The Championship-Winning Advice
by Oliver Carlos
Aside from being a football player, my son Jethro is also a well-decorated basketball player. He is the better cager than his Dad. Jethro has represented his school, Christian School International (CSI) in the prestigious District Meet. He has also won an intramurals championship with him as the best player of the game. In my very long basketball career, I haven’t experienced either of those feats.
Jethro’s brightest moment as a basketball player was when he led his Yellow Explorers team to the championship in the CSI intramurals in August 2012. In his school, the teams competing at the intramurals were not based on Grade level. The whole school is divided into four color teams with each team getting a fair share of talents from across all year levels. Basketball is for the big boys, while the small kids play parlor games. So Jethro’s basketball team had players from Grades 5 and 6, and they went up against teams with the same composition.
Entering the last minutes of the championship game, Jethro’s team was behind. He made aggressive plays that pushed them within a point from their opponents with less than 20 seconds left in the game. In the last play, with time winding down, Jethro got the ball in his hands, dribbled without hesitation, and got himself inside the paint. As expected, he was met by a triple team. He got fouled in the process, as time expired. The referee signaled that he will shoot 2 free throws with no time left. The whole school gymnasium was in frenzy!
Jethro’s team didn’t have a coach. A teacher was just assigned to their team to control the substitutions, to make sure everybody got playing time. The players just play their game and encouraged one another. I was there at the bench area as a cheerer, I didn’t stand up and acted as the coach. I didn’t want to meddle with the players’ and their teacher’s “diskarte.” But when it came to this crucial moment, I pulled Jethro to the sidelines and whispered to him my championship-winning advise before the referee gave him the pressuire-packed free throws.
I told him to remember the free throw drill we did to prepare him for this tournament. I asked him to reminisce the moments when we were alone in the gym doing countless repetitions of that drill.
What was that drill all about? Our drill involved him being given 2 free throws. We imagined a situation wherein the game clock reads zero time left, with his team down by 1 point. He needed 2 free throws to win the game, or 1 free throw to go into overtime. But if he misses 2 free throws, he loses the game and he would be blamed by everybody. We didn’t stop until he can make 2 out of 2 consistently.
Now, in the championship game, the very same scenario was laid before him. Because he had done the drill before, he knew how it feels to shoot those clutch shots, he knew what to do in that situation. To cut the long story short, Jethro’s team won the championship.
In life, God also gives us drills to prepare us for bigger and tougher moments ahead. We read in James 1:12 (VOICE):
“Happy is the person who can hold up under the trials of life. At the right time, he’ll know God’s sweet approval and will be crowned with life…”
Let us be patient when we are undergoing trials and temptations. Find strength in God. Imagine the fulfilment that comes with his smile and his words, “well done my child, you withstood the test.”
One day you will appreciate what these tests are for. They can be for you to know what to do in future similar situations, and can be for advising other people who are undergoing the same hardships. So whenever you are to go thru another life test, be joyful, be strong, and enjoy the process.
