High School Basketball

Sean On Defense #32 (Blue)

Sean plays for a team by the name of ACA
(American Christian Academy).

This is a team composed of home school kids that play in a league of public and private high schools.

He skipped 8th grade this year so he could play High School sports.

He is on a varsity basketball team and scored 16 points tonight.

(Before you get too excited about an 8th grader playing on a varsity team, I must say that it is a small league)

However, he is good, sports has always been one of his God given talents.

Point GuardInside fade-away for 2

Free Throw (click for the movie clip)

I don't know if you played High School Sports or not, but I did, and that was a period in my life where comparing myself to others was very important. I played different sports, but Football was "My Sport"

Adolescence is a time where most of us feel, at least at times, insecure, inadequate, and worthless.

Many boys can discover themselves through sports. It (sports) can be in a way, a measuring stick. It can show them just how strong are they really, how fast, how athletic, etc.

When they identify that they are just a little inferior in relation to their peers, they can train, they can persevere, they can, with enough determination, become superior in an area that they were inferior.

One can through sports, maybe for the first time in their lives, discover how they can play a role in motivating others toward a common goal. A person can be instrumental in helping a peer excel beyond what they thought they could accomplish. A person can become a friend, a mentor, a student, a coach, etc... all though sports.

For many, sports can be a classroom unlike any other classroom. In many ways a sports field, or a court, can mimic life. We are confronted with our limitations, our strenght, and often hit with the unexpected. We are challenged to use all that God has given to us at the time to compete, challenge ourselves, to stretch beyond our self imposed limitations and become all that we are capable of.

And when we succeed, we rejoice, hopefully thanking God for all that he had given us, all the while taking in the lessons learned.

And when we lose, again we thank God for the challenge, the opportunity to grow, and cherish the grace that is within the acts of humility.

Yes, I was, and maybe still think of myself as a Jock, an old Jock, but do think that the simple lessons in life did begin for me in sports and still reveal certain truths to me .....