The Making of Champions

This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks/POWERADE.  However, I only promote brands I use and support.

In his sermons lately, my husband’s been using a lot of illustrations from his basketball coaching days.  This got me thinking about the 10 years we spend in Central Pennsylvania and those Jr and Sr High boys he coached.  

We were just a small Christian school with less than 175 students, K – 12th grade.  There were many years we barely had enough players for a team and until my husband and his brother started coaching they didn’t win many games. However, that turned around quickly when they started!  

Practice no longer looked like a pick-up game at the local park.  There were drills and running and learning plays, and when they thought they were done there were more drills and plays and running.  So many times guys would say to him, “Coach, I just can’t run anymore”.  He would tell them they could do one more and they always did.  He believed in them and wanted to encourage them to push themselves just a little farther.  

As is always the case, hard work and practice paid off!  Our little teams became amazing!  They went to the state playoffs 7 times in 7 years.  In those 7 years they came in 3rd once, 2nd twice

And won the championship FOUR times!   But more than basketball these athletes learned some valuable life lessons.  

• Never give up  
• You can do more than you think  
• Hard work pays off
• The team is bigger than one person
• And one my husband liked to remind them often when playing a team they knew they would beat… Assured Victory DOES NOT guarantee and easy win

These young men are all grown up now, most with families of their own.  We keep in touch with them mostly through Facebook and it’s wonderful to see how they’ve taken those life lessons and accomplished great things.  These former Jr and Sr basketball players have grown up to be military officers, war veterans, authors, business owners, educators, basketball coaches and many other things.

These two young men are brothers that played several years for my husband.  One went on to play division one basketball then spend a few years in the European professional leagues.  The other is a recent kidney donor.  This is amazing to me.  Last year this young man (now in his mid 20’s) felt led to donate a kidney, not to someone he knew but to a donor bank.  I don’t know exactly how it all works but I know multiple people in need have been helped by his sacrifice.  

It’s a blessing to see the character and integrity of many of these men.  My husband is thankful to have had even a small part in their lives.  From time to time he receives a message or phone call from a former player or parent thanking him for the investment he made in their lives.  It’s rewarding to know you’ve had a positive influence in someone’s life.    

Having such a small school meant very limited resources.  Thankfully, we had help from POWERADE.  My husband reached out to them and they were more than generous!  They provided our school with a (much-needed) brand new scoreboard, more than enough sports bottles for all our teams, towels for the games, 5-gallon coolers, and kept them hydrated with a large supply of POWERADE!    

Like all of us, these young athletes started out as Just a Kid from somewhere, with dreams.  POWERADE sees the potential in young athletes and believes with the right motivation everyday athletes can achieve great things on and off the court.    

Right now Walmart is offering a FREE POWERADE CUSTOM BOTTLE!  Head over and check out the details.  Offer ends April 4th, 2016 or while supplies last.    

You can also get custom #JustAKid Custom Apparel that features where you’re from AND all net proceeds from the apparel goes to the Boys & Girls Club of America.