November 20 – “Eyes of a Coach”

Well, the conference has finally, officially ended.  The announcements have been made about the dates and place for next year – approximately same Bat time (November 15-17, 2020), same Bat channel (or place, if you will - Waco Convention Center). 

About the only thing that occurred that was even remotely controversial happened at the last business session.  And Josh was involved.  He was on the committee on resolutions.  They are the ones who come up with all those “whereas’es” and “therefore’s” and “be it resolved’s.”  None of the resolutions that came up were controversial at all.  Just thanking the venue people and the staff who put the convention together.  The fun part came when the chairman introduced the reader of the final resolution – Pastor Josh Vaughan from the Columbus Avenue Baptist Church in Waco.  Great introduction.  Except Josh wasn’t the one who was supposed to read it.  The poor guy who actually had the resolution (and who had volunteered to do the reading) had already taken a step toward the podium.  He stopped dead in his tracks, looked around confusedly (is that a word?), and then stepped back and handed the paper to Josh.  Not missing a beat, Josh made his way to … no, not the podium … to the committee chairman.  He whispered the correct guy’s name, then returned the paper to him.  The chairman corrected the mistake and all went as originally planned.  Josh texted me later, “I worked hard to get out of that.  I wasn’t going to let him make a gametime decision on me!”  See, Josh had already been notified that when he agreed to serve on that committee, it was a two year term.  And by the way … he was also the vice-chairman, meaning that next year he will slide right into the chairmanship role.  No one mentioned that little fact when he was asked to serve.  Gotta love convention politics.

After the business session we located a place to eat lunch.  Ever been to “In and Out Burger”?  Interesting place.  There were only three things on the menu.  Hamburger, cheeseburger, and French fries.  Oh, and a drink.  That’s it.  The burgers weren’t bad, either.  Way better than the local Whataburger we had the night before.  They got our order wrong twice.  And then the burgers were actually cold.  Like out of the refrigerator cold.  So In and Out won the battle of the burgers this time.

Next we decided to head over to the local mall.  Yep.  On purpose.  We wanted to do some walking – gotta get some steps in – and maybe some Christmas shopping to boot.  That was a good plan … until we realized that we were just two blocks away from The Magnolia Market Silos.  Chip and Joanna heaven.  Why not?  As if I could have stopped Chris.  She was driving, after all.  We roamed round the new complex for a while, ruing the fact that we could have eaten at one of the food trucks on the grounds and lolled around the lawn.  We even poked our heads into the bakery.  We didn’t order anything, though.  Both of us were just too stuffed with burgers.  Maybe next time.  The mall stop wasn’t all that productive shopping wise either.  We did discover a Hallmark shop though.  Haven’t been into one of them since they closed down the one in Galveston years ago.  At least the walking part was successful.  What with dodging the vendors set up in the center of the mall, hawking their wares, we brought our total up to about two miles. 

Last night I volunteered to pick up Zak from basketball practice.  That may not have been my best choice.  It has been several years now since I last coached basketball.  How many?  Well, let’s see … Nathan graduated from high school (I was his coach), went to fire academy, got married, and now has a gorgeous ten-year-old daughter (at least I think she’s ten.  Maybe it’s fifteen …).  So it has been that long.  But even after that long I found myself watching the practice with The Eyes of a Coach.  It all came flooding back …

“Your man, the ball, and the center of the court.”

“Every Body Has Eleven Fingers” (acronym for effective shooting: Eyes on the ball, Balance, Hands position on the ball, Elbow in, Follow-through).

“Set up triangle passing lanes.”

“Be consistent in running the offense.”

“Be patient.  Make the defense commit.”

“Make the pass”

“Don’t force the shot.”

“Move without the ball on offense.”

“Run.  Run.  Run. Fourth quarters last a lot longer when you are out of shape, but they are a lot of fun when you are the one not breathing hard.”

Okay.  That’s enough.  Take a deep breath, EX-coach.  Fortunately none of that sort of thing actually came out of my mouth above a mutter (at least I don’t think it did).

James 1:13 says, “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’  For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.”

Father, please be with the young men on Zak’s basketball team.  Help them to have fun, and learn some life skills in the process.  Amen.