Play Like A Champion Today

As I mentioned a few days ago, John's football season has come to an end. What a great time he had! He was the starting left tackle this year and he loved every single minute of it.

Here are a couple of pictures from the season...

We opened the season with a win against Rancho Bernardo High School.

Road wins are nice too! Love that smile.


The week that his team (JV) had a bye, John was pulled up to Varsity. He alternated drives with their left tackle and was a part of the first Varsity win in school history. What a night!


The football players in my life.

Last night we attended the JV banquet. We had a great dinner, watched some highlight films and listened to the coaches as each of them shared about their players. All of the coaches this year were wonderful, but John particularly enjoyed working with his offensive line coach, former NFL Super Bowl winner Brian Habib. He played for the Broncos and blocked for John Elway. He was a great addition to the coaching staff this year. A few weeks ago, after spending most of the practice yelling at linemen who weren't making their blocks correctly, Coach Habib looked at John and said, "You know why I like you? You know what you're supposed to do and you do it. And on the rare occasion that you make a mistake, you learn from it and you don't do it again!" He then continued yelling at the other guys. Here are some other things that coaches said about John last night...

"He's always the first person to arrive at practice and the last to leave. "

"Coaches look forward to coming to practice because of kids like John."

"He just doesn't make mistakes."

"At the end of each practice, John looks every coach in the eye
and shakes his hand."

"He takes correction better than anyone I've seen."

"No one works harder than he does."

"I hope to know John all of my life; he's an amazing young man."

I could go on and on. The kind words that these gruff men had to say about John were amazing. One of the highlights of the night was that Coach Habib brought his Super Bowl ring and let each of his linemen take turns holding it. That was such a simple thing for him to do, but such a cool thing for these young men.


As if the season and the great evening weren't enough, there was one final surprise in store. John had mentioned that some awards were going to be given out; the players and coaches had voted last week (written ballot). We figured that if anything, John would be up for Offensive Lineman of the Year. When that award came and went (to a very deserving Junior), we guessed that it wasn't in the cards for John to receive something this year. We were wrong! After telling a funny story about John and saying many, many more kind words, John was called up to receive the Rudy Award; Most Inspirational Player/Hardest Worker. I could not have been more proud. John is an outstanding kid with an incredible work ethic, it's so good to see that others recognize that and honor him for it!

I don't recall the name of the coach that's shaking John's hand; he's a defensive coach so we're not very involved with him.
Closest to John is his head coach and the giant on the right is Coach Habib.


It's a little blurry, but I had to post it. Keep in mind that John is taller than me. Coach Habib is a beast. What an incredible man he is though; he was such a good mentor to John.


Well done, John. I love you.