Season of Adversity

As most of you know, SportsLeader is about a lot more than the scoreboard. Striving to win is very important, achieving excellence is always the goal and objective but at the same time we want our coaches, athletes, parents and family members to WIN in life.

This is not always easy and the path to these lessons is uphill to say the least.

There is one team which is a part of the SportsLeader family, the head coach requested anonymity, which has suffered enough adversity to last a few decades ... all in the first month of the season.

Week 1: A player's Mom died in a gruesome motorcycle accident. 

Week 2: Another player's Mom died in a car accident due to a drunk driver

Week 3: A former student, player and teammate committed suicide. No note was left but he took his life when all of his buddies were leaving for college. He did not get accepted to any of his college choices.

Week 4: The wife of an assistant coach went to the hospital to get checked for a pain in her back. They found a tumor attached to one of her vertebra and it turned out to be cancer. They hospitalized her that night and are starting radiation treatments today. She has to go in once a day  for 25 treatments. 

REQUEST:

"We would love to have our SportsLeader families say a prayer in her name. I know the power of pray and the power in numbers. Her name is Carrie."

The head coach has been extremely strong through all of this. He related some good stories to me, amidst tears, of how at the funerals the players have done an amazing job showing compassion, empathy and kindness to all of the family members. Something to truly be proud of.

One of the pastors presiding at one of the funerals said, "That was the most amazing display of love I have ever witnessed in all my years of doing this. Thank you."

All of this puts things in perspective very quickly.