Pastoral thoughts illustrated with Stillman Valley Football pictures

For most, Thursday is Thanksgiving. 

Here in the Valley, it’s Thanksgiving and State Finals Eve.  On Friday we play our worthy opponent, Illini West, led by speed merchant Ser “the blur” Whitaker (see the Quincy Whig and the Burlington Hawkeye). 

In anticipation of State Finals Eve, I am posting 6 illustrated football thoughts.  You don’t have to read the “preaching.”  But, at least glance at the stuff in bold and enjoy the pictures.

1.  The more joy is shared, the bigger it gets.  If you play only for yourself, then your joy will be a very small thing.  But, if you play for your entire community, then you will know massive joy.

What I like about this picture of Dane Green scoring our first touchdown against Immaculate Conception is that you can see our crowd beginning to celebrate in the background.

And, a lot more people are involved in SV football than just the players.

 

 

2.  Life is a smash mouth game.  Everybody gets knocked down.  The question is, “Are you going to get back up?” 

Part of the heart of the reason we are proud of our SV team is not because we score every time we run a full back dive. Our style is more three yards and a cloud of dust. 

But, even if some linebacker punches us (figuratively speaking) in the mouth we get back up and run it again.

It’s the same deal in life. Righteous men are different not because they never fall. But, because they get back up. For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.(Pr 24:16).

Of course, sometimes we need help getting back up. That’s why we have coaches and trainers, pastors and a community – – to help if we need it.

Adam Cox played through pain to score this fourth quarter touchdown against Tolono Unity.

3.  The people in the trenches don’t get enough credit.

Our style of football requires winning the war in the trenches.  Our linemen have done an incredible job.  Kody Harriott, Russell Stone, Clay Kruger, Logan Lersch, Gregg Ballard have dominated.

Such is life.  For every out front person, there are four working in the trenches.  And, that’s where the game is won, as seen in this big SV line push against I.C.

 

Notice that our linemen made an “Aurora Christian sandwich” here so Adam Cox could get loose.

4.  Work hard.  “Fly around” and good things will happen.  In the below pictures, I don’t think A.J. Dobson or Jordan Tanaglia actually tipped any of the balls.  That’s okay.  Keep flying around and eventually good things will happen. 

Dobson and Harriott hit.  Wold recovers. 

Jordan Tanaglia scooped up this ball for the score after a blocked punt.

5.  Be ready.  You never know when you will get in the game.  Abraham Lincoln famously said, “I will prepare and someday my chance will come.”  Proverbs 15:19 says that for lazy people, the path is blocked.  But, work hard and some day your chance may come.

We’ve seen that time and time again in SV.  Earlier this year, Jeff Cialkowski did a great job starting at quarterback against Oregon.

6.  Nate Bond is not the only one who is quick; Life goes by pretty fast too.  As the book of James says (James 4:13-17), life is a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  This football season is over in the blink of an eye – – and so goes life – -like Nate.

We’ll see what happens on Friday.  With Stillman having won four state championships previously, this year is  “the drive for five.”  We have rings for our fingers, now we need one for the thumb.

 If you missed what excites me most about SV soccer, see here.