Team
My responsibility is getting all my players playing for the name on the front of the jersey, not the one on the back.
Anonymous
I don't know the coach who said this, but he or she truly understood one of the most important fundamentals of sports and of life - the concept of team. I was privileged to watch both of the varsity squads from Happy as they exemplified this ideal about as well as any group of players that I have seen in recent years. Friday night's game in the boy's regional tournament capped off an amazing year for our basketball program. This game typified the way the boys had played with this concept of team for several years now. The interesting thing was that this particular effort was made in a loss, not in victory.
It was a night that everyone who has ever played sports can relate to. The other team came out hot and never seemed to cool down, yet the boys, their coach and the fans never gave up. At the end of the game, the coach pulled the seniors out one by one. Each of the young men received a hearty ovation. Though the game was lost, you would not have known it by the response the fans gave to each one of these players. Then something else happened that I believe is worthy of remark: The coach greeted each of his boys individually as they came off of the court - with a special word of encouragement and appreciation for their effort.
Now, this may not seem all that remarkable to most people - after all, fans and coaches support their teams on a regular basis. The reason, though, that I think there was such an effort to show appreciation to these young men was that they were a team. No matter what the outcome was of any game throughout this year, (not to mention the three preceding years for this collection of players) the boys won or lost as a team. And the coach and families and townspeople recognized that there was something very special about this particular group of young men: They were a team, not as one coach so aptly noted, just a group of individuals in the same colored jerseys.
This is, in my estimation, the way that life should be lived. It is they way that friends and family members and team mates... and Christians should treat one another. Not as a group of selfish individuals with selfish agendas, but as men and women who love each other and want to see each other succeed. This is what our teams, our Happy Cowboys and our Happy Cowgirls, had for each other this year. The coaches saw it, their families saw it, the town saw it and, I think, even the opposing teams saw it. They loved each other. This is the way it should always be with God's children.
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Romans 12:10, NIV
