I have a problem. I can't stand the word "swag". Let me rephrase... I can't stand what the word "swag" represents. I want to be perfectly fair to the word swag, so I will assume that the phrase swag comes from the slang swagger. I relate the word swag to some high school kid who can't afford to buy a belt and spends the entire day holding his pants up and then pulling them back down. Ironically they call this fashion "sagging" and that is a whole other topic that I will wait to go into at another time. Any ways back to my issue with the meaning of "swag". Here is my issue. I have been coaching athletic teams at the high school level for over 25 years and it seems that one of the greatest hindrances to the productivity of these young people is what I have dubbed the "cool guy syndrome" . I can't believe how many good athletes will totally waste their God given talent on trying to be cool instead of honestly working at getting better. It seems that I have noticed this epidemic climb significantly within the last 5 to 10 years. I am sure that it has been around for quite some time but I can honestly say that the "cool guy syndrome" seems to more prevalent recently. I can only look at my favorite channel on TV as one of the culprits. ESPN... wow can't believe I am turning on the station that gives me so many hours of happiness. However, it seems to me that we spend so much time celebrating the flashy, egomaniacs that monopolize the current sports scene. Sportscenter's main program seems to put these athletes on a pedestal and relegate the hard working athletes to special stories. Now being a Piston fan back in the day (today I am not even sure if the Pistons are still in Detroit let alone if they are still a franchise in the NBA) I can honestly say that I could not stand Michael Jordan. The guys seemed to get every call and the media loved him. We (the Pistons) were said to be the "Bad Boys" and obviously that made MJ and the rest of his Chicago counter parts the... Good Guys? Anyway back to my point about Jordan. I could not stand him but let there be no doubt that he worked very hard on his game. He was a cool guy only because he worked hard at his craft. That is what is missing today. We don't have enough young men and women that want to work hard (when I say work hard I am not just talking about time either... I mean quality not quantity) at becoming the best they can be. We live in a society where we believe that things are suppose to just be granted to us because we put time into them. And if they don't then someone will coddle us or go complain about our misfortunes. Just for once I would like to go through a week of watching athletics without seeing someone pound their chest for scoring a basket or making a tackle or hitting a home run Go ahead and rejoice with your team but PLEASE stop celebrating by yourself, because you see when you do it by yourself it really isn't celebrating it is a desperate attempt at making oneself worthy.
Okay, it is now the time when my beautiful wife would say, "its time to get down off of the soap box". So I will wrap this up by saying, athletics are wonderful. They have taught me more lessons than I can recall. I have also enjoyed watching young people become better not only in their particular sport but in life while putting in good old fashion hard work.
Lord, keep me humble. Let me understand what it feels like to work hard. Help me to enjoy the process not just the outcome. Give me your grace so that I can be a better mentor and coach to the teams you have blessed me with. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of so many wonderful teams and blessed me with so many wonderful relationships through athletics. I give you all the glory.
Love in Christ,
Scott
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