Jake's Thought for the Week

Each Monday I will be posting Jake's Thought for the Week which he sends out to all the parents of the players in his All Iowa Attack program.

Thought for the Week:
Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. Colossians 3:23

This past week has been the most difficult week for me personally since starting the Attack program five years ago. On Tuesday I received an email from an individual who had decided to quit the Attack program after four years for various reasons that will remain between us. I have had the opportunity to see this young man grow so much over the past four years as he began accomplishing things he only dreamed of as a 7th-8th grader. He meant as much to me as any kid I have ever had in the program and because of the crazy world we live in has decided to leave the program.

Then yesterday an individual I would have considered my best friend just 6 months ago decided to pull his sons from the program.

The reason I share all of this with you is not because I want someone to feel bad for me or be concerned about the program. We have nearly 300 kids who have dreams that are big and love being a part of something that will challenge them on and off the basketball court. Instead I share this with will all of you because I wanted to use the Thought of The Week to let everyone know how much I and all of the coaches associated with the program care about your son or daughter. We are going to continue to push your son and daughter to accomplish things that they thought were only a distant dream and could never really be accomplished. We are going to challenge them to make that dream become a reality. Dreams are only dreams if there is not someone there to say that it is possible. However, dreams are not made reality without days of questioning, days of failure, and days of tears. The situation your son or daughter may be put into will not always be comfortable and will not always make sense. The only thing that you can be certain of is that we care about your child more than any series of words can display. Every decision we make for the direction of the Attack program and vision for Kingdom Hoops is made with what is best for your son or daughter. Each week we ask that the players in the Attack program give a little more than what they feel comfortable giving and I will continue to ask the same from myself and the other coaches. We will make mistakes, screw up schedules, put players in the wrong situations, say some wrong things, and even make some bad decisions during the games.

No matter how many mistakes we make or how much you wonder about the direction of the program let us assure you we care about your child more than you will ever know. We will continue to do things contrary to the standards and requirements of this world. We will coach and expect the best out of every kid and we will continue to use the game of basketball to impact lives and increase the platform that we have been given by God.

We will win some games and lose some games. We will succeed and we will fail. There will be some highs and some lows. One weekend we may be considered a great coach and the next we may be the worst coach around. There will be days you do not understand why and days where everything seems so clear. There is so much that can fall on one end of the spectrum or the other, but the one thing you can always be sure of as we continue this journey together is how much we care for your son and daughter, and how hard we are going to push them to accomplish things they only dreamed would be possible.

Go Attack!
Jake