Christian Athletes vs. the World: Preparing Young Athletes for Spiritual Warfare with Drake Reed

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Faithful Fitness Podcast for my Dad. Coach
Alex van Houghten helps you get stronger and mind, body,
and spirit. He believes that your body's a temple, so
taking good care of it is an actual worship.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
I should know.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
I live with them. Every week. He brings truth from
the Bible too, of some science and stories that will
set your heart on fire. May God bless you to
become everything He made you to be, just one percent
better every single day.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
What if the abilities you're most proud of are also
the things that are most likely to break you. Every year,
thousands of Christian athletes lose their identity when the game ends,
not because they stop playing, because no one ever taught
them who they were apart from the sport. Hey there,

(00:50):
Welcome to Faithful Fitness. I'm coach Alex van Houten, and
around here I work hard to help you make the
most how the body God's given you. Today sitting down
with former professional athlete and high school coach Drake reid
Man who played overseas coach young man on the front
lines and watch what happens when talent grows faster than

(01:12):
spiritual foundations.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
If you're an.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Athlete, or a parent or a coach who wants faith
stronger than fame and discipline deeper than performance.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
This conversation is not optional. Let's get into it. What's up, guys.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
This is coach Alex Van Howden on the Faithful Fitness Podcast.
I'm super excited to be hanging out with you today.
Our mission is to help you make the most out
of the body God's given you, and I know this
episode is gonna do that for you. I get to
be hanging out with coach Drake Reid, who just so happens,
just so happens to have lived, competed, and graduated in

(01:50):
the same town that I graduated, and we have no
idea until just now.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
What's up, coach? How you doing? Brother?

Speaker 4 (01:55):
Knowing great? How about you?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
I'm doing good, man, I'm doing good. So I didn't know.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
I didn't know until it was actually my sister who
connected connected us. She works for our office and whatnot.
When your interview request came through, I was like, oh
my gosh, this guy went to school like fifteen minutes
away from when I went to school. You went to
Northeast High School. I went to Kenwood High School and
we graduated a year apart, you a year ahead of me.
We were like hardcore rivals and didn't even know it.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
So it's brothers in Christ.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
That's right, that's right, bitter rivals. We're both on the
same team. But you know, you got to have somebody
to butt your head against. I wasn't any good at
basketball or football, so I didn't actually get to cross
swords with you on the quarter on the field. But man,
I'm so happy to be hanging out with somebody who
graduated in clarkschool. Can you tell me a bit about

(02:44):
your background as an athlete? Introducing you to our audience.
You are a coach, you're an author. We're gonna be
talking about your books today, but I want to talk
about your background.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
As an athlete.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
You through high school, into college and even beyond, you
had the upper cortunity to play in a lot of
environments that athletes don't get to play in. So can
you talk to me a bit about what you've done
as an athlete? And it's okay to toot your horn
a little bit because because you you really went went
far from an athletics perspective. Statistically speaking, not a lot

(03:14):
of people get to go where you went so so
tell us about it, coach.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
Well, I mean, I start, I grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri,
and I moved to Clarksfield when I was fourteen, So
when I you know, my foundation was was in Saint Louis,
But my life took off. My life really began sports
wise when I moved to Clarsville, and I was able
to take it to another level. My brother was real
instrumental in that. My father was real instrumental. My dad
played college basketball at at the NI level, and he

(03:42):
really taught me to dribble with both hands and how
to shooting all these things. And so interesting enough, I'm
left handed. I'm born left handed. I used to do
shoot left handed, throw left handed everything. But my brother
is six years older and he's right handed. So when
we were kids, he'd be like, you using the wrong hand,
going right hand and then shooting right hand. And so

(04:04):
I still eat left handed, bat left handed and all
this stuff. But but it made me, are.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
You serious, You're you're a goofy footer.

Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah, that's awesome. Me a lot in basketball be able
to shoot with both hands. So that was us. Uh,
But but I learned a lot from my from my
dad because he was just hard nosed on both of
my brother and I and just making us put in
the extra work and told us how serious everything was.
So it was tough. We had a lot of tough
Carl Riders home because my dad used to coach me

(04:32):
when I was real little, and then my older brother
coached me a bit when I was in high school
in the au circuit. So uh that so that was
a great experience. And he played college football at Austin
P and now he's a he's an agent for Clutch,
so cool, so he's quite He's pretty big in the
sports world as well. But in any case, I want,
I went ow to Northeast. I started off the class
for the Academy, then transferred to Northeast my sophomore year

(04:55):
and finished up high school there. I started off at
Shamanad High School and in Saint Louis and then I
moved off to class for But in any case that
was I was able to become a too. Two sports
standout in Northeast and football and basketball. But my first
love was always basketball, so I decided to go ahead
on it and play at Austin P and things really,
you know, things went well there, we went to the

(05:16):
NCAA tournament, we went to the n I t UH
and and I was able to become one of the
better players in the country during that time. That's awesome.
That led me to going overseas. I tried the NBA,
but things didn't really work out for me and that
as far as getting a lot of opportunities, so I
took it abroad and UH played everywhere from Australia to Italy, Argentina, France, United,

(05:39):
Arab Emirates, Libya and I even finished my career playing
on the MALEI and national team. After I was able
to UH find my my heritage there. There was a
lot going on, but I'm glad to be home and
be in the same place for a while.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, yeah, I know.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
How long was that that period of your your athletic career,
traveling from UH Austin p and then and then to
to the time that you took on coaching Eleven years?

Speaker 4 (06:07):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Man, eleven years traveling playing basketball? Holy cow? So I
mean you've been a lot of places.

Speaker 4 (06:15):
Yeah, it was a challenge actually coming home and getting
used to being an American again.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
That holy cow, man, Like during that eleven years, how
often did you actually get to come home?

Speaker 4 (06:25):
I mean just in the off season, you know, every
once in a while. I mean you'll go, you'll go
home for Christmas if you want to. But after I
would say most guys when they get to their late
twenties or so, if they're still playing, they stop going
home so much and people kind of come and visit
them because your life is really over there.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
Yeah, so that was that was my life. But coming
home and forgetting all the holidays, you know, like you
really don't celebrate Thanksgiving, you know, you never.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Have MLK Day, Patrick's Day, you know.

Speaker 4 (06:50):
So yeah, so that stuff is like what it's a
holiday today. So adjustment just the mentality of coming back
to a capitalist society when you live in a socialist
society or archy or whatever's going on wherever you're at.
So it's it's a lot of things that you have
to get broken of when you are living in other
places because everyone thinks everything is like in a big city,

(07:11):
like you just, oh, yeah, you're playing France. Are you
playing Paris? Like nah, I don't, I don't. I don't
play in Paris, Okay? Are you like they think that
if you if you're in Australia that you automatically Sydney
because they just look at what they know, just like
a foreigner thinks that everyone from the States is from
New York, LA or Miami because of the movies. But
there's there's thousands of cities in every country and you know, uh, there's.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Their different flavor, different culture.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
Yeah. So so so you have that going on, and
everyone has a different twist. So it uh, it'll jam
you up, but it opens you up to be able
to be more adaptable to a variety of different people,
and you're able to not just survive in places, but
you're able to become be able to thrive whever you So, yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
Want to dive into some of the things that you
were exposed to while you're over there. Particularly I read
we'll talk about this in a bit, but I read
your your new book, The Protection Manual, and some of
the things that you mentioned in there that that Christians
can be influenced by and exposed to in the spirit world.
I can tell that you have been to places where
this is way more out in your face and in

(08:15):
the open than here in the States. We generally think about,
you know, demonic possession or ties to tarot crystals and
that sort of thing, like we don't generally think they
exist here. I'm not saying they don't, but they're not
as not as prevalent. But you walked into several countries
where the predominant religion is not Christianity, and so you saw,

(08:36):
you saw some stuff. So I can't wait to talk
about that, but I do I do want to stop
down on one thing. Being from Clarksville, well not from
I was born in Colorado.

Speaker 4 (08:44):
I'm an army I consider myself from Clausville as well,
like I'm say Louis and I'm from Plattsville.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
However, you want to you know, right right right, well
same here.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
You know, so I was born in Colorado, but I'm
an army brat and so so coming around to Fort Campbell,
Kentucky slash Clarksville, Tennessee is a military town, I would say, gosh,
I mean, how much like at one at one time,
if I remember right, about two thirds of the population
of Clarksville was made up of the military and military families.
So so, what's really interesting about Clarksville, or at least

(09:13):
I thought was interesting being there is is it's a
it's a it's a town in the US in the
middle of Tennessee. There's nothing, nothing really special going on
there as far as like landmarks or buildings.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
Or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
But people are from all over the place, Like you
meet you meet people from from every walk of life,
every culture, every ethnicity. Like it's a it's a very
diverse place. And I actually haven't seen that kind of
diversity literally anywhere else I have ever lived since then.
So so what's really interesting about that is as an athlete,

(09:48):
it was a very competitive place. Like we had what
like seven high schools in the area. How many high
schools does Clarksville have?

Speaker 4 (09:55):
I think it's eight now it might be nice. Okay, okay,
just moving back home about the must ago.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
So I'm still still tallying it.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
Every time you guys get to go play a game
with the team, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:07):
Next month, So I'm still figuring out you know, who's who.
But but now it's it's always been, you know, a
smaller town, so the competition is packed in.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Intense is intense.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
So to grow as an athlete in that sense, as
a young athlete, one of the things that I find
coaching And I have two boys, I've got a ten
year old and a six year old, and so I'm
very pro sports for them, but I'm pro sports with
a twist because I.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Want them to be athletic. I want them to explore
the gifts God's given them in their body. I want
them to learn discipline.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
I want them to learn how to bring the best
out of themselves, because that's not an easy skill, especially
in today's world where the easy road sounds much nicer.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
Right. But here's here's.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
An interesting thing, and I'm curious about your thoughts on this.
I have worked with people in their forties and fifties
as a health coach and personal trainer who were collegiate athletes,
but then they got injured and it was like a
twenty year span of not knowing who they are because
their primary identity was I'm an athlete. But as Christians,

(11:09):
we know that my primary identity is a disciple of
Jesus Christ, an adopted son of God the Father, and
I just so happened to also get to serve him
as an athlete. And so as a young athlete, when
you're working with athletes and stuff, I know as a

(11:30):
coach this is different than when you were becoming an
athlete yourself. Was your identity as an athlete primary first
and then God got a hold of your heart? Or
did you hold on to your faith and identity in
Christ first and always understand that you were an athlete second.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
I'm curious about your thoughts.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
I was total athlete. I was totally told, total job,
total athlete, I'm a ballplayer, this, I'm that, all that
type of stuff. I talked to all types of trash
and stuff like it was growing up in Saint Louis.
Like and so in Saint Louis, if you if you
are humble, people people frowned upon that. Like if you're
in the gym and they about to pick up five

(12:09):
guys and they ask you, man, you know, we don't
really know. Can you can you play? If you be like,
I'm okay. If you say something like that, you're out
of them.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
You're You're like, I'm the best thing ever.

Speaker 4 (12:18):
Yeah, like man Hen saying he can play, man, you know.
But then you moved to Tennessee and it's the opposite,
you know, So that was a change. But but yeah,
I didn't grow up in the church. I can't. I
found I think I'm more typical to the average person,
like you kind of learned about God later in life.
You know, we always uh, we went to church every
blue moon, you know, every now and then. We always

(12:38):
knew Christians. And if we had to fall back on
the thing on anything, we will say we were Christians.
But I didn't. I didn't come into Christ into college.
When I got into college, I got baptized and I
started going to church regularly in college, and so that's
when I introduced to Christ. But it's that you're saying
all these things because I was speaking at the conference
earlier this summer, and the heart, the heart information, the

(12:59):
herd fact that I was picking up from surveying families,
survey Christian families and athletes and Christian athletes was that
there's so many things that we don't know when we
leave our homes. So when you go in too prep school,
when you going to college, when you going to a
professional level, you don't really know enough about God as
a pertaine to you, Okay. And so that's where you

(13:21):
see guys in their twenty five or at twenty three
and they strung out on drugs? Are they making a
lot of bad decisions? All these things because you really
didn't get the tutelage that you really needed before you left.
And so one of the things I really press upon
parents is you don't have the you don't have the
affordability to tell a fourteen or fifteen year old athlete
that you know is going to probably play in college
sports that I'll tell you when you're an adult. I'll

(13:43):
tell you when you get older. Was different. You know,
I was explaining to some pastors that I was speaking
to a while ago. You know, I was. I was
in the newspaper, on the internet, on TV three times
a week since I was sixteen years old. So there's
no I mean everyone, and you're the most visible people
in the in the in the community. Okay, so in

(14:05):
college you're on billboards, you and magazines and all this stuff.
So there's no hiding from temptation, hiding from the people
that might be into some dark spiritual practices. There's no
hiding from people that's trying to get you to do
drugs and alcohol. There's no hiding from none of that.
So you have to be trained in those things from
middle school on.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:25):
Yeah, And it can't be that it makes you uncomfortable.
You don't want to talk about it, are you none
of that because you not wanting to talk about it.
You're not wanting to train the kid up in that way. Okay,
it's going to put them in and they're going to
be confronted with these people. It would immediately. They don't
have to seek them out. They're not in the office
working the job. They're not in the uh, they're not
in the school teacher or something. They're in they're visible.

(14:48):
There's thousands and thousands of people that see them all
the time. So you have to you have to know
right up front who you are in Christ. You need
to understand your gifting as soon as possible, okay, so
that you know what you're capable of and what guy
and what direction God wants you to go. You need
to have a spiritual team set up, you know. So
you need to have your mother's, your aunts, your uncles,
your father, all those people. They need to be praying

(15:08):
for you, because you need more prayer than somebody who's
not being who doesn't have that many fish hooks in them.
So a lot of different things I don't want to
take up you know, everything you will want to speak about.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
But no, that's good. That does this is really good.
It's so important.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
You know a lot of people don't know this, but
but a young man's frontal lobes like hit. The complete
part of his brain is not formed all the way
until he's about twenty five twenty six years old. And
even as an adult past twenty five twenty six years old,
I still have to learn to take every thought captive
for Christ. Right, I still have to learn that skill.
So we take like a sixteen seventeen, eighteen year old

(15:46):
guy who has the athletic ability that that people are like, wow,
you know, putting you in the newspaper, putting you on
billboards and stuff, put like putt microphones in your face
and that sort of thing. If you aren't anchored in Christ,
if you don't understand that He is a lord of
your life, If you don't have that number one goal
post foundation firm train up a child in the way

(16:07):
they should go so in the end they don't depart
from it.

Speaker 4 (16:09):
Right.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
If you don't have that, sports easily becomes its own idol,
and unfortunately that idol leaves a lot of gaps. It
doesn't give you the tools and weapons that you know.
I guess the coaching metaphor is this, would you allow
your team to go into practice and not practice the
things they're going to see in the game, and then

(16:30):
throw them into the game and they'll be like, I've
never seen this, but what was that play?

Speaker 2 (16:34):
How did that? How do I counter that move? Coach?
And it's like, oh, it's the game. Good luck.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
You know we're going to win or win or learn.
It's like, no, you in practice. You you practice the
stuff that you're going to face. You're going to practice
this stuff you're up against. And so what I hear
from you is saying, hey, as an athlete, there's a
lot more to this whole being an athlete thing than
just being on the field, being.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
On the court. It's it's life and there's some life stuff.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
That you got to know that you practice that you
got to be coached and discipled and and that's it
sounds like that's your heart for young athletes.

Speaker 4 (17:06):
Definitely. You know, it's uh, it can be challenging and
you know, and this is this is value one of
Christian athletes versus the world. Okay, this is what you
need to know before you leave your family so that
the things that are really just like you said, God
is number one. We're used to hearing that. Okay. We
used to always say that in that cool and that's cool. Okay,
but you're not taught to diligently seek the Lord. Okay.

(17:27):
I think that's the big things. Okay, So when things
are rough, you're not taught how to read the Bible.
Many athletes don't have teachers, someone that can really teach
them what the Bible means. You might have the wrong
translation for you to understand at the sixteen year old,
twenty year old age. Okay. All these sorts of things
can get you lost. Okay, because the time that you're
not spending, the enemies working against you at at all times,

(17:49):
looking for the loopholes. Okay, is this person into Is
he spending too much time with the girls? Is he
spending too much time with the with the with the
people in the streets. Is he spending too much time,
you know, doing whatever sins Okay, that a person is
is apter is after it is prone to get into
or their family members. The enemy is watching that. Okay.
You need to be understanding these sorts of things, and

(18:10):
you need to be praying daily. Okay. You have a
list of prayers that you say daily so that you're
covering yourself so that God's angels can be working on
your behalf at all times. And so that's and so
that a lot of people think that's like some heavy
stuff to put on somebody, but it's really not. It's
the simplest time your shoes, okay, it's as simplest getting
up and brushing your teeth. But it has to be done, okay,

(18:30):
because there's too much competition against you physically, and there's
too much competition against you spiritually and mentally to try
to capture your mind and take you away from guy's
because what the what the enemy tries to do is
they try to take an Anakin skoytwalker and turning the Darvador.
Okay they're trying to do okay, because you can simple
you can easily be on a prophetic calling, get and

(18:52):
get switched over to a psychic. That can happen real quick, okay.
And you're going to be around all those type of people, okay,
on a daily basis that you can't avoid simply because
you're in the sport, you're in the college campus with
people from different places, you're in a professional setting okay
as a pro, and you're traveling all over the country,
all over the world and different things. The game is
so international now, whether it's foreign players come in to America,

(19:14):
whether that's American players going to other places, whether that's
for preseason games, the Olympics, all these sorts of things. Okay,
it's a lot. It's not. I thought it was a
big deal moving to another country or traveling to another
country when I was young, until I got on the
professional team in another country and half the team, Okay,
left their families in middle school, high school to go
to another country so that they have an opportunity in sports.

(19:35):
So this is not a big deal for a lot
of people. So this is what's out here. And so
when you drop a kid off that's nineteen years old, okay,
that's sixteen years old and to another state, another country,
something like that, Okay, there might not be Christian churches there, Okay,
they might not understand that this is not These people
are not living for the Lord, Okay, might not understand anything.

(19:57):
And everything sounds nice. Every spiritual pract has something that
sounds real, deep and real majestic and all this stuff.
So when you're for twelve, fifteen, twenty, okay, you're very young,
very impressionable, and you need someone that has more experience
than you, has lived a similar lifestyle that you that
you're pursuing, Okay, that can break these things down to
you so that it don't makes sense, so that you don't

(20:18):
get lost.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
Well said.

Speaker 3 (20:21):
And so hence the title of your book series, the
Christian Athletes Versus the World, because the idea is like,
you are bringing Christ into these places in these situations,
and that discipline the same. To me, it's the same
discipline you have to have. It's, you know, different manifestation

(20:42):
of it, but it's the same discipline you have to
have to be an athlete. I think that's one of
the things I love about being an athlete so much,
is that is that it teaches you integrity and grit
and growth and a sense of awe and meaning about
you know, being a part of something greater. Athletic discipline,
coaching and training mirrors this spiritual maturity that you're talking about. Uh,

(21:07):
it doesn't happen by accident. You don't walk out on
a basketball court even if you have anate talent, and
you don't start sinking threes every time like.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
You got you got to train that man.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
Blood sweat and tears ten thousand times, you know, and
and you get you grow in that natural ability. And similarly,
when when we come to know Christ, we're not wisked
off to heaven. God still has a mission and a
plan for us here and so and so we have
the opportunity to grow in maturity. And that maturity doesn't

(21:37):
happen by accident. That maturity happens through, as you said,
getting in the word, having a mentor who can help
to teach you, praying every day. And yeah, you said, hey,
this might be heavy, but I mean so is sprinting
uphill over and over and over again.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
That's rough.

Speaker 4 (21:54):
You know, it's so interesting that you're that you're asking
me about this topic because I'm so passionate about it.
I interviewed sixteen pastors that went into that went into
the Christian athletes versus the world books, and I really
and I interviewed them because there's so many things that
are very simple that they know, but many of them
didn't know the walk of an athlete, okay, the lifestyle

(22:15):
of an athlete. Okay, everyone wants to go to the
games and say, hey, they know such and such a
great game or whatever. I'm praying for you, blah blah blah.
Right now, I need to know how to pray. Okay, yeah,
someone just tells you, okay, you need to pray. Duh. Okay,
what type of prayers we're talking about? So I didn't
know how to bless house a house until my career

(22:35):
was open. Okay. Meanwhile, you're on all these different countries
and all these different hotels.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
All these different places.

Speaker 4 (22:41):
College as a pro player and whatever. You have a nightmarriage,
you can't sleep good. You're having all these this crazy
stuff that might happen periodically, and you just take it
off as this is badgering, this is weird. Oh wait,
some stuff not realizing. If you just bless your place,
it's under the covering of Christ. Now, okay, an enemy
can't come in, all right. If there's disarray and there's
dysfunction in your household, okay, you bless your dorm room,

(23:04):
you bless your vehicles, you bless your locker room. Okay,
then these type of things just simply won't happen to
you because the presence of God is there. Okay, how
do you bless your house? Okay, it's very it's very simple.
But you if you don't know it. You don't know it. Okay,
what do you do when you're meeting all these beautiful
people that want to talk to you and have your time? Okay,
but you don't know how God wants you to date? Okay.

(23:25):
That was one of the areas that a lot of
pastors had a lot to say about. It's like, well,
here I am. I'm in my thirties now, just now
being taught how God wants you to date. But I
was going to church every week. So what I do
is I say, well, I focus on tangible things. Okay.
So you're not talking to such a broad and a
broad spectrum. Okay. So so that's really what it comes

(23:45):
down to, because you know, one of the worst, the
worst type of culches to deal with is is hey, man,
go out there, run fight when right, But you're not.
You're not you're not teaching me the strategy. You're not
teaching you're not developing anybody. You're not doing nothing. You
just hope that talent works out, okay, but developing the talent.
So athletes have to be developed in their spiritual weal

(24:06):
just like anybody else.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
That's right, that's right, and a good coach is willing
to get in the weeds too, and to identify that
the small things that are going to make the big difference.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
Right.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
So, so I don't know jack about soccer, all right,
but I'm coaching my my first grader's soccer team because
I can coach and they're first graders.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Like, it's more like hurting cats than it.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
Is teaching the technique at that point, exactly exactly, we're
learning how to listen to the coach.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
Exactly.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
We're learning how to listen to the coach. We're learning
how to run drills. We're learning how to work as
a team and not get mad when someone steals our
ball and that sort of thing. So they're learning the
fundamentals of just you know, being a human who can
be an athlete. So but but I do have an
assistant coach who is a collegiate level soccer player. So

(24:54):
so he doesn't know anything about well, he does know
he's learning, but but he's he still doesn't know how
to corral bunch of first graders.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
But the man knows his techniques. Right, So we're breaking
down this one thing.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
This kid keeps getting his ball stolen when he's running
down the field and and and so the coach went
to teach him how to My assistant coach went to
teach him how to do a juke. You step to
one side, then you got to push the ball with
the other foot on the outside of the foot, and
then and then you can go around. Well, the kid
could not maneuver the ball with the outside of his foot.
He didn't have that technique down. And so a good

(25:28):
coach recognizes, hey, we're going to teach you how to
use the outside of your foot to push the ball
in a circle. And so, you know, that's what the
kids did for a while, pushing the ball around and
around and around a circle. And then and then you
can build that into something you can work with a
juke when when somebody's running towards you on the field.
Now I've learned that about soccer, which is great. But
that's what good coaching is like. It's it's I see

(25:52):
where your gap is, and I'm going to drill down
on that and help you to build that skill over time.
Similarly to I'm walking with Christ. I know God's God,
but I don't know how to seek him. It's like,
are you praying every day?

Speaker 2 (26:05):
Praying? What? How do I pray every day, pray this. Man,
We're gonna pray We're gonna pray this. We're gonna pray this.

Speaker 3 (26:11):
We're gonna pray this, and if you're in this situation,
we're gonna pray this. I found that to be very,
very pertinent in your new book, The Protection Manual, where
you're talking about spiritual warfare that you've faced, and the
entire book is more like you have some paragraphs that
kind of frame things, but the entire book is more
like a collection of declarations and prayers that are scripturally based.

(26:36):
Every single thing has a scriptural citation or component multiple
usually that that go along with us like, hey, this
is how you pray scripture into this situation. This is
how you declare scripture over this situation. I found it
intensely practical. It was very much like a coach would say, Hey,
if you're shooting the ball and it keeps hitting the
rim on the left side, change this about your wrist

(26:59):
and your jump right right.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
There's something like that.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
And so I love that you got in the weeds there,
And I'm curious for you when when you started writing,
because you were an athlete, Like, what the heck does
an athlete have to do with being an author. I
think it has a lot to do with it, by
the way, But but that's not when when you started
writing how did how did the Lord help you? To
articulate those getting in the weeds sorts of things that

(27:24):
were intensely practical but bite size and useful.

Speaker 4 (27:28):
Well well, based off the things that I experienced in life.
One thing that I that I understand totally is, man,
when you endo the rest, man, you don't need someone
coming in here speaking to you, to another speaking to
you in another language. Okay, you know, like you don't
need someone coming in here talking to you about calculus,
trigonometry and all this stuff. It is too it's too much.
Hey man, you you you had a fight, okay, all right.

(27:51):
You need very practical, very simple things that you can
that you can spit out right away. So that's how
I coach. That's how I teach people, Okay, because you
talking about you talking to people that are fifteen years old,
twenty years old, twenty five years old, and so they're
young people in life. And if you get to talk
to them about the King James version when they don't
even understand, you know, two or three sentences and that

(28:12):
and how that's how they's spoken. They don't understand different
cultures and things like that, but a person can understand
the a if you say these three prayers okay, and
you having problem people at your at your workplace trying
to get you fired, okay, they are they slandering your name,
and you say these three or four prayers daily, okay,
those people gonna stop. They understand that, okay, and then
and then, and it's going to speak to them to like,

(28:33):
wait a minute. Everyone has some situation that work every
now and then. Okay, okay, you keep your family members
keep losing your job, like your mom just lost her job,
his dad lost your job, and now you lost your job.
And okay, yeah, that's a lot of bad things happening
all at once. That's not normal. Okay. That's something I
talk about in my books too. When you hear people
from other countries, especially if they're from Africa or Caribbean,

(28:55):
they say that's not normal. Well, in their mind, they're
letting you know that there's something spiritually wrong with that,
and you need to take attention to the spiritual aspects
of that, because the pattern is showing them that it's
some type of a spiritual attack, okay. And so now
you need to consider that and pray against whatever might
be coming up against you. Okay. I talk about poposis,

(29:16):
So it sounds like you read the book so opposite.
So if something is coming, if something is disturbing your piece,
you need to speak the prayers of peace, okay. And
if there's something that's coming to get you, that's making
you ill, you need to speak the healing type of prayers.
And so these are very tangible, simple things that anybody
can understand. But if you don't know, you don't know.
And it's very intimidating to just say, all right, man,

(29:37):
you just need to read the Bible. And it's two
thousand and three thousand pages. You know they're not gonna
read it because it's too intimidating.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
All right, right, right, well, and you know I like
to saying from I think it's D. L.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
Moody.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
I might I might have it wrong, but he said
that the Bible.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
The power of the Bible is that it's shallow enough
that children can get in without drowning, but it's deep
enough that theologians have been swimming around for thousands of
years and still haven't reached the bottom, right. I like
that quote. At the same time, though, I do teach children,
and I teach adults, and that that inner child who's
very intimidated by a very large, very complicated. Uh, it's simple,

(30:17):
but it's still complicated. If it's it's very difficult. It's
very difficult to understand exactly where to start in the Bible.
It's difficult to understand how that applies to your life.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
Even more so.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
And this, this might get in more to the spiritual
warfare side of things. When we say the sword of
the Spirit, which is the Word of God. If I
hand my six year old a double bladed play more
super sharp, right, that sucker is gonna cut me and
himself and our car, and our bushes and our poor cat.

(30:51):
You don't know how to sing, yeah, all over the place,
and and and the Bible is is the sword of
the Word.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
It is this word of the Spirit. It is the
word of God.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
And to understand how to wield it takes time, it
takes practice, it takes effort. And so you know, for
my son, it's like if I was going to teach
him how to swing a sword, I'd probably stand behind
him and we would practice just one swing for a
long time until he gets strong enough to wield that swing,

(31:25):
and then he would learn another swing. And I don't
mean to carry this metaphor too far here, but I
think this is extremely important. I work with men regularly,
not necessarily athletes, but men who would say I want
to love God's word, I want to know it, I
want to understand it. I know it's going to be
good for me. I just don't know where to start.

(31:47):
And it sounds like your work, your goal with your
athletes specifically, is to say, hey, you're an athlete. I
get that, I understand that, and you get the mentality
of an athlete as you go out into the world.
Here is how you can use God's word in bite size,
usable chunks so that the word that lives in you

(32:11):
can help you overcome the things you're going to face
in the world. Is there anything that you would add
to that. I feel like that's the heart of your work.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
I think the main thing is when you're an athlete,
like we said, your identity is in the sport, whichever
sport that is, okay. You're taught to work hard, to
out outwork people and all this stuff and you're taking
supplements and you're studying film. Everything is to make you
a better player, right, realizing that the actual words in
the Bible is going to make you a much better player. Okay,

(32:39):
but it's not being taught to you in a way
to where you are you're so open to it, Okay.
You think it's like all about correction. Okay, and there's
a lot of correction in there. But for instance, if
I was to say, psalms, okay, the Lord you know,
prepares my hands for war. Okay, that that jumps off

(32:59):
the rail to an athlete, like what you know, I'm
listening Okay, if they're if they're teaching you about David
more than just his fight against their life. You know,
how he became a king. Okay, different rigors in the
in the ups and downs of what he had to
do while he's becoming a king. Okay, an athlete can
can understand the rigors of that, you know, working hard,

(33:22):
having to outwork people, having to be doubted, you know,
having people not believe in them. Okay. When you talk
about Gideon and some of the things you teach him
about the warriors and those type of people in the Bible,
that's going to get your attention, but it's also going
to be edifying your spirit and letting you know that
God is truly for you. When you see the kings
like Josiah, you know, and you see you see Josiah

(33:43):
willing to go in and correct all that was done
wrong in his kingdom and go step by step and
destroy the evil alters around the country and to put
his people back on back and under God's covering. To
see that type of leadership, Okay, that speaks to the
leader within someone that's in the that's in the in
the athletic realm. Okay, I dig that. If I'm the
captain of the team, I can dig that. If I'm

(34:03):
the culture and I'm starting and I'm starting new team, Okay,
I can speak to the sports realm and that in
that way. Okay, that's how you need to be taught
on your athlete. That's going to initially get your interest
in it because you see that it's tangible. It's something
that you can use. Meanwhile, while it's tangible, just like
just like we're using sports to bring people into Christ. Okay. Now,

(34:25):
now Christ is up in you because you learning the
word and you're applying it on a day to day basis. Oh,
by the way, you just so happen to stumble across
this chapter, okay, And now you're looking to get into business,
and there's some stuff in there about business, okay. Your
family members are going through some bad some hard times,
there's some stuff in there about that as well. So
so the main thing is you got to open the

(34:46):
door to them to let them know that it is helpful,
because the number one thing for anybody is what's in
it for me? And that's really not entirely a selfish
way of looking at it. It's like, hey man, I'm
having challenges like anybody else. I'm trying to make my
life better. Okay, houses going to make life better, okay,
And so much comes down to teaching and teaching that
person how to instill that into that day to day life.

(35:09):
And once they hooked, they hooked. Once you know that
it works, okay, then you're prone to stay with it, okay,
and that and that's the thing. But it's so much
that you don't know. It's it's interesting that you even
hit me up about this, because I just was looking
at this yesterday and so maybe God wanted me to
share this today. But these are some of the things

(35:29):
that most Christians don't know when embarking on a sports career.
This is this is from some of the data that
we got from Christian athletes bbous the world they're gifting.
So most people don't know anything about apostles, profits, pastors,
evangelist teachers. Okay, they don't know anything about their gifting.

Speaker 1 (35:44):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (35:44):
Most most athletes don't know what the opposition looks like.
They don't even know if they're around people that are
into dark spiritual practices. Okay, Meanwhile they're telling them all
about their life, all their personal business, and not realizing
as you're talking to somebody that's an enemy in.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
Your face, right, the bullets in their gun.

Speaker 4 (36:02):
Yeah, you know, most people are not taught to pray
against unseen forces that are hindering their career, how the
spirits to protect themselves? Who not to have praying for you?
So the prayers of a righteous man developed much the
prayers of an unrighteous man. Okay, that's closing the door
on all right. Most athletes don't know how to best
their home, how to find a church. It's so, it's

(36:22):
so it's so surprising how many we had we did surveys,
and we surveyed high school, collegiate and professional athletes as
well as their parents. Eighty percent of all the parents
that we interviewed said that it's important for their children
to find a church home out of state. Are broad okay?
Only in sixty percent of the Christian athletes that we

(36:43):
interview said that they have not found a church home
outside brought So if you and seventy five percent of
the Christian athletes that we that we surveyed, okay, didn't
know what the five four ministry was as well as
their parents said that they don't know either. Wow, thirty
five to forty percent okay, of all the Christian athletes

(37:04):
didn't know what the Armor of God was, and the
same for their parents. Okay. So you're talking about young
people sixteen to probably twenty five years old. Okay, whether
you're going to prep school, college, are you going to
play on a professional team, because that's pretty much that
age bracket. Okay, when you leave in your family, you
don't know anything about your gifting, so you don't know

(37:25):
what you're capable of. You don't know you have dominion
and authority. Okay, you don't. Almost half of them don't
know anything about how the spiritual protect themselves if they're
feeling some type of resistance or bad things that have
to they don't know anything about protect covering themselves, okay,
and then they also don't know how to find the
church that can teach them any of me. So that's
what we're up against right now is to close that gap, okay,

(37:48):
because I should be able to in my city, I
have what fifty churches here in Clarksville, sixty churches, and
this is a This is a town with three hundred
thousand people. So if you go to Nashville, Memphi is
someone it should be hundreds, okay of churches. You should
not leave there to go to college anywhere in the
country or or anywhere and not have an idea of

(38:10):
how to find a new church, because actually, what you're doing,
you're going to your family's church that they already was
going to for probably ten twenty years or whatnot. But
when you go to college, okay, it's a whole different
ball game. You're in a new city. You got to
figure things out. So speaking to the pastors about how
to find a good church home, it made it easy
for me to find a church home. When I got home. Yeah, yeah,

(38:32):
but that needs to be taught as well. It's a lot.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
Yeah, well it's not like it's a there's not an
instruction manual for finding a good church.

Speaker 4 (38:43):
Well there is now no.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
Right, yeah, yeah, thanks for that, Thanks for that shameless plug.
We got two links the show you want, y'all and
pick up Coach Drake reads books because especially if you
have an athlete in your life or you are an
athlete yourself, getting these waters and uh, I could talk
to you about this for a while, I didn't get

(39:05):
the opportunity to talk to you about how how going
from an athlete to a coach. I didn't get to
talk about that gap. But if we have time, I
want to get there. But there is one thing that
that troubles me at the moment and and something I
want to I want to bring out here, and it's
it's this idea that there's a lot, especially with our youth.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
There's a lot.

Speaker 3 (39:26):
Going on in the virtual world right now, social media,
texting back and forth, you know, access to God knows
what right. So like in your book, you talk about
different ways that that demonic presence or or principalities can
enter through our lives in in all kinds of different ways.

(39:47):
There's all there's different books and stuff, there's there's different
TV shows, There's there's stuff there there's sin in our
life that that we can be in inviting these things
into our life. But I got I got my phone
right here, right And I know most of our young
athletes are walking around with a phone in their pocket.
And and there is this there's this cultural shift towards
so many things happening in the virtual world. And I

(40:11):
believe and I pray over regularly the the space of
athleticism because to me, it's one of the one of
the few things that you can't make virtual. You can
you can't. You can't make a basketball game virtual. You
have you have to touch the ball like you have
to go take the shot. You can't make a track

(40:33):
meet virtual, you have to you have to go over
the hurdle.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
And you can't make practice virtual.

Speaker 3 (40:39):
I mean you can virtually coach a practice and lead
somebody you know who might not be in your vicinity
there in person exactly. There's a there's a hands on, sweat,
visceral aspect of athleticism that that can't be virtualized, that
can't be sublimated into the cloud. And I think for

(40:59):
many young people that is what athletics is keeping sacred
and good in their life. They get the opportunity to
go play soccer, even if you're not good at it,
kicking the ball around, because I need to know how
to move my body.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
I need to be embodied.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
I need to bump up against other people and compete
and lose sometimes, right, And the same thing goes the
more and more competitive it gets, and the older the
kids get and the older older the young adults get
that there's less and less people involved. But this whole,
this whole sphere of athleticism is something not only am
I praying over. I actually wrote a book, republishing it
in the coming weeks here called Faithful Fitness. But my

(41:36):
goal is to help individuals understand how their fitness journey
and their faith journey are aligned, because I feel like
in many ways those are separate in the church, and.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
I don't want that.

Speaker 4 (41:48):
I want I want.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
Every day Joe's who think, Ah, those CrossFit people are
weird and those athlete people are weird. But we go
to church like no, no, God made you a body
that you get to be a steward of and let's
talk about what the Bible says about that. But I
want to ask you as you are coaching youth and
you see they've got their phones and I'm sure they're
they're talking about things that are happening in the in

(42:11):
the internet space and watching YouTube and maybe using chat
GPT to write their essays or whatever else. When you
work with these athletes, how do you see God using
athletics to create that space where they can learn these
important life skills. I hope I'm speaking to the parents

(42:35):
of athletes or maybe potential athletes to strengthen why athleticism
is so important to encourage our youth to be a
part of in today's world. So I'm curious about your
thoughts on that, why this is so important and how
you see it affecting your players right now.

Speaker 4 (42:54):
I think it has to be made perfectly clear from
you from a very young age and consistently every year
there your ability to play the sport okay, at a
high level, is a gift from God. Okay, it needs
you need to also have it explained to you daily,
Okay that your effort, okay, you're giving it your best, Okay,

(43:14):
is exemplifying the glory of the Lord. If you're not
being spoken to him that way, it's very easy for
you to think it's about you. It's very easy. It's
very easy for a person to come into pride. Okay.
It's very easy for a person to come into rebellion
when they think it's about them. Okay. It's very difficult

(43:35):
to correct someone who basically can become a monster based
off their media exposure. Okay, everyone patting them on their
back and telling them how the great they are. Okay,
if you're not, if you don't have the foundation of
price within you from an early age, okay. And kids
are very open, like it's not like they don't want correction.

(43:55):
It's not like they don't want to learn. Okay. Most
kids are open. But you have to give them before
the world gets them too much. Okay. Just like when
someone gets into the drug trade, right and they say, man,
kids too deep in the game, all right, you got
to hold them too late. Okay. You need to give
them that elementary middle school age to start dropping seed,

(44:16):
dropping seed okay, so that when they see when they
get around something they get uncomfortable, they know they're not
in the right situation. So when I look at, you know, athletics,
I think that God is really working a lot of
great works through people. But we have to do a
better job, especially in the athletic more so than even coaches,
because people are more focused on the athletes and they're

(44:37):
playing well, and they're jumping high, and they're running fast,
and they're winning championships and all these things. They say
to let people know that they're believers. Okay, because when
you let people know that they're believers, Now this ten
year old kid, okay, that has your poster up on
their wall, now they want to be a believer. They
want to be just like you when you're fifteen. Now,
they're gonna want to be like you. Regardless of what

(44:58):
you're into. If you want to be in the drugs,
if you want to be in the parties, if you
want to be into whatever, they're still looking up to
you because they're looking at the talent. Okay, They're not
look at the substance because their kid they don't know
any better. Okay, But if you get to talking about Christ, okay,
and what and what Christ is doing for you in
your life, that's gonna make that kid open their Bible
up a little bit more. Okay, that's gonna make that

(45:20):
kid want to listen to some gospel music instead of
necessarily some of the some of the garbages out here.
So it's our responsibility as ambassadors of Christ, okay, to
let people know that we are indeed Christians okay, And
although we might not make the best decisions all the time,
God is chiseling us, and we're getting closer and closer
to the to the purest life that we can live.

(45:42):
And so that's very important to be in that from
an early age because you all, you always, everyone is
who what their environment is. If your community is jacked up,
you're gonna make some jacked up decisions. Man, That's just
how it goes. Okay. You know, I've lived in a
lot of places where people never even heard of Christ
like that, Like they've heard the name, but they never

(46:02):
had seen no church. You know. I've been in villages.
I've been in in towns where it's thirty thousand people.
It's a pro team in the town with thirty thousand people, Okay,
but most of them folks, man, they haven't lived moved
out of that place, so they don't really know We're
fortunate because we live in America that there's a church
on every corner. Okay, if you if you get mad

(46:25):
at the folks at this church, you can go ten
minutes up the road and it's another one that's just
as good or better. Okay, that's not a reality. And
a lot of places on this planet, and so you
have to you have to be able to take advantage
of that. And what happens when you have so much
access you don't appreciate it. You know, I'm telling you,
I've been to Paris, I've been to Cairo, I've been

(46:46):
to Milan, everywhere. Okay, man, nobody appreciates where they're from. Man, nobody. Oh,
it's nothing to do here. You know, people here in
Whack and all this. Man, you live in New York, LA, Chicago,
you know, Paris, London, Like, what are you talking about?
Nobody appreciates where they're from. Okay, But the things that

(47:08):
you need are typically right around you. Okay, they're at
your disposal. And so when it comes to these phones
and the technology, it has to be monitored at such
a higher level because you have access to what somebody
that's doing something totally illegal and totally dark. Okay, it's
doing in another country and another kid, and it doesn't

(47:30):
matter that you as a parent or as a coulch
or whatever the art that you don't care about it,
that you don't think is a big deal. It doesn't
matter that that is because when that kid is seventeen
or they're twenty years old and they started talking on
a bunch of crazy stuff and you're like, what's happened?
You know these kids, man, because you ain't been watching
you in dependent you wasn't important. But the enemy didn't
think it wasn't important. No, why men slept. The enemy

(47:55):
saw weeds amongst the weed, you fell asleep. So it's
a day to day thing. Man, as you're coaching, you
have to be instilled in these life skills. Okay. You
have to be dropping seed every day okay, because the
enemy is trying to drop seed every day. Okay. I
have to give these kids the tools that they need, okay,

(48:16):
so when they're not around us, when they're not around
their parents, when they're not around their teachers, okay, that
they know how to handle themselves and conduct themselves when
they have the movies, when they're on the road trip.
You know, when they're on a vacation. When they get
to college and there around a bunch of different people
that they don't understand their background, so that they actually
not only are they able to handle themselves, they're actually

(48:37):
transformed transferring the the information of God to them. It's work, Okay,
So that that has to be. There has to be.
And when you're an athlete, because you're traveling so much more,
you got it. You have to you have to be more,
you have to be more adept to different environments. And
but you have to come and not and not become

(48:58):
the environment, you know, like like the Bibles, like we're
in the world, but not of the world. So but
that what does that really mean? Okay? So, now when
you move to another state, another city, another country or whatever,
and you're going to pursue track, are you going to
pursue hockey or whatever it is that is, you already
have to have the Holy Spirit oozing in the inside
of you, oozing out of you, and the Word of

(49:20):
God coming out of you. Okay, And once people see that,
then they're going to be edified and they're going to
be freed as well. But why you're doing those things?
Understand that It's not just gonna be like you're gonna
be speaking the word and doing all these things and
nobody's going to come against you. You have to understand
that portion of it as well. And I think that's

(49:40):
what a lot of people are not that they teach
you a word of God, or they teach you about
Christ or whatever, but they don't teach you about how
to deal or with opposition. You know, people don't even know.
I was interviewing one of the pastors and he said, man,
he said, before before a press conference, I would just
ask God to go with me and pray before the
I'm like, man, it's prayers. It's president my book for that.

(50:01):
I'm like, man, I don't even think about that. I
can't even tell you how many microphones I had to speak,
you know, I'm interviewed that. You know, people probably talking
bad about me another languages.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
I don't know what's going on, especially after a game.

Speaker 4 (50:15):
Right, never once had the presence of mind to pray
and ask God to go with me into the into
the into the press conference. Okay. Very simple thing to do.
That could take three to five minutes. Okay, and we'll
change your entire outcome. We have to. We have to
be taught in that way as athletes and as coaches. Okay,

(50:36):
and the parents of athletes and the parents of coaches
have to also have some knowledge of this so that
you can better equip your your child because I was
talking to I've been talking to a lot of parents
parents over the last three to five years, and it's like, listen, man,
you might have three kids and only one of them
can play, and if you didn't play, you think that
kid is weird because they're like, I can't miss practice

(50:58):
or a game to go to the family a reunion. Okay,
you got a problem with this kid, but just because
you don't agree with it doesn't mean that that's not
what their life is that ye yeah, Okay, So you
have to get informed and get informed by people that
actually are in this industry that know what they're talking
about so that you don't mess up, because that might

(51:19):
be that kid's call and that God might be get
raising that kid up to go be the next big
time athlete to spread the message of the Lord, because
you can wach a million people, but your kid can
reach a million people. True that, and they either going
to reach a million people teaching them teaching them about
God or teaching them about the enemy, one of the other. Okay,

(51:40):
And so that's something that we really, we really have
to be diligent and working towards every day man is
making sure that that we don't get lost, that Christ
doesn't get lost as we're raising these kids.

Speaker 3 (51:53):
Well said, Well said, and thank you for what you
do on that front, because that you know, in our
world today, every parent will have to answer to God
for the discipleship they provided their children in their home.
Every every every parent who belongs to Christ is going
to have to answer for the stewardship in the ministry
of their household. And yet it takes a village. The

(52:18):
spirit of the Father is is also a community thing.
I Am going to have to answer for how I
stewarded the children who came across my path via coaching
and and other opportunities, you know, on the playground when
when I'm playing with my boys and that sort of thing.
I have to answer for that as a dad. And
I understand that that coaches. I'm a coach. I don't

(52:40):
coach in the same capacity you coach with youth.

Speaker 2 (52:44):
In basketball, U.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
But but I coach people and children and I know
that there is an intense mantle of responsibility when you
have that influential position in the developmental years.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
Of a child's life.

Speaker 3 (53:01):
I don't know about you, but I would say that
there are coaches in my life who influenced my life
more than my family influenced my life because of some
of the lessons I was taught and in some of
the work ethic that came out and some of the
really like just hard nosed things I had to learn that,
you know, it took a you know, Coach Babcock. He

(53:21):
was the if you're listening to this, Coach Babcock, I
miss you, dude. You're awesome, big thick coke bottle glasses.
He couldn't see seven feet in front of him. But
coaching track and stuff.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
That guy was the most hard headed guy I've ever
met in my whole life. And he wore our butts
out like constantly.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
He didn't put up with any of our one and
he didn't put up with our shenanigans, you know, And
I still remember, I still remember what he instilled in
me because he was willing to get in the weeds,
he was willing to do the work, he was willing
to call us out, you know, a bunch of high
school dudes getting into too much trouble probably and him
just and drilling down.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
And I know he was a man of God. I
know he came prayed up.

Speaker 3 (54:03):
I know we probably wanted he didn't have a lot
of hair, but if he did, he would have wanted
to tear it out sometimes on our behalf, right, But
I remember that, and I know that you, as a coach,
where that mantle as well. So for me to you, hey,
thank you for stepping into that and being willing to
take up that mantle. I know that puts a target
on your back with regard to how the enemy does things.

(54:25):
At the same time, man, the Church is on offense.
We've got to take this territory and the gates of
Hell will not prevail against it. In Jesus' name, So
thank you for being one on the front lines.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
And what I say, it's like, man, we're fighting a battle.
You're like, no, it's a war. Man, we were in
a war for real. Thank you for that. I appreciate
it very much. Thank you, Uh coach Drake.

Speaker 3 (54:48):
We're coming up on our time here, so I want
to give you an opportunity to have the last word.
To any athletes or parents listening to this podcast, I
want to encourage them to pick up your books. Their
links are in the show notes below. They can find
those and pick them up off of Amazon. I really
enjoyed your your latest book and found it very useful,
not just like oh I read it like I've got

(55:08):
some marked up spots. And these prayers are going to
be useful in speaking protection, revocation over certain things, and
then declarations over my family, my business, and the people
who who I come across to my circle. So it's
very useful for me. I hope it'll be very useful
to our listeners as well. So I wanted to give

(55:30):
you the last word. What do you hope that athletes
and parents hear from you? Before I pray over you
and your ministry.

Speaker 4 (55:36):
I feel like I need to say that, prad Man.
I feel like Holy Spirit is kind of tugging me
a little bit, so I just want to stay a
prayer far I leave Father bringing us out here this
afternoon and seeing to it that we're all edified by
the by the Holy Spirit and the word that you've
placed upon us. If I got to pray for everyone,
that's listening everyone under the sound of my voice to
have a phenomenal finish to this year at and a

(55:59):
great start to their basketball season. For any other kids
that's playing in any other sports, Father God, see too
that they're with the right people, Father God, you know
correct there. Keep them on the narrow path, the narrow
on the straight path, Father God. That's anyone that has
any type of bullying, any type of mental health thing
going on. Father got see tour that they are free
from that, Father God, we bind it up and cashing
into the bitch right now seven the tized permanently with

(56:19):
the sword of the Lord and the name of Jesus.
Father God, see too that everyone who needs an opportunity
has provided the opportunity this year. That they're ready and
willing and able to seize the moment when their time comes.
Father God, and Namguz, I'm paying for covering for the
coaches that are listening to this, Father God, for them
to be the great leaders and the shepherds of these
young men and women moving forward this year, and that

(56:40):
they hold themselves to a high standard so that they're
above reproached this season. In the mighty name of Jesus
and Father got see too that everyone who's searching for
a church home, who might be in college or a
professional athlete, or moving to another city or state in
a prep school. Father God, that they are provided the
right church home for them. In the Mighty name of Jesus,
Father God, make it easy for him. Given the right
people around them, speak to their heart to speak scripture

(57:01):
to them, Father God, and help them to be able
to understand and digest what's being revealed to them on
a daily basis. In the name of Jesus God. See
toward their families, have a great understanding of what young
man and women are in front of them. Father God,
drops seed into them, give them dreams and visions and
interpret and understanding that of who their children is in
the spirit, and who you are, who are you you

(57:22):
are rooming them to be, and what needs to be
done moving forward for them so that they reach that
maximum level that you have in that you have assigned
for them in this lifetime and the Mighty name of Jesus.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
Amen, Amen, Amen, thanks for that.

Speaker 4 (57:36):
Man.

Speaker 3 (57:36):
I appreciate that very much. I think that's a good
a good last word. If it's okay with you, I'd
like to cover you in your ministry and prayer, and
then we'll close it out here. Father God, thank you
so much for the opportunity to be with my brother
coach Drake today. Thank you for the words you've placed
on his heart, that he's put them in a pen
and that he shared them with athletes and their families. God,
I lift him up before you in Christ Jesus name.

(57:58):
I pray that you surround him with your mighty angels,
and that you would help him in his practices, that
you would help him to see the weeds and the
difficult places that he's coaching these young athletes to grow in. God,
I pray that you would help them to wreck them
by your spirit, the spirit of the Father that helps
young men see the way that they should go, so
at the end they would not depart from it.

Speaker 4 (58:20):
Lord.

Speaker 3 (58:20):
I also pray that he would be able to lead
athletes in their families to you, Lord, as they would
find belief in your son, Jesus Christ, who died on
the cross for our sins. I also pray, Lord that
you would bless him, bless his health, that you would
bless his mind so that he can be sharp and
ready to take on the obstacles that come before him, Father,
both the obstacles you have sent to strengthen him and

(58:43):
the obstacles the enemy's thrown in his way to stumble him. Lord,
I pray that you would help him to grow year
by year, and that he's only getting started in the fight.
We love you, Lord, I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen, men, Amen, man,
Thank you so much for your time. And to the audience, guys.
You guys know what's coming next. Us has been coach

(59:04):
Alex van Houghton on the Faithful Fitness podcast. Until next time,
train hard, but pray harder.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
Hey, if this episode helps you, jaret with someone who
needs to hear it, and don't forget to subscribe and
leave us a raving review so more people can find
Faithful Fitness. Oh and my Dad's new devotional is almost
out now. You can grab a copy for yourself and
then join our free community at Better Daily by clicking

(59:36):
on the links in the show notes below. We all
have a cross to carry, but it's lighter when we
do it together, so check out both links in the
show notes. Don't be a big well Bob, just do it.
Until next time, don't forget, train hard, and pray even harder.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
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