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Coach Buzz Williams - a reading for this Easter Sunday
My church home in northern VA recently finished a 40-day prayer challenge leading up to Easter. Our senior pastor, Mark Batterson, writes in Day 25 of his book Draw the Circle about his interaction with Marquette coach Buzz Williams. On this Easter Sunday, I want to share this portion with you:
During the 2012 NCAA basketball tournament, I heard a postgame interview with Buzz Williams, coach of the Marquette Screaming Eagles. Following a victory that advanced their team to the Sweet Sixteen, Coach Williams referred to his players as "lion chasers." That caught my attention because I use this phrase repeatedly in my book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. It turns out that his pastor, who went to college with me, gave Buzz a copy of the book. He and many of his players read it right before March Madness began.
During the off-season, Buzz flew out to D.C. so we could spend a few hours together. We discovered that pastors have something to learn from coaches, and coaches have something to learn from pastors. Buzz is the first person to admit he's a "work in progress." So am I. But I love the fact that his intensity for Jesus matches his intensity for basketball. And he's not just interested in how the kids perform on the court; he's investing in them for eternity.
Only four of the kids on Buzz's current squad know their biological father. Only two of them come from a family with an intact marriage. Many of the kids on his team didn't have a father's voice of love or discipline, so Buzz is that voice.
During the first one hundred days of a freshman's involvement in his program, Buzz meets with them on a daily basis. They come to his office, and he prays with them, even the kids who don't believe in God. Buzz told me he's had a few awkward silences! After praying with each other, they embrace each other. And Coach Williams tells them he loves them.
I think Buzz sees his squad of twelve the way Jesus saw His twelve disciples. And isn't that how we should see every person whom God has intentionally put in our lives - family members, friends, colleagues, and neighbors? Buzz is more than a coach who sees athletic potential in his players; he is a prophet who sees the spiritual potential. And he knows that those two things are not unrelated.