A Trip of a Lifetime!

Fifteen years ago this past summer, I was able to go on the trip of a lifetime.  I had just finished up my second year at the University of Georgia, and I was packing my bags to go on a trip to play in a basketball tournament in Israel and Palestine.  Since arriving at UGA, I had gotten involved in the Baptist Student Union.  I had met several friends and began playing basketball several nights a week at the Ramsey Student Center.  One of our campus ministers at the BSU found out that we had been playing and wanted to come and watch.  Before I knew it, he was organizing a team, he would be the coach and we would be traveling around the south playing in different club basketball tournaments.  We also were playing in the Intramural league at UGA and having a lot of success.  The only team that we couldn’t beat was the UGA football players.  It’s hard to keep Hines Ward in front of you when it felt like he was taking off from the 3 point line to dunk the ball over my head!

Playing on this club basketball team was a lot of fun.  Our campus minister/coach’s name was Franklin Scott.  At the time, not only did he work for the BSU, but he also was assistant chaplain for the football team, and ran the clock for the basketball program.  He was well connected at UGA and even had the luxury of allowing us to practice our club team in Stegeman Coliseum one night a week!  We had a blast!  This was a great group of guys and not too bad of basketball players either.  Franklin must have thought the same, because one practice he came to us with an idea.  He asked us if we would be interested in traveling to Israel and Palestine to participate in a basketball tournament and do some clinics for the kids in both places.

Before we could really realize how dangerous this might be, we were all saying yes and already trying to raise money to go!  I always say if I knew what I know about the region now, I might not have gone.  Luckily for us, 1999 was a time of relative peace in the region and other than a couple of instances, we felt very safe.

To say this was a trip of a lifetime would be an understatement.  It will be a trip that I never forget.  We boarded our flight from Atlanta not really knowing what to expect.  The flight seemed to take forever.  We had a short layover in London before we switched planes from Delta to Israeli Air.  The smaller plane from Atlanta to Tel-Aviv was small and comfortable until the Muslims on the plane began one of their daily prayers to Allah.  You have to remember, this was pre-911 so we just looked on with amazement and not fear as the Muslim passengers rocked back and forth, facing Mecca and praying aloud.  We did land peacefully in Tel-Aviv and then our real trip bagan.  

Our base hotel was located in Ramallah, Palestine.  Many who follow the news will know this as one of Yasir Arafat’s headquarters!  I’m pretty sure I’m glad I did not know that until after I had gotten back to the States.  I will tell you this.  The people in Ramallah treated us like royalty.  On arrival to this city, the people treated us very well.  Most of them knew that we were coming and were excited.  They thought that since we were a basketball team and were from America, then we must be NBA players!  We all tried to tell them that we weren’t, but that didn’t stop them from feeding us, giving us free ice creams, wanting our autographs and many other things that only most pro athletes get treated with.

We began our first day working at the local sports club.  Most of the sports clubs we visited had outdoor basketball courts.  Our first thing to do was to put on a basketball clinic for the kids.  As we began showing the kids the basics of basketball, the adults quickly got interested.  They went from standing on the sideline taking pictures of their kids, to jumping in the layup lines so they could learn about the beautiful game of basketball.  It was a lot of fun.  We traveled around Palestine and Israel doing the same thing many times.  We would put on a clinic and then would play their local team.  The organizers had created this as a tournament so sometimes the games got pretty competitive and heated.  It was a lot of fun as we played teams from cities such as Ramallah, Jerusalem and even Bethlehem.  We were one of two American teams in the tournament and as we ran through the foreign teams, it was obvious that we were going to run into the other American team in the final.  I wish I could say that we won the tournament, but the happy ending didn’t happen.  The team from California beat us pretty handily that day, but it wasn’t the game that I’ll remember, it was the celebration that we had afterwards of American young people, Israeli young people and Palestinian young people.  What a great time.  It ended with a huge feast and a lot of dancing.  No politics, no wars, no fighting.  Just a good time with humans from different backgrounds having a good time.  

Of course basketball wasn’t the only thing that we did on our trip.  We were able to go to many places around this region.  We visited all the tourist spots like the old city of Jerusalem.  We were able to go to Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity.  We were able to attend a Sunday church service at the garden tomb and were able to walk the Via Delarosa.  In the days before digital cameras, I still was able to take hundreds of pictures of the garden of Gethsemane, the Sea of Galilee and the location where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount.

I often look at all of the pictures that I took and reminisce about all the memories that I made.  I can remember my two roommates, Michael Bagwell (my best friend from UGA) and David Platt (who is now head of the International Mission Board for the Southern Baptist Convention) and the night as we dozed off to sleep being awakened by a machine gun going off outside our window.  We were young but we knew enough about the local conflict that we spent the rest of the night huddle under our beds!  It wasn’t until the next morning that we found out that it was just a drunk local running from the cops.  From what we found out this was a common occurance!

Another memory I can remembe was our van driver saying, ‘would everyone like to swim in the Dead Sea?’  After everyone emphatically saying yes, our guide led us on a 2 mile hike through the desert eventually arriving at the Dead Sea.  I can remember as we ran to cool off in the water, it wasn’t until after I jumped in that I realized I should not have shaved that morning because the salt seemed to find it’s way into every open pore that I had on my body!

So many memories from my trip to Israel that I can’t write them all in this article.  I reminisce and share them whenever possible.  It was a great trip.  One that I may never get to experience again.  I had such a great time.  I often think about that trip and I always smile.

Believe it or not, a lot of people do not like sports.  A lot of people think sports is just about gambling and getting together for a big pre-game party.  To me sports is so much more.  This trip is evidence that sports reaches across all different genders, races and nationalities.  The news would have you believe that all Israelis hate all Palestinians.  The news would have you believe that all Palestinians want all Americans demolished.  My trip proved to me that the nature of most people in this world are good.  Through the simple game of basketball, I saw with my own eyes how so called enemies competed with each other by bouncing a round ball.  How when the game was over, everyone shook hands, gave each other hugs and celebrated with a bottle of Coca-Cola and a feast of food.  My trip to the Middle East is one that I will never forget.  Of course I will never forget all the special places I was able to see, but most importantly I will never forget how humans came together for the love of sports.  

Into Their Shoes

Several years ago while exploring a bookstore in Macon, I ran across a book entitled “Out of Their Faces and Into Their Shoes.”  I must admit, I didn’t buy the book, but the title has stayed with me and has influenced my coaching style.  I also remember my dad telling me when I first got started coaching that as a coach, players will respond to you better if you are able to get out there and ‘show’ them what to do.  Now, I have never really been an ‘in-your-face’ type of coach, but I have tried my best to always ‘get in my players shoes’ and to be able to ‘show’ them what to do.

Over the past few months I have personally experienced the ‘in your shoes part’ for some of Upson-Lee’s Fall Sports.  I realize that my experiences are just a small part of what these athletes go through, but it has given me a better appreciation for what they do at practice and during games on a daily basis.

Upson-Lee’s cross country team has been very successful over the past few years.  Coach Boyd and Coach Sanders have done a great job making them into one of the best teams in Middle Georgia.  They have traveled to meets all around the South from Disney World to Savannah.  I have personally experienced what it takes for these athletes to get ready for their meets.  Most every summer I run the Peachtree Road Race on the Fourth of July in Atlanta.  It is a 6.2 mile race.  I probably do not train like I need to, but this past summer was my 22nd year running it and one of my better times in the recent past.  As I finished the race this summer and received my time, I was quite pleased with myself.  Until I got home and started to see some of our young athletes Cross Country times!  These athletes are very fast!  And even though they are 20 years younger than I am, I don’t know if could ever run a 5k race in under 20 minutes.  If you ever get a chance to see them practice, it is not just ‘hey go run’, it’s distance training, speed work, strength training and the list goes on and on.  By putting myself ‘in their shoes’ this summer, I gained a better appreciation for our Cross Country athletes!

I have been coaching middle school football for the past 13 years.  Over that time I have seen a lot of different coaches come and go.  I have also seen some very good football players come through the middle school and move on to the high school football program.  It has been a great experience and I thank the ULMS administration for allowing me to coach for so long!  Now, it is very hard as a grown man to be able to put on pads and buckle up a chin strap so I can show the boys what to do, but one day I did decide to participate with the boys in their fitness part of practice.  Just from running with the boys for a small percentage of one practice, I learned how tough it is for these boys and I gained a better appreciation for what they go through as well!  I jumped in to one of the fitness groups.  On this particular day, we mixed a ‘pursuit drill’ with ‘running the hill’.  It was probably a mistake for a 37 year old man to try and keep up with the boys, but I tried.  I got down in a four point stance and ran with the boys.  They loved it!  Of course every single one was trying to beat me up the hill, and of course, I COULDN’T  LET THEM!  Even though I made it, when the fitness was over, I thought they were going to have to bring the oxygen tank to me!  Our football players at all levels at Upson-Lee work their tails off every day!  It is true, ‘Hard work pays off!’

Both our volleyball team and softball team have had good years.  These girls just like any other sport work very hard to get themselves ready for their season.  Their practices start in the dead heat of the summer.  The volleyball team had to spend some pretty hot days practicing for hours in a hot gym with no AC. Our softball team did the same out under the blazing summer sun.  These girls really put the work in!  I always knew how hard both of the teams practiced, but again, I put myself in their shoes a couple times here recently and realized how tough these girl’s sports are.

My first experience with these two sports came when the girl’s softball coach, Stephen Hammock, came and asked me to put a team in his Coed Softball tournament fundraiser.  It had been a long time since I had played any softball, but I jumped at the chance.  I got some of my close friends together and we showed up to play our first game.  About 5 games later, I had a great appreciation for the girls softball team.  That night I couldn’t move!  My hamstrings felt like rocks and I thought my arm was going to fall off!  Again, it could be because I’m just not quite as young as I used to be, but I did gain some great pride in the girls softball team and how hard they work so they don’t have to feel like I did!

My next experience with a tournament came when my step-daughter walked up and pretty much ‘told’ me I was putting a team in Coach Monica Perdue’s UL Volleyball fundraiser tournament.  I have always loved the game of volleyball but my only experiences have came from playing on the beach with family and church leagues from the past.  I quickly learned that girls volleyball at the high school level is completely different than what I knew!  The rules are different and the way you play is different!  After a couple of games trying to figure things out, my team, made up of my close friends again, went on a run and ended up finishing second in the tournament. Again, just like the other experiences, I have to take my hat off to the girls volleyball team!  I think we ended up playing 17 or 18 games.  By the end of the day, I couldn’t walk!  In fact, it took me until the middle of the next week to be able to walk normal again!  These girls really put in the work to get themselves ready for the high school season.  I went to one of their tournaments yesterday in which the girls started at 8:30am and ended after 6:00pm.  Did they feel like I did after the tournament?  NO!  They were still running to the bus after they received their trophy just like they hadn’t played a game!

I think we should all take our hats off to not just our Fall athletes, but to all of Upson-Lee’s athletes.  Our coaches put in a lot of hours to get these athletes ready to play at a very high level.  I’m sure just like me, our athletes sometimes go home with sore muscles and bumps and bruises.  The great thing is they come back the next practice ready to go again and ready to bring some pride to our Upson-Lee athletic program!  I’m glad this summer I was able to get in their shoes and to realize just how hard they work.  If you get a chance to see some of our Fall athletes play, you should!  So in closing, I’d like to give a big ‘UL!’ to all of our athletes and now… I’m going to ice some of my sore muscles!!!

Field of Dreams

Throughout my life I have been able to travel to many different places around the world.  Some of my favorite journeys have usually revolved around sports.  I have been to several baseball stadiums from the east coast to the west coast.  I have had the opportunity to visit many college football stadiums in the South, usually following the Dawgs around. I have watched one of Coach K’s practices and cheered with the Crazies at a game in Cameron Indoor Stadium. I have even had the chance to attend a Major League Soccer game in Denver, Colorado. All of these trips were great, but the one trip that I will take with me to my grave was seven years ago. A trip to a place that is a true ‘Field of Dreams.’

I can remember the trip like it was yesterday.  My dad, my little brother and I decided we were going to take a ‘guy’ trip to New York City.  Our main purpose was to see a couple of stadiums before they were torn down.  One of the stadiums that we got to visit was the Met’s Shea Stadium.  All the horror stories you have heard about the stadium are true!  It was a dump!  I am happy to say that we did get a chance to see the Mets play the Braves.  We even got to hear the crowd chant, “Larry, Larry!”.  Even better than hearing the chant was seeing “Larry” Chipper Jones hit a double off the left field fence!  As fun as it was to see the Braves beating the Mets, this wasn’t the sole purpose of our trip!  We were there to see one stadium.  That stadium was the old Yankee stadium!

We actually were able to see the inside of the stadium twice.  Our original plan was to watch the Yankees play on Friday night, and the Mets on Saturday.  On Friday morning, we flew in to New York, visited all the typical tourist spots, and then got ready at our hotel for our first visit ever to the hallowed grounds in the Bronx.  We arrived at the ‘house that Ruth built’ early to get the feel of all the sights and sounds.  We purposely bought tickets in the bleachers.  We ordered a hot dog and a coke (a tradition I have for every baseball park I visit). After scarfing down the hot dogs we waited patiently for the game to start.  Only one problem… RAIN!

You would think that rain would put a damper on the situation.  But for three boys from Georgia, just sitting in Yankee stadium was a dream come true!  As we covered up in $7 ponchos, we were able to analyze every detail of the park.   The game was eventually postponed after a 3 hour wait, but passing the time was well worth it. As we waited, I will never forget watching my dad, a former high school and college baseball player, sit in the stands watching the scoreboard as they played videos of Yankee legends.  I will not forget in between the videos, my dad answering every Yankee trivia question that they could throw at him.  I was amazed at his baseball history knowledge.  What a night!  No game, just a guy and his two sons in what some would call, ‘baseball Mecca’.  You would think when the PA announcer came on the loudspeaker and said the game would be postponed we’d be disappointed, but we weren’t.  Especially when the PA announcer told the crowd the game would be made up the next day!

The next morning, we were ‘up and at ‘em, bright and early’.  We toured Times Square, ate New York pizza for the third time, looked over the city from the top of Rockefeller center, and so on and so on.  We loved visiting all the neat places of New York, but we were ready to get back to Yankee stadium!  As mentioned before, we did visit Shea that Saturday for the Mets/Braves game, but we were only there to watch just a few innings.  We had to get back to that glorious place we had visited the night before.

Game time was set, so we left our seats in the dump they called Shea, jumped on the subway and rode it to the 161st station.  A short walk across the street, a quick trip to see the front of the stadium and then we were back in the same seats from the night before.  

You would think that my story would end here.  You would think that we had experienced enough of everything from the previous night.  You would be wrong.  There was nothing in the world like being at a REAL game in THE Yankee stadium!  We had a blast!  I will never forget hearing the captain announced, “Now batting, #2, Derek Jeter, #2”.  I won’t forget participating in the ‘roll call’ in which the Yankee fans in the stands chanted each players name until they acknowledged them.   I will not forget throwing my hands in the air while the field crew drug the infield diamond as they sang ‘YMCA’.  I will especially not forget the 7th inning rendition of ‘God Bless America’ that was sung.  What a special night!

I honestly can’t remember who won the game that day.  I can honestly tell you I don’t care.  I was in the old Yankee stadium.  I did everything that young boys who know anything about baseball dream about.  I sat in a stadium where Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly, and Mariano Rivera played.  I got to sing ‘New York, New York’ at the end of the game with my little brother.  I got to watch my Dad live out one of his childhood fantasies.  I got to sit there, with my two best friends, my dad and my brother, as the ghost of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Mickey Mantle helped me live out one of the greatest experiences of my life.  

I Believe That We Will Win

I

By the time most of you will read this, the United States Men’s Soccer team will be playing or will have already played their next soccer game vs. Belgium in the 2014 World Cup.  The World Cup has been going on in Brazil for the last 3 weeks and the US team has captured the attention of most Americans.  Many across this great land have rallied behind this team whether they were a die hard soccer fan or they don’t know a thing about soccer.  It has been a fun few weeks cheering the Americans on against the world.

Recently I was named assistant Athletic Director by our school board.  I am very excited about the challenge.  I am a huge sports fan and a die hard Upson Lee Knight.  I am a former Knight athlete and have been coaching soccer, football, and basketball at UL for the last 15 years.  I feel that it is an honor to play, coach and now help build our school as assistant AD.  While watching the US soccer team this summer I can’t help to get excited about our upcoming athletic season.  As I follow the US team, I have heard many different quotes and mottos over and over.  While these get me excited about the US team, it gets me even more exctited about Upson Lee athletics!

The first motto that I’m sure you have heard over and over is “I believe that we will win”.  It has been pasted all over ESPN.  There have been t-shirts made with the motto on it.  Any time you get on Facebook, Twitter, or any social media this summer, you will see it at least 3 or 4 times a day. Youtube videos have fans chanting it from the likes of Will Ferrel to MLB, NBA and NFL stars. It is a great motto!  It is very American!  It potrays our fighting spirit.  As a US History teacher at the high school, I can tell you that throughout the history of this great nation, I can’t name a single time that we as American’s haven’t “believed that we can win!”  While thinking about this motto the last few weeks, it keeps popping up in my mind that we should adopt it at UL.  We have an outstanding coaching staff put in place this year.  All of our coaches have been working very hard this summer both in the weight room and their field of play.  Our coaches and athletes have been putting in many hours this summer not only in our Fall sports, which are right around the corner, but also our Winter and Spring sports for the 2014-2015 season.  We have very passionate coaches and athletes who I believe will represent UL well this year.  I believe that we will have success on the fields and courts that we will play on. I think that as coaches and players we should have the belief and confidence that no matter the opponent, no matter the circumstances, we are going to walk into our game or match and give everything we have.  I think most importantly we need to walk out with the motto that “I believe that we will win!!!!”

Another motto that the United States team has been using this year is “One Nation, One Team”.  The more I think about it, the more I think that we should adopt this for our school as well.  Of course we can not get the entire Nation to cheer for us, but I do believe we can use “One County, One Team”.  Upson County has a very, very strong sports history.  Being the sports nut that I am, I love studying about the boy’s basketball teams from Yatesville High, the great football teams from R.E. Lee, the girl’s basketball teams from Upson High and so on and so on.  I think that we should be very proud of what we have accomplished as a community.  I am excited about this upcoming sports season.  My hope is that we can take the pride we have in our sports history and use that passion to support Upson Lee.  I would love for us to pack the football stadium under the Friday Night lights this fall.  I would love for us to pack our gym for our basketball games and volleyball games.  I would love for Silvertown to be full in the spring and for 1000s of Matthew’s Maniacs to be cheering our soccer teams on as well.  How much fun would it be if our community would get behind our all our athletes and coaches and help turn our athletic program into one of the best in the state?  It can be done!  Let’s all become one family, one community, ONE COUNTY, ONE TEAM!  We are all Upson Lee Knights!

Even if you do not like soccer or do not understand it, I hope you are following the boys this summer in Brazil.  They represent us.  They play with a passion and a grit that potrays America.  They are a team that is not scared of anyone, they give everything they have and they leave it all on the field.  They play with broken noses, they play through cramps from the humidity of the Amazon rainforest.  They play with honor and they play with pride for this great nation.  As assistant athletic director and as an Upson Lee coach, my hope is that our players, coaches and fans are watching and will grasp a hold to the things this soccer team is showing us.  I hope that we can play the same way, preparing ourselves the best we can and then leaving it all on the field or court.  I’m excited to see Upson County unite as “One County and One team” and once we do that “I Believe that we will win!”

Reading at the Beach...

I love the beach.  I love to read.  Last week was Spring Break and I was able to read a couple of books while sitting on the beach.  It was nice and relaxing.  Here is a brief review of both books I read:
  The Racketeer was the first John Grisham book I've ever read and will definitely NOT be the last!  This was a GREAT read.  I don't read a lot of fiction, but from time to time I like to.  Especially at the beach.  This is one of those books that you can't put down!  And when you do, you are ready for the next minute that you get to squeeze in a chapter or two.  It's one of those books that even when you fall asleep you still are thinking about it and it causes you to have some crazy dreams!  I highly recommend this book.  I won't tell you much about it because it may give away some of the story and what fun is that. All I say is I almost read this book in about a 48 hour period.  It was THAT good...

The next book I read at the beach was Radical by an old college buddy named David Platt.  David and I went to UGA together and even played on the same club basketball team at the BSU.  We were roommates on a trip to Israel.  Since that time, David has really accomplished a lot!  He is now the pastor of a church in Birmingham Alabama and more impressively, has been on numerous mission trips to places around the world to spread the gospel.  His trips are the type where if he gets caught he risk being thrown in prison or being killed.  This was a great book I'd been wanting to read for a long time.  It will definitely challenge you as a Christian.  David uses scripture to basically show us how the American church has a lot wrong about the 'Christian church'.  He says we are too comfortable here in America and that is not what Jesus called for.  Jesus called for us to live radical lives and not comfortable lives by our own measures.  He makes a lot of good points and what I like about it was that everything was backed by scripture.  As a guy (me) who has been down on organized religion because of all the 'holy rollers' that want to tell you everything that is wrong with your life....as you watch them live lives that you know are not pleasing to God according to the word, it was a refreshing look at how Christianity is SUPPOSED to be and not how the church in modern day America has made it!  This book challenged me that I need to do better in my own life as a Christian.