to sign checks and documents. Somewhere down the line, I stopped writing and went back to kindergarten block-style printing. And, as I have become more proficient on the computer, I rarely use ink. In our basketball camps, we write evaluations for the kids and I am not always sure they can interpret my comments. I noticed on last week's forms that my C and L are nearly indistinguishable. To where did my ability to communicate legibly on paper disappear? Lack of practice and my own apathy, I would say. Most guys aren't concerned with how they write. I have only had one male student with great penmanship, Carlson Reese, a high school baseball player good enough that pro scouts showed up for our games at Friendship Christian School. Teachers, including myself, let sloppy writing slide in upper grades if we can make out the meaning or intent. We do a disservice to our kids when we don't require a level of competency in penmanship but if you spend time on it in class, you give up time on something else. I also realize the computer has taken over much of the process, perhaps for the better. Sloppiness also creeps into our spiritual lives, little by little. Writing a daily devotional- a good thing- has made my life hectic. The busier I am, the less I pray. The less I pray, the less I study the Bible. It's never intentional. One day we just look up and discover the slippage or, as in the case of my penmanship, someone points it out. I sat next to a little Chinese boy at our fellowship lunch after worship today. James, a first grader next fall, proudly informed me that he can write his own name! The next time I go see the mechanic, I'm taking James with me! I've got to get that C- up to an A!
Coach Hawley's Printers' Hall Of Fame:
Class of 2007- Kia Ransome, Matthew Runnels: both can print the entire New Testament on the front side of an index card!

Applicable quote of the day:
"A man's penmanship is an unfailing index of his character, moral and mental"
4th Earl of Chesterfield

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

The Apprentice

 

The Apprentice

There was a little girl on my camp team for years named Hayden who considered herself to be my assistant coach. Then, she played for me in middle school and now as a senior is my student assistant! One day, several years ago, Luis Hernandez came by to visit and he met Hayden! He's in the real world now and doing well. The following, from March 9, 2009, is about Luis who also made it his goal to be my assistant.

I'm not quite sure when but Luis began joining me at my classroom door every day before my fifth period sophomore Bible class, of which he is a member. Between classes, faculty members stand at their doors and monitor the halls. I speak to each youngster who enters and try to personalize the greeting. At times, when I am picking up papers or doing something at my desk, I ask one of the kids to be me for a minute in my hall duties. Luis must have been my stand-in one morning, enjoyed himself, and penciled himself in as a regular, leaning back against the door mimicking my cross-armed posture. He's your typical tenth grade boy, a soccer player with a wonderful girlfriend named Danielle. He takes his new responsibilities seriously. Luis is prompt and greets his classmates as they enter the room. I even let him write a hall pass to the bathroom last week. There's one more thing. If you are a regular reader, you know that I have a world class collection of ties that I wear in rotation daily. Luis brought a red striped necktie from home which he keeps just inside my classroom door. He arrives before anyone else for fifth period and loops the tie around his neck. Keep in mind that while I wear long sleeve, button down oxford shirts with my neck wear, my apprentice sports the WCS short sleeve blue polo top with his tie. We have started asking passersby if they can tell us apart. It's difficult. If you subtract the fact that I am taller, slightly older, and Anglo while Luis is Latino and a teenager, we are practically indistinguishable from each other. I signed my contract this afternoon for the 2009-2010 school year. I neglected to ask Dr. Lacey if Luis had signed his yet. You see, I think we make a pretty good team. In Luke 6:40, Jesus said, 
"A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher." 
Luis is getting it. Since becoming a teacher-in-training, his Bible grade has taken a dramatic jump. My guess is that Jesus would approve.

(Luis is fifth from the left- and also from the right- in the back row of the team picture from this year's Westbury Christian School soccer squad.)

Applicable quote of the day:
"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater." 
Gail Godwin

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1