High School Football and Christian Living

Note:  This is a slightly revised version of an article I wrote for my Sunday School newsletter in the fall of 2005.  I am a member of a different church now (St. Innocent Orthodox Church), but the principals remain the same.

As I write this [in the fall of 2005], the “buzz”[1] in high school football is that the Dublin High School “Fighting Irish” is 7-0 and hasn’t been scored upon.  If they finish the regular season undefeated and without allowing any points, though, they won’t be setting a Georgia High School Association record.  That feat was first accomplished in 1984 by the Manchester High School “Blue Devils.”

I graduated from Mary Persons High School (MPHS), and Manchester is our archrival.  In 1984, MPHS had a bad year, finishing the regular season with a 7-3 record.  Meanwhile, Manchester finished the season 10‑0, unscored upon, and ranked #1 in the polls.  And they finished the regular season by beating Mary Persons 9-0.

We had to play them again the next Friday night in the first round of the region playoffs.  That week, MP’s normally faithful fans seemed resigned to defeat – nobody around town talked about beating Manchester – they would be happy if MP could just score on Manchester.

The first quarter ended in a hard-fought but scoreless tie.

Early in the second quarter, however, MP had a long gain – I can’t remember if it was a run or a pass – and had first and goal on about the Manchester 5-yard line.

On first down, MP tried a run up the middle.  Manchester’s outstanding defense rose to the occasion and stopped the play for no gain.  On second down, the MP quarterback faked a handoff up the middle, and again, the Manchester defense swarmed the running back.  But the MP quarterback still had the ball, standing all alone in his backfield, with all the time in the world to find a receiver.  And an MP receiver was all alone in the right corner of the end zone.  You could almost hear the violins playing in the sports movie that should be made about that game.  An easy throw and catch, and Manchester’s amazing unscored-upon streak was over.

You would have thought we had just won the state championship – the MP fans were jubilant!  Several were slightly injured, in fact, when one of the temporary stands broke due to the excessive celebration.  And the goal changed.  All of a sudden, scoring upon Manchester wasn’t enough – now, we had to beat them.  Manchester tied the game at 7-7 before halftime, but on their initial drive of the second half, the Blue Devil offense fumbled the ball away.  The mighty Manchester defense rose to the occasion, stopping the Mary Persons drive, but we were already in field goal range, and the kick gave us a 10-7 lead.  That was the final score, in one of the most dramatic upsets in local football history.

What does a high school football game decades ago have to do with Christian living?  In our lives, we face trials and tribulations despite trying to do our best in living for Christ.  Meanwhile, we see those around us who clearly aren’t Christians, or claim to be Christians, but certainly aren’t trying to live for Christ, and it seems that everything goes their way.  It certainly doesn’t seem fair.  In Romans 5:3-5, we read, “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also:  knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:  And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”

As Paul wrote, we grow in patience, experience, and hope (or faith) as we endure testing and tribulations.  Untested faith is unproven faith, potentially weak faith that may fail us when adversity comes.  Manchester’s offense wasn’t tested during the 1984 regular season – since the defense never gave up any points, the offense never had to come from behind.  When the test finally came, in the first round of the region playoffs, their offence failed.  What had seemed to be a blessing ultimately led to their defeat.

Manchester was the favorite to win the 1984 state championship.  Instead, Mary Persons won the South Georgia title, losing to West Rome 14-7 in the championship game.  The MP fans enjoyed the glory, while the Manchester fans were left to contemplate what might have been.  As we read in James 1:12, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation:  for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”  If our trials, or “temptations,” lead to our growth in Christ, we will be blessed and “receive the crown of life.”  Our eternal reward in the age to come is certainly worth some temporary trials and tribulations in this present age.

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[1] A good Georgia Tech term.

Six Facts That Most People Would Not Know About Me

1. I was watching a film at the Chrysler exhibit at the 1964 New York World’s Fair when I decided to go to Georgia Tech, become a mechanical engineer, and design cars at Ford (we were a Ford family; Chrysler would never do!).
2. I worked at a grocery store in Forsyth, and later Atlanta, for six years, while I was at Mary Persons High School and at Georgia Tech.
3. I attended every Mary Persons football game, home and away, during the four years I was at Georgia Tech.
4. I graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech and started work at Ford, designing trucks, not cars, in June 1978.
5. I decided to get my hair cut at a chain hair styling place at the old Houston Mall in the fall of 1988; Sherry Moxley Meyers (not her name then!) happened to cut my hair. I followed her around from place to place until she started High Maintenance Salon / Spa. She cut my hair until she changed her schedule to spend more time with her son. I still get my hair cut at High Maintenance; Awesome Jamie Dawson is my stylist now.
6. I was engaged to a pretty Romanian nurse, who lived in Italy, for about a week and a half. I have a slightly used, well traveled (been to Italy and Romania!) engagement ring, if anyone is interested….

"The Whole World's High School" - My Speech for the Mary Persons Class of '74 Reunion, May 3, 2014

We are all familiar with the William Shakespeare line, “All the world’s a stage.” There is a lot of truth to that metaphor, but tonight, I want to discuss another line from another age. In an episode of “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” Molly Ringwald’s character, Anne Juergens, says, “The whole world’s high school.”

Cliques, romances, best friends, allies, opponents – we learned about all of these through “on the job training” during our days at Mary Persons. Our teachers were our first level supervisors; the principal and vice principal our upper level management; the office administration and councilors were management staff.

Fortunately, we had the privilege of being students at Mary Persons High School – an outstanding high school, with excellent faculty, staff, and – most importantly – students. Then and now, Mary Persons has a well-deserved reputation for both academic and athletic excellence. What other high school could have possibly been a better training ground for that larger high school – the whole world – than Mary Persons?

Of course, our teachers were the most visible representatives of Mary Persons on a daily basis. We were blessed with some great teachers who were thoroughly knowledgeable of the subjects they taught and had the patience to explain the material so that every student could understand. We did not all have the same teachers, and I am sure that not all of us share the same opinions about those teachers, but I would like to mention a few of my favorites, those who taught me, inspired me, prepared me well for the larger high school that is the whole world.

Mr. Singleton inspired my passion for chemistry and physics. Mrs. Zellner and Coach Cook motivated my interest in history and political science. And Mr. Winters encouraged my love of literature and poetry. I will never forget how he taught us to interpret poetry, and in particular, that the theme of all 19th century American poetry is death.

Of course, Coach Pitts and his powerhouse football teams inspired the whole school, the whole community. The Mary Persons Bulldogs were – and are – a great source of pride for all of us who are so fortunate to be alumni.

But it was not just the great teachers who prepared us for that larger high school that is the whole world. Unfortunately, in the real world, we must deal with bad supervisors, incompetent bosses, and self-serving politicians. The bad teachers – fortunately, there were only a few of those – taught us to pick our battles, to “go along to get along” when that was the best strategy for our success.

While we were at Mary Persons, prayer was allowed at official school events; here in the Bible Belt, prayer was an integral part of any public gathering. Our graduation ceremony included two prayers: an invocation and a benediction. As plans were being made for our graduation, Mrs. McCosh asked me to give the invocation. I asked for the benediction instead, as I wanted to have the last word for the Mary Persons Class of ’74.

The faculty wanted to ensure that the graduation ceremony went smoothly, with everyone knowing what to say, when to say it, and said nothing controversial; therefore, the entire ceremony was scripted. While the speakers were allowed to write their speeches, this was done under close supervision of the teacher in charge, who had final approval authority. Mrs. McCosh wrote a nice, but long, prayer for me to deliver. Of course, being high school students, those of us with speaking roles chafed at having so little freedom in what we could say. Therefore, there was a longstanding tradition at Mary Persons graduation ceremonies that someone would rebel, would stray from the script and substitute another speech for the one that had been officially approved. After all, what could they do to us at that point? One year, supposedly all four of the speakers replaced their speeches with speeches they had written themselves.

As our graduation ceremony neared its conclusion, the faculty must have been very proud; everything had gone as planned, everyone had stayed on script. There was only my benediction left, and I’m sure they thought I was the least likely of all of us to rebel. I stepped up to the microphone, took off my cap, and said, “Let us pray.” Then, rather than reading the prayer that Mrs. McCosh had written, I said a short, simple prayer, since I wanted out class to go into the real world, that larger high school, blessed by a real prayer, not a speech written by our councilor. 

I do not remember the entire benediction, but I recall I began by saying, “Father, this is the last time that we will be together.” Sadly, it was. I never saw some of our classmates again after that night. We never all gathered as a class after our graduation, and now, a number of our classmates are no longer with us. I would like to close with a moment of silence in memory of those that have gone before us.

Thank you.