I love it when God “sneaks up” on me and confirms that He is right here in my life and never lets go of me!!!
I had decided on a slogan for our 2013 season about 2 months ago. One of my assistant coaches and I were talking and he told me about a slogan that he saw on a t shirt that a friend of his at West Virginia football had worn. I thought it “fit” our team and our season extremely well.
That is the KEY to selecting a slogan— IF you are going to select one. It needs to be appropriate for your team, your program and… where your program is at the moment. This is going to require some thought. If you’re going to have a season/team slogan, it’s going to be publicized. It needs to encompass what your philosophy, goals and general perception of your upcoming season is all about.
For example, if you’re in a struggling program or you are rebuilding. To come out and say: “State Champs or Bust!” is not exactly appropriate! But to say something like: “Keep Climbing the Mountain” or “The Road to Success is Paved with Hard Work”— those are examples of something you can continue to hold up in front of your guys as you persevere through the season.
Our situation is different. We had a very successful season last year. We made it all the way to the state championship game. We lost that game but… we only had 4 seniors on the team. In the vernacular of the game: this season, we are loaded!!! With nearly all of our starters back, hopes are high! In fact, the talk sounds rather cocky. “It’s in the bag. We got it this year. Nothing can stop us this season. This is our year.” I love to have kids with positive attitudes but… you have to be careful that the optimism doesn’t overflow into full-blown pride. Thus, our slogan for this season.
What that nice “God confirmation” that I spoke of at the beginning of this was a discussion I had with our pastor over coffee (welllllllll… hot chocolate for me!) the other morning. He was talking about our church and its growth we’d had the last year and commented that he’d read something recently from a pastor near D.C. His sayingfor his church in D.C. is: “Stay humble… Stay hungry!” WOW! THIS is our slogan for this season!!! It’s what I call a “God-incidence”— not a “co-incidence.”
We will challenge our guys to stay humble. We haven’t earned anything yet. We’ll have to work for it. Plus, now we have a “target on our chest!” But while staying humble, we have to stay hungry. Our preparation begins in 2 weeks when we start our pre-season lifting and conditioning program. I don’t want to extinguish their enthusiasm. At the same time, we’re going to make a pact not to discuss anything but getting ready for our opening game.
