Setting the Sail High school
High school can be a challenging time for anyone. Childhood has ended, and manhood (or womanhood) is beginning. If they have someone to steer them as they leave the nest, they might soar to heights they did not even know that they could reach. To be sure, mentors can be found in parents or in pastors, while others can be found where they might not be expected: the football field. One such mentor is Calvary Christian Academy head football coach, Kirk Hoza, who uses his position to influence the next generation with the lessons he has learned in his life in setting the sail.
In college, Hoza’s aspirations were less athletic, and more scientific. While he did play college football, his studies were focused on biology and chemistry. With encouragement from his mentor, he got his education credits with the idea of guaranteed job. Soon, he graduated with a B.S in Secondary Education with an emphasis in Biology. While still teaching, he began coaching, and as he juggled both roles, he realized there was a clear favorite: coaching, which led him to accept an assistantship with the University of Louisville.
Almost twenty-five years into his collegiate coaching career, God changed the direction of his sails.
“God told me end of 2009 into 2010, that I was supposed to leave college football, which is not really what I wanted to hear, but He confirmed that in several ways, so I thought wow! What am I going to do? I’ve worked for a quarter of a century in college football and that’s what I knew and loved. Now
God’s telling me to go do something else.”
Setting the Sail College to Highschool
He was led to accept a position with Calvary Sports. While he was content to stay there an offer came in to be the head coach of Calvary Christian Academy’ Eagles varsity football program. This suggestion was initially met with resistance; however, he eventually accepted the position.
Since then, there have been mountains and there have been valleys. The first mountaintop experience was with a young man whom he butted heads with from the beginning. He continued to follow his calling, and he was rewarded with this man’s supervisor telling him how his once reluctant player was now a star employee. The second was one that every coach hopes to attain: an undefeated season, achieved by the Eagles in 2014, and as a bonus, his son was on the team. The third was when the Eagles won against Coral Springs Charter. The game was memorable for him not because it was won during a championship year, or because it was nail-biter with the Eagles being down with no timeouts, but because one of his players was able to lead an opposing team member to the Lord.
In all of that, one valley stands out, and even then, he can see the roses. He was unable to even coach his team during a spring season when he found himself stricken with a case of sepsis. During that tough time, he was blessed with having an excellent support system who kept up the team in tip top shape in his absence.
As for the players themselves, Hoza sees them as men in the making. He hopes that when the cheers fade, and his players find themselves caught in the daily grind, they continue to:
“show up, do their best, and let God handle the rest.”
Setting the Sail into the World
They are about to go into a world with many temptations that were not so readily available in high school, and without parental guidance. The players must be their own men. They must make and be responsible for their own decisions. The Calvary Christian Academy Football program lays out a four- step Biblical path for navigating these uncharted waters:
“A Godly man rejects passivity, he accepts responsibility, he leads courageously, and he has the ability to wait on greater reward.”
It is no coincidence that Hoza’s favorite verse is
Setting the Sail Favorite Verse
“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers, but his delight is in the Law of the Lord. He meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted near streams of living water that bears its fruit in season. Its leaves never wither and all that he does prospers.”- Psalms 1:1-3
In the many lessons, one overshadows all of them. As he says:
“When the storm rises up recognize that God is about to do something.”
As for what Hoza would tell himself when he was the age of most of his players, Hoza says,
“I think I would just encourage him to be true to me, and to be true to God, and the rest, everything else will fall into place.”
Great encouragement! Great writing!