h.e.c. day 6

I love the drive Jason has. I love that he has dreams and is motivated to achieve them. When he looks back at his life, he sees a successful playing career cut short by a freak injury. When I look back at his life, I see an incredible journey. I see a guy who took a "No" from God with grace and pursued another prayer. I compare him to those inflatable punching things that stand about 3 feet high with sand at the bottom, weighing them down. Do they even make them anymore?! Anyway, when you punch this thing, it doesn't fall down, it just bounces right back up. My brother and I used to play with these things as kids. Unfortunately, they eventually broke and we would pound on each other.

Back to Jason . . .

He has had years of "No's" and still pursues, everyday, God's direction, blessing, and favor over this fire that burns inside of him. He hasn't had a very successful win/loss record during his coaching career - particularly at Woodland and now at Joliet. Still, he continues to work his tail off. He continues to give it his all. He pursues knowledge and applies it whenever he can.

I remember driving down Larkin one day on our way to Menards when we lived in Lockport. He was an assistant coach at a 5A school at the time, having just left Streator Woodland, a small 1A program. As we passed Joliet West, he turned and looked at me and said, "Now, that's where I want to coach someday."

I raised my eyebrows, scrunched up my face and said, "Seriously?! I hope you're kidding!" And, . . . . well, . . . . here we are. That's the danger of marrying a go-getter, I guess!

He is willing to move out of his comfort zone. He is willing to step out of the box. Pursuing something means you move after it. You put one foot in front of the other, and you go after it. But, you need to be driven and motivated to move. There is no room for laziness. Which is a great thing, because he doesn't have much of that!

(I'm going to thank you again, Jim. I love that you passed this on to Jason. I see this in you, too. You are an incredibly hard worker. You are a goal-achiever. You are driven.)