This was not the score of a NCAA Division I football team trying to increase its BCS rating. This was the score of a 10-12
year old flag football game at a local church sports ministry league in Charlotte.
Now I want you to imagine for a moment that you are a friend, a fellow coach, the opposing coach, a parent on either team, or the sports minister who oversees this league. What would you say to the winning coach?
I find most people are confused about what to say in such a situation and, in that confusion, say nothing. Fortunately, in this case, the sports minister who relayed the story to me wasn’t confused. They contacted the coach immediately upon hearing of the situation.
To add some context, this was just the second game of the season. The two best players for the losing team were absent that morning.
And the winning coach was a PASTOR of a local church, not the one hosting the league but in the same town which made his response even more interesting.
When the sports minister brought the situation up, the Pastor said, “I try to give my players leadership. I teach them the plays and let them call their own plays during the game.” Hence, no change in play calling strategy by the coach as the game wore on.
He went on to say, “Besides that, I can’t tell my kids just to roll over. I am teaching them to play hard.”
Now think again, what would you say to him in response?
On the issue of playing hard, I believe he is on the right track with regard to redeemed competition, but his track needs to be expanded. Playing hard is only one aspect of godly competition. There are others.
We define redeemed competition as striving together to more fully express the image of God within all who are playing – ourselves, teammates, competitors. Within that definition comes many different aspects or facets of godly competition.
To illustrate, imagine if you, as an adult, were playing a young child in a game of one-on-one basketball. If you only goal was to play hard, you could easily keep them from scoring and win every game. Wouldn’t be much of a game for either of you. But is that a picture of godly competition?
If you took our definition, you would look at the game and would think also of the younger player. In doing so, you wouldn’t patronizingly “roll over” but you would tone down your effort in order to actually keep them in the game. You wouldn’t have to quit trying to do this. You could focus on developing your lesser skills – like maybe only dribbling and shooting with your off hand – while helping them to develop their skills. As you strove together, you would learn to bring out your love and skill while helping them to bring out theirs, thus glorifying God in the process.
Now, taking that perspective back to the flag football game, I would say to the coach, “How would it look it you made it your goal to strive together, to think about developing more than just playing hard in your players?”
Usually, implementing this perspective involves developing a strategy before you get in the heat of game. For an example of such a strategy, take a look at a previous blog Scott Tyson wrote about Five Ways to Manage Lopsided Games.
One of the things Scott advocates is developing “games within games”. Some sports lend themselves more to this idea than others. Thinking of these “games within games” for flag football may be a little more difficult than for basketball or soccer (ie a set number of passes before a shot is taken). But they are there.
In this particular situation, I would probably recommend the coach either
– Shift some of his players into different positions to give them a chance to develop skills and team attitude
– Go to the other coach and discuss actually swapping some players during the game.
There are many other ideas. If you have some, post them in a response.
Regardless of what is done, when the score is 48-0 at halftime, something has to change if God is
going to be honored. That is unless winning is your ultimate goal!!!
For more on that idea, check out this resource, The Ultimate Question, in our store.
