Music From Above

The Catholic Church has received a lot of negative publicity recently. However, too many people do not see the good work that the Church continues to do on a daily basis. One of these extraordinary people is Danielle Rose; a wonderful musician who has dedicated her life to serving God. Danielle has performed in front of countless audiences - schools, churches, conferences - including at World Youth Day. Being an audience member myself, I have seen the impact that Danielle's music has on people, bringing joy and love into their lives. I still recall the student to whom I gave one of her CDs coming back at the end of the year and stating how much both he and his mom have enjoyed the music.

A little less than a year ago, Danielle decided to enter a religious community. This is just another way in which Danielle is going to be able to help bring love into peoples' lives. It is truly amazing how many people like Danielle enter religious lifestyles, devoting their lives to helping other people. God bless Danielle and all of these tremendous people who work day in and day out for our benefit!

Softball Winners

Okay, so this story is a couple weeks old, but I thought that to start off this "blog", why not start with something in athletics. If you haven't read about, you can read about Sara Tucholsky, Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace here. There's been a lot of coverage on the story, the act of true sportsmanship, Central Washington losing because of the self-less act, and the rules of the game that made this situation unimaginable.

After reading about the story, I thought to myself that this probably wouldn't ever happen in a guys' game, especially at the college level. It's sad for me to say this (and I hope I'd be wrong if the situation ever arose), but guys' sports anymore are about winning and getting individual recognition. Having coached several types and levels of sports (both male and female), I have noticed this occuring earlier in children's lives. You hear stories now about 8th grader's unofficially committing to colleges, and even if these are still rare (thank goodness), there is constant recruitment of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders by high schools. Coaches are influencing kids more than ever and the kids are being told that they better be involved in the sport year-round or they will not become successful. It's been sad to see the effects that this has on many kids, not only in the field of athletics, but in how it spills over into the rest of their lives as well.

So this post is supposed to highlight the positive and I've been pretty negative. The three girls in this story have been praised, and they should continue to be praisd for being wonderful examples to every athlete and person. But the people who haven't been talked about are these girls' coaches. From teeball all the way to the college level, there have been countless coaches in these girls' lives and without their guidance and care to teach the girls the true nature of sports, these girls might have chosen to look the other way. And remember, when I say their coaches, the first coach in every child's life is their parents. Thank you for who you are and continue to break the mold!