Kyle Broussard

Christian Coaching

Reference:

Bennett, G., Sagas, M., Fleming, D., & Von Roenn, S. (2005). On being a living contradiction:

The struggle of an elite intercollegiate Christian coach. Journal of Beliefs & Values, 26

(3), 289-300.

General Statement: In 50 to 100 words, summarize the article. Write it as if you were

explaining to a total stranger what the article is about. (5 points)

This article deals with how the dominant sports culture has an effect on spiritual life for

Christian coaches. They used Harry Jones the Head Baseball Coach at Walker State University.

He is a long time coach and is extremely open about his faith. Using Interviews, observations,

and analyzing documents they discovered how he is able to deal with the contradiction between

sports winning mentality and his faith in God. How he behaved on and off the field, how he

disconnected from his job, and what problems he faced. (88)

Major Points: In a MINIMUM of 250 words to a MAXIMUM of 350 words, list and explain

what you feel were the major points of the article. In general, there are usually somewhere

between three and five “major points”. (20 points)

The first important point would be the importance of winning for a Christian coach. In

sports in order to keep a job at most programs it is about how many wins od you have compared

to how many loses. For Christians in life it is not always about winning, but bringing glory to the

name of God, but in the sports world winning means everything. For a Christian coach it can be
difficult to focus all on wining, because as a Christian it is about building people up not defeating

them. The take it or leave mentality coach Walker had was a key point. He basically would be

fine not being a coach even though he loves it, and believes he can make a difference using his

faith. This is important, because he is a Christian first, so his number one job is bringing glory to

God. As a coach especially a Christian one it is important to remember why you do what you do.

If a coach feels like he is losing his faith because of sports, it would be important for him to be

able to step away and regain his faith. Even if a coach’s number one love is sports it is important

that he does not lose his faith, and if God calls for them to step out of caching and pursue

something else. They should have no problem leaving coaching behind. Taking that into the third

major point is relying on the guidance and blessing of God. If you are a true Christian, you know

that God has a plan for you and he is the only one that knows what that plan is. So as a coach you

have to trust God and believe that he is going to put you in the best situation to be successful, or

to make impacts in people’s lives. That is true in almost every day life, but as a coach you have

the ability to make an impact in a kid’s life every single day. (338)

Value to me: In a MINIMUM of 250 words to a MAXIMUM of 350 words, explain how the

information in the article is personally valuable to you or how you anticipate applying the

information in your occupational setting. (25 points)

The information in this article was extremely valuable to me. I am looking to get into the

world of college coaching and I consider myself to be a Christian. In both of those areas I am

extremely inexperienced, so to be able to read an article about a very successful coach who has

strong ties to the same faith as me is interesting. It allowed me to see how he is able to handle the
dominant sports culture and his faith, and what actions he used to help do so. The part where he

discussed cussing really caught my attention because I come from a public state school where

everyone used bad words on the team myself included. I find myself only cussing a lot around

my teammates or on the field, but never around my family or girlfriend. I often expressed

concern to myself about the amount of cuss words I use at the field. Now I am about to be a part

of a Christian school and help with the baseball team, and it would be great for me to start

working on my ability not to use bad words. Also being able to disconnect from sports in general

as Coach Walker did could serve to be useful. I catch myself already stressing about all the work

I need to get done for baseball and school, while trying to find time to see my girlfriend who is 5

hours away. And at times it ruins the moments I have with family and friends. Like how yourself

talked about in class how you do not have email on your phone, because when you leave work

you want to leave it behind and have time for yourself. So being able to find a way to disconnect

from sports in general could be useful for me, and allow me to enjoy what I have going on

outside of baseball more. Being able to be consistent on and off the field is a thing I would love

to become good at too. (340)