If you have been on a team, chances are you’ve heard the phrases “Be a leader,” and “This team needs leadership!” Statements like those constantly remind us as players to work hard, demonstrate integrity, and display a model of intensity for other players.

I don’t know if any of you saw the Jets/Dolphins game yesterday or if you caught the highlights on SportsCenter, but if you did, you probably saw the clip of Jets strength and conditioning coach Sal Alosi tripping Dolphins CB Nolan Carroll as he was running down the sideline. Alosi was quick to apologize and make amends with the offended parties, so I’m not by any means pointing fingers at him. It was probably just a very bad decision made in the heat of the moment during competition.

This was my first year ever as a football coach. I was unsure of what to expect, but I went into the season with one goal: being satisfied not with producing a winning record, but with producing winning athletes.

Billy Graham once stated that one coach would influence more people in one year than the average person would in a lifetime. This was an idea I took to heart. At the beginning of the season, I had no idea who my players were or what their backgrounds were like, but I did know one thing: while they were on my team they were going to learn not only about football, but about life and God.

I was the youngest varsity basketball coach in Indiana. I studied older coaches to gain knowledge, but one area to which I never paid enough attention was when to talk and when to keep quiet. I learned the hard way: by my second year of coaching, I’d received more than ten technical fouls, not for bad language, but for opening my mouth at the wrong time. These failures made me wonder if I’d ever master control over my tongue.

Solomon knew that there is a time for speaking and a time to guard our mouths, and many of us would do well to learn his lesson. All too often our lips keep moving when we should be listening. We fall too easily into traps made by our own speech; we forget that if our mouth doesn’t open, we will not be creating a trap to fall into.

There are so many qualities needed in order to have the heart of a champion: discipline, perseverance, dedication, endurance, focus, and the ability to overcome any obstacle. We all admire heroes who have made it to the top and have accomplished their goals and become champions. They have displayed the heart to withstand and endure to become great. But the more I understand greatness and what it takes to become successful, the more I see that there is one thing everyone must have to become a true champion—and that is a coach.

I was recently at the state volleyball tournament in Yakima, Wash., for the 1A state title game. I traveled on a "rooter bus" with some of the students from the school. They had been such a supportive crowd all year, getting dressed up in crazy outfits and always being loud and supportive to our girls' team, which finished 4th in state. The volleyball team thinks that the fans had a lot to do about their success. That day, as I was watching our student body, who were dressed in crazy costumes and face paint, cheering as one, I got an image in my mind. What if. . . What if that was how we were to worship God and spread the Good News about what He has done?