Championship Spirit

While I have spent much time talking about football, I'd like to devote this post to the other great fall sport in our nation: cross country.  Right now, we are fully engulfed in the championship part of this fall distance running culture.  Many teams are vying for their local, state, and national titles.  But for the average sports fan, cross country may not be the most popular sport, but anyone who has spent a fair amount of time around this heart, mind, body, and spirit-draining sport could confirm just how powerful and inspiring it is for all involved  Cross country is arguably the most team-oriented sport that exists.  In most other sports, one could make arguments toward how one athlete could single-handily influence the outcome of a competition.  In cross country, this is not the case.  In order for a team to achieve success, five runners must hold their own within a given race to ensure the best possible score for their team.  While a team may have one or two stellar individuals, the team score is not complete without the efforts of the three other runners.  Team success requires an understanding, chemistry, dependence, energy, and spirit among its members that transcends physical preparation.  Runners discover these things each day in practice along the "Trial of Miles" and the "Miles of Trials" as John L. Parker, Jr. says in his novel Once a Runner.  Cross country teams are only as good as the collective identity of its individuals.

In an earlier August post entitled "The Spirit's Comfort Zone," I referred to the athletes whom I coach at Clarke Central High School in Athens, GA.  In that post, I recognized the early success and chemistry of my athletes as we began our season.  I commented that "The spirit of their positive efforts [was] contagious."  This indeed proved true throughout the season.  In the past couple of weeks, I've watched the boys and girls in our cross country program accomplish things that have not happened at Clarke Central in nearly a decade.  Both the boys and the girls qualified for the State Championships.  While the girls qualified last year (with almost an entirely different team), the boys had not qualified since 2007 and both teams together had not reached the State Championship since 2005.  These teams, while very different (the boys were led by 5 seniors; the girls were led by 5 freshmen), both exhibited a type of drive, grit, and compassion that I'd suggest could only come from God.  This season was not the seamless wonder it looked like it might be from the start.  We reached a part of the season where things seemed to be falling apart when we needed them to unite the most.  Our goals appeared to be in jeopardy as we faced untimely injuries, poor decision-making, and other unfortunate circumstances.  However, the resilient spirit of our athletes somehow transcended these imperfections.  I realized that this is exactly where I could expect the Spirit to show up, and it did.  The Spirit seems to always meet us at our worst in order to bring us to our best! 

In looking back over our successful season, I truly believe that the Championship Spirit, through the wonderful sport of cross country, has empowered another group of young people to become better versions of themselves.  I hope we can all find that which challenges us in the same way to find our Championship Spirit.

Thank you to all of my friends, family, coaches, teammates, and athletes who have inspired me and continued to inspire me to believe so much in the power of cross country!

May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.