Thankfulness--Day Five--CCA

The team before their first game.

I'm thankful for our school-Chilton Christian Academy.

Sports at a small Christian school are much different than at a large high school. Everyone makes the team. Here, everyone gets to play. Everyone gets a shot. Even the little guys. And it's less about the winning and more about the learning--the character education that kids receive learning by watching Godly men lead and direct them.

The cheerleaders ready to fire the crowd up

And it's about more than the score--it's about the entire school being involved in something bigger than one person or even a team of people. It's about the entire school supporting one another. It's self sacrificing and hard working and demanding excellence from oneself and one's teammates. And it helps you move from being friends, to being teammates, to being family. It's completely cliche, but at CCA, we are a family.

State Champions!--After our final game

I'm thankful for football. Specifically I'm thankful for Chilton Christian Patriot Football. I'm thankful for coach Todd who had the foresight to see this new 6-man football thing and get with it. I'm thankful for lay people who receive no pay like Caleb, Michael, and Kevin who came and gave their time anyway. And folks like Marilyn and Christa who coached the cheer squad just because. And people who cooked food and organized meals like Kim and Daphne. And everyone who came and cheered.

David, Pam, and Chris

We fielded our first 6-man football team this year. Literally ten minutes before our first game, the coaches discovered that you could, in fact, rush the quarterback. We'd been preparing differently all summer. So, we lost that one, but not by much (especially not by what we should have based on that fact.)

We went on to win all but one other game--against Marion--who we wound up facing again in the championship game. Talk about your prime time Cinderella special set up. Our star running back is injured, we are running a new offense, and we are facing the only team that beat us after we figured out that the QB could be rushed. Hello? Awesome.

Tracy and Carl

And we pulled it out with an amazing defense, a powerful offense, and coaches who kept pressing the team to a new level of play. And my bonus kids were a huge part of that team. You can't imagine how proud I was to stand on that field, the scoreboard lit up 58-50, with Carl hugging his momma, Tracy, one one side of me, and Chris hugging his momma, Pam, on the other side of me and knowing that their entire lives have been changed by this experience. And CCA gets a ton of credit for that change.



The moment the last second ran off of the clock.



If you've never considered a small, Christian school, you might want to rethink it. The academics are solid and operating on an AP level. The teachers know every child not only by name, but by character and personality, and are involved. The elementary school and high school are interested in one another and support each other (the high school cheered on the 4th grade "band" like it was the Super Bowl halftime show). We are a family. And today, I am thankful for the parents, coaches, teammates, cheerleaders, and everyone who compose my CCA Family.

 Our  first basketball game is next Thursday. CCA--I'll see you there! Oh, and before that, I'll see you in English class on Monday, where you are all expected to go into the Hall of Fame for English Writers. Go, Patriots!

Hey, give me a break, it was cold and I wore a hat all night. :-)
Chris, Me, Carl.