TOGETHER
When he leans over to catch his breath, the boy sees teammates doing the same. It’s a humid night, and the game has been long and tough. Both teams have battled for every yard. The scoreboard clock promises this next play is the last. When they finally huddle around their quarterback, the boy knows two things to be true. First, win or lose, it will be together. They are a team in the most fundamental - in the most true - sense of that word. Second, they will win. They are the Knights.
EARN IT
Her Saturday is filled with drills - cone drills, one-touch shooting drills, corner kick drills, and passing drills on counter attacks. While friends kick beach balls into the lake, she kicks soccer balls into a net her dad sets up in their backyard. She is humble enough to realize talent alone will not get her on the pitch - Covenant is blessed with amazing student-athletes - but there is another way. She can earn it, and she will.
WIN WITH GRACE
The mother and her dejected 9th Grade son navigate the busy parking lot after the loss, cleats clicking on tar, parents and players weaving between cars. A voice yells out her son’s number. The mother recognizes him as one of Covenant’s better players. The older boy smiles and tells her son how impressed he was with his game. He claps him on the shoulder and runs back toward the field. The mother never forgets this moment of grace, nor how it made a boy who lost feel like such a winner.
FIND IT
As she makes the last turn, the girl sees the leader alone in front of her. It’s just them now. Her legs burn. She was never a competitive runner before Covenant. She never thought herself very competitive, period. But a coach saw her running one day after school and suggested Cross Country. The girl senses it’s time for her final kick, and she accelerates. Like always, a serenity settles around her and everything but the sounds of her own breathing fades away. She doesn’t even hear the cheers as she crosses the line first. She kneels to pray and give thanks. She is so grateful for what she has found.
LIKE HIM
From Covenant’s coaches on the sidelines, to its student-athletes on its courts and fields, to its kids at every grade level clapping and cheering from bleachers and blankets and chairs, we remember Corinthians 11:1: "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” Our goal is never to score the most, or humble our opponent, or bring glory to ourselves or our school. Our goal is to be like Him in victory, in defeat, and in every aspect of our lives. It is a difference in mindset between Covenant and most Athletics programs, and it is one that means the world.
