It took all of four days for the spiritual inquest of Allison Whitworth to begin.

On March 5, Whitworth, a goalkeeper in the first-year Women’s Professional Soccer League, was riding in the car with some of her FC Gold Pride teammates. The players were just getting acquainted, having started preseason camp on March 1, but it was already evident that Whitworth was different. She was handling the pressure of rapid-fire roster cuts with remarkable poise. Her demeanor was kind. Her language was clean.

I think you know what this is about!

Far away from the adoring fans and the harassing media, the smooth-talking agents and the lure of the NBA, Alabama point guard Ronald Steele withdraws to quiet places to pray.

A preseason All-American, the 6-foot-3, 185-pound Steele has high expectations for his junior year with the Tide. He dreams of an SEC title for his team and All-America honors for himself. He dreams of next season, too.

In sports today, everything a pro athlete does is under a microscope. Every single day newspaper headlines scream about another athlete who has crashed and burned. Sometimes it's part of their personal life, while other times it's directly related to his or her sport. Either way, we have access to information about virtually everything these athletes do. Their lives are in full view.

If we're honest, I don't think any one of us would want that kind of scrutiny and spotlight on our lives. We all sin. And since our mistakes don't usually make the headlines, it's easy for us to think that we're getting away with them and just sweeping them under the rug. But, like I tell my kids, the truth always comes out.

Nic Cardwell’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

It was 2002, and Cardwell, then a senior at Robert B. Glenn (N.C.) High School, and his father were on a football recruiting trip to nearby Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. After a short wait in the lobby of the on-campus inn, a team representative — an “old guy,” as Nic remembers — greeted the Cardwells and sat down to chat with them.

Thirty minutes passed, and Cardwell’s mind drifted. Finally, the older gentleman got up and said, “OK, let’s go eat.” Cardwell quickly snapped to attention. Perplexed, he blurted, “Wait a second! I haven’t met the head coach yet.”

Wisdom for a Young Head Coach
Week 5

I Timothy 2:8-15

Read the text aloud.

Discussion Questions:

The locusts come every 17 years.

For Tommy Bowden, this bizarre phenomenon of nature remains a vivid memory from his days in West Virginia. Bobby Bowden, Tommy’s coaching-legend father, had moved the family from Alabama to Morgantown when he became the Mountaineers’ head football coach in 1970. Tommy, who played as a walk-on wide receiver for the Mountaineers from 1973 to ’76, still recalls the peculiar insects, with their freaky red eyes, thick black bodies and incessant drone. Every 17 years, they would crawl out of the ground by the millions to mate, spawn and die, all within several weeks.