Was Your Season a Success?

by Donnie Bostwick

March 11, 2019

1261

After falling short of our ultimate goal this season, I was drowning in this question, “Was our season a success?” According to many, anything short of a National Championship, would be a failed season. 

While telling a fellow coaching friend, whom I trust, about how I had failed to lead my team to victory, I pointed out poor coaching decisions that I made during our last game. He spoke to me like a brother. “You are awful arrogant to think it’s all your fault.” Obviously, that caught me off guard. “It is arrogance to believe you can win every game based on your ability to make perfect decisions. You did not miss shots, fail to execute, or fail to defend.”  He had just suffered a similar loss after a great season as well and said that he wanted to take all the blame, but the fact is all wins and losses are the result of a many choices of many individuals. Many results are out of your control such as missing a good shot, a tough judgement call by an official, or someone getting injured. He reminded me the end result is based on the choices of many.

As I was traveling home from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, I heard the following quote from DL Moody that shook me.  “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn’t really matter.”

I have been blessed to win a National Championship as a player, assistant coach, and as a head coach. They were great experiences and powerful opportunities to share the joy with others who had also worked hard and sacrificed much to help our team reach the top of the mountain. The climax of reaching the top simply did not last as long as anyone would hope. Thankfully the memories of the journey and the relationships we built have lasted much longer. The gold rings are beautiful but spend most of their time collecting dust.

My team chaplain for three years of my career, David Leatherberry and his wife Julie drove over eight hours to Sioux Falls to support and cheer for our team. After losing, I stuck around with them to watch my former assistant coach Garrett Jones and his team play the following day. We left the next day on our journey home.  David and Julie are two very special people. They have served God in the mission field overseas for over 30 years. They are modern day heroes of the faith. They had contacted one of our former players who was a member of our 2013 NAIA Division I National Championship Runner-Up team. This young man was an international player from Lithuania by the name of Justas. David and Julie always opened their home to students during breaks and thus had become very close to Justas. I realized from my very first conversation with Justas, that he was a young man with high character and a big heart.

After his freshman season, I made a very difficult decision. Justas had accepted Christ as his Savior and grown tremendously spiritually, but he did not fit our up-tempo style of play. Because of his 6-7 frame with great shooting and fundamental skills, I had was able to help him find another opportunity. Because he was such an incredible young man, letting him go was one of the toughest decisions I have made as a coach. Down deep though, I knew Justas’ best chance of success was in a different system. This proved to be true.  Justas was successful and so was his new team. The Leatherberrys stayed in contact with Justas and kept me updated. We were very excited to hear that he continued to grow in his faith in Christ. David and Julie had set up a visit on the way home after the games to spend an evening and dinner with Justas. I was not originally going to be part of the visit as I had planned to ride home with the team.

I looked forward to seeing Justas again, but was not sure how he was going to feel about seeing me. I hoped he had no hard feelings, since I had made the decision to let him go. Instead the visit seemed to be what I call a “God Thing”. Justas, along with his beautiful sweet girlfriend Sidney, took us all out to dinner. He was so thankful for me giving him the opportunity to come to the United States.

I have to share this quick story. Justas was at the American Embassy in Lithuania and had to have his visa stamped in order to make it to school by the final arrival date. It was 4:50 pm and he only had 10 minutes left to get his visa, however in the United States it was the middle of the night. Honestly the Holy Spirit woke me up from a deep sleep in the middle of the night and I felt the need to check my email. Justas had just emailed explaining his predicament. As a result, I was able to make the call to the embassy allowing him to get his visa and come to school on time. It proved to be just the beginning of Justas’ amazing journey. He now has his Master’s degree and is highly successful working in a local bank. He is active in his local community giving back in every possible way imaginable. The visit was such a great experience and reminder that God’s work is so much bigger than just my own personal walk. Before we left his home, we spent a time in prayer for each other.  Justas still has a Lithuanian accent which trickles into his English, so his prayer started like this: “God help me to have the words and to communicate to coach what you want me to say. Help him see himself, like you see him. Help him to understand your perspective. May he know what he does really matters, and that it changes lives like my own. Help him see that what he does is bigger than just winning championships.”

As the Leatherberrys and I got in the car leaving Justas’ home, we looked at each other in awe of his powerful prayer. He is a brilliant young man with a near perfect memory, but his ability to articulate and choice of words in his prayer was amazing. We all wrote down that night the words of his prayer to accurately remember it.

After our visit with Justas, DL Moody’s quote now took on an even more powerful meaning. As bad as I wanted a championship for my players and for a platform to bring glory to God, Justas’ prayer for me showed me what really mattered.