When I was in high school I attended Fremont High School in Sunnyvale. We were the Indians - the Fremont Indians. Later, I went to Stanford - they were the Stanford Indians. In recent years there has been much made of the mascot names of high schools, colleges and even pro teams. In some cases feelings about the name used by teams has run high. In many places it has prompted change. Fremont, for example, is no longer the Indians, but the Firebirds. It is not my intention to get into a political correctness discussion about team names, but I do think the energy expended by some who think that names should be changed might be better used. However, I might get pretty worked up about the guy who kidnapped a young girl a few years back that called himself Emmanuel. If Indians have a reason to complain about that word being used by sports teams, then I think Christians should be concerned when some guy calls himself Emmanuel - “God with us”. People sure can give God “a bad name” by their actions.
But, I must ask myself, have I, who goes by the name “Christian” done things that give Christ “a bad name”? I’m sure I have. I didn’t have to look weird and do strange or bad things to discredit the name of Christ. Have I talked about my players in an unloving way to other coaches? Have I cheated on my responsibilities as a VCHS coach? COACH! There’s a name! What comes to your mind - or WHO comes to your mind when you think of the word coach? I can think of a number of men in high school and college that had the name COACH. Most represented the name coach very well. When I think of “coach”, however, I think of the man who was my youth minister in high school. He used sports - coaching us and playing along side us in city league softball and basketball - so he could share himself and ultimately his deep faith in Christ with us. He always competed hard and wanted us to do the same. He played his best and wanted to win whatever the contest. As I write this now I can still see Frank - a man of nearly 80 or so still teaching and relating to teens in Iowa - being concerned about me, loving me, not just because I could play ball, but because he knew loving me to Jesus was the highest calling. He is the man I call “COACH”.
The Apostle Paul writes in his letter to Timothy and begins it – “to Timothy, my own son in the faith”. Frank could correctly call me “his son in the faith” because it was through him I learned what it meant to be a Christian man. And how do I measure my own success or significance as a coach? I would like to believe it is by the number of young men or women, here or around the world, who would think of themselves as “my sons or daughters in the faith.” A difficulty with teaching and coaching is that the “raw material” we work with and try to influence isn’t a “finished product” when they leave high school and, more often than not, we just don’t ever hear if or how much we did influence them. Let me encourage you at this point. It may take a while - I’ve got 48 years of coaching and there aren’t that many times that I’ve either bumped into or heard from ex-players. I’ll share a line from an E-mail I received not long ago. This is not to brag (my old coach Frank would often say, “I’m just bragging on Jesus”) but to encourage. It said: “My daughter wanted to know where an expression I’ve used came from. As I began to explain where that expression was first heard by me, I then proceeded to tell her all about Coach Hitchman, who above all else taught honor, respect and love of God”. This came from a player I coached on the JVs at Lynbrook in 1969.
Wear the title of coach - Christian Coach - with the JOY that comes from knowing God has called you to this high adventure. And, when you get discouraged, realize that some young man or young lady will surprise you someday with a call, or E-mail, or stop you in the mall and say “Hi, COACH,??.” And it will make the long hours and frustrations all worthwhile.
I think I need to call Frank!
Coach Hitch
