Preview Trip

This past Summer (July 2025), I had the opportunity to travel to a window country to take part in some training sessions for one of Live Global Sports National Partners. The man I met and his wife already run a sports camp once a year and have trained a team of young adults to help them with this. The idea of a Football Academy, though, has the idea of a bit more sustainability. It gives them a way to earn money, to be self-sufficient, and to pay their staff. I found this man’s passion for his people to be very contagious. He wants help training his people to coach football so they can start an academy and use it as a place to impact their local and national communities.  When we ran a few coaching sessions, the team was extremely attentive and soaked up all the information we were giving them. When we took them out to have them run some actual training sessions. They used the limited information they had been given to put together some simple sessions. 

Running drills

When I observed this, it made me even more excited about the role I would have in helping them become better coaches.  I have been coaching football for almost 30 years and was just drawn into their desire to learn and grow as coaches themselves.

Helping the nationals grow in their ability to teach the sport (in this case football/soccer), will allow them to use this as an avenue to draw people in and then give them an opportunity to share God’s love with them, whether directly or indirectly. 

When it was time for me to go, The Partner that we were working with gave me a ride to the airport, on this 4-hour drive, we had a great opportunity to talk about his vision. He shared his testimony with me and how he started his ministry. I saw his passion for his people and his desire to use football as a tool to reach them.

This trip, while brief, was further confirmation for me that I need to be taking this next step.  My love of coaching is now shifting from coaching high school students to coaching those who want to become coaches.  I can’t thank God enough for all the years of coaching I’ve had, and now to take what I’ve learned and impart it to the next generation of coaches.