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Announcing My Retirement

Posted on Friday, April 17, 2015

Hello from Izmir!  And a belated Happy Easter (week and half late doesn't seem so bad when you remember I said Merry Christmas over a month late does it?)!  I hope that you all had a special Easter and were not only were overwhelmed with thankfulness in remembering how much Jesus suffered for our salvation, but with joy in celebrating that he is alive and with us!     

I spent my Easter Sunday coaching in a University football game about an hour away from the ancient city of Nicaea (currently Iznik) which is where nearly 2000 years ago the Council of Nicaea not only came to a church wide consensus over Jesus' divinity and relationship to the Father, but also settled on a date to celebrate Easter, a date we still use to this day!  So while I wasn't able to attend an Easter service and celebrate Easter as normal, driving through that city and seeing the old walls and church where the council met made for a pretty cool Easter in its own right.   

That game was also my last football game in Turkey.  Football is done.  When I wrote at the end of January, our pro team still hadn't played a game, and we were waiting for either the competing potential pro team sponsors to come to a settlement over who got us, or the Turkish American Football Federation to allow us to play without a sponsor.  Unfortunately, neither of those things happened and our pro team forfeited the season.  One of my goals going into the season was to win enough games this year in the first league that our team would stay there, but, because of the lost season, next year they will be starting over back in the second league.  That was out of my control, however, and really my biggest disappoint was that I personally lost out on a year of playing.  Now, unless I pull a Brett Favre, my playing days are done.  I'm officially retired ;)

Not playing wasn't all bad, however, as it gave me the chance to focus entirely on coaching, as our university team still had a season.  When I was playing, I did not like being the secondary coach, partly because I wanted someone to watch me and call me out on things, but also because it was hard to really focus on the other guys' games while I was worried about my own.  Not playing gave me the chance to put all my energy and focus into coaching up the guys who were able to play, and once this shift happened, I enjoyed coaching tremendously.  Our university team stunk, as not only were almost all of our players completely new to the sport, but we were just really lacking in overall athletic ability...  It was still a joy to coach up the DBs on our team though, and there is something exhilarating about watching guys learn and start to do the things that I taught them.  So while our pro team forfeited the season and our university team didn't win a game, I was able to help guys improve, as well as be a catalyst in beginning to establish a new culture of accountability, hard work, and attention to detail, and I'm proud of that.  It really has been a joy being a part of this team, and I'm thankful that God called me here to take part in this unique ministry.

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