Sometimes Faith Can Do Miracles by Michael Josepson

“Coach, why are we doing this?”

Grapevine Faith’s (TX) high school football coach replied, “Imagine if you didn’t have a home life. Imagine if everybody had pretty much given up on you. Imagine what it would mean for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you.”

In Rick Reilly’s moving ESPN.com story of how one simple gesture by a teacher-coach can change lives forever, he described what took place on a remote field last November in the little town of Grapevine, Texas.

Kris Hogan, coach of the 7-2 Grapevine Faith, wanted to do something special for his visiting opponent, the 0-8 Gainesville State Tornadoes, whose players weren’t having a good year in more ways than one. He contacted Faithful fans and exhorted them to split up for the game – he wanted half of them to root for the visitors this one night only.

When Gainesville took the field, a 40-yard spirit line of Faith fans were lined up for them to run between, and a GO TORNADOES! banner was at the end for them to burst through. Two hundred Faithful fans awaited them in the visitor’s bleachers and cheered for them the entire game.

“I thought maybe they were confused,” said a Gainesville lineman afterward. “They started yelling ‘DEE-fense!’ when their team had the ball. I said, ‘What?’”

Melinda Wright Gainesville State players douse their coach, Mark Williams after the game.

After the game, which Gainesville lost once again, players from both teams gathered at midfield to pray. Leading it was a Gainesville player named Isiah.

“Lord, I don’t know how this happened so I don’t know how to say thank you,” he said. “But I never would have known there were so many people in the world who cared about us.”

As the visitors walked off the field, Faith’s players watched silently as 12 armed officers escorted the boys into their bus. As they stepped aboard, Faith supporters handed each of them a bag for the ride home. In each one were a hamburger, fries, candy, a soda, a Bible, and a personal letter from a Faith player.

The Gainesville coach went up to coach Hogan and said, “You’ll never know what your people did for these kids tonight. You’ll never, ever know.”

Every Tornadoes football game is on the road because Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility. We’ll let Reilly recount the rest of the story:

As the bus pulled away, all the Gainesville players crammed to one side and pressed their hands to the window, staring at these people they’d never met before, watching their waves and smiles disappearing into the night.

With the economy six feet under and Christmas running on about three and a half reindeer, it’s nice to know that one of the best presents you can give is still absolutely free. Hope."

-from Michael Josephson's charactercounts