"Football is not a matter of life and death, it is more important than that."
On being a living contradiction: the struggle of an elite intercollegiate Christian coach
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Gregg Bennett, Michael Sagas, David Fleming and Sean von Roenn
The abstract states: “While some research has been conducted on the manner in which Christian athletes utilize their faith to cope with the dominant culture of winning, there appears to be a relative paucity of investigation on the manner in which elite coaches function in this environment. The purpose of this study was to describe an elite intercollegiate coach’s response to the dominant culture of sport as it related to his spiritual life”.
This case study involved one elite intercollegiate baseball coach with a strong Christian faith, Harry Jones at Walker State University. (The name of the university and coach are pseudonyms).
The purpose was to analyse the behaviour of one intercollegiate baseball coach; the interactions between and among the coaches and players, their casual conversations as well as player reactions to conversations with the coach.
The findings of the inquiry are reported according to the contradictions and resolution attempts made by Coach Jones. The contradictions seemed to be centered around (a) the importance of winning, (b) the importance of social status, and (c) his on and off the field behaviours. Coach Jones apparently resolved these contradictions by (a) disconnecting from sport, (b) utilizing a take-it-or leave it mentality, and (c) relying on God’s guidance and blessings.
One outcome was a dichotomy between the coach’s professional and personal persona - he felt his behaviour off the field was better than on it.
Coach Jones utilized three distinct means of resolution in his attempts to deal with the conflict between the dominant culture of sport and his spiritual life in Christ. These three methods of resolution were: (a) disconnecting from sport; (b) utilizing a take-it-or-leave-it mentality; and (c) relying on God’s guidance and blessings.
Part of his way of dealing with the tensions seemed rather dualistic: “In the of eternity this is the problem or this is the challenge. In the light of eternity. Who cares?”
Journal of Beliefs & Values, Vol 26, No, 3, December 2005, pp. 289-300