Transforming Boys into Men: Coaches, Athletes, Fathers and Love
by Julie Walton, Calvin College
Last week, former pro football player Joe Ehrmann visited our campus to speak to coaches, athletes, fathers and sons. Joe’s story is compellingly told in Jeffrey Marx’ book, “Season of Life: A football star, a boy, a journey to manhood.” (for more information, see Season of Life by Jeffrey Marx.
Joe, pastor of a large congregation, also coaches high school football in Maryland. His prevailing philosophy is that our boys no longer have men to teach them what it means to be a man, and that sport is the perfect vehicle for those lessons. Joe wants coaches to step in and step up, to mentor children, boys especially, in how to live relationally in ways that show them that life is not about winning, conquest or self-aggrandizement, but about serving others.
Dr. Walton,
Thank you for your insightful and eloquent blogs on many important topics. I am a PE teacher and coach at a Christian school in Maryland and I have read the local coverage of Joe Ehrmann’s unique approach to coaching football at the Gilman School, a non-religious, big-money private school in Baltimore.
I understand the disconnect you felt. In what I have read in the Baltimore Sun and elsewhere, I understand Joe to be a godly, evangelical man who does not miss the connection you want him to make.
I do not know what limitations the Gilman School has made on his approach to coaching young men, but he is urging boys to see “manhood” in the light of breaking dysfunctional modes that are too commonly seen. I’d call that transformational, even if it does not go as far as we might want it to.
You state a desire for transformation in a bigger picture. This, as you well know, is why Christian schools exist, and why I feel called to the ministry of Christian school athletics in particular. Helping student-athletes see that God is the God of our athletic lives as well as every other part is important. My heart is warmed when I see them personalizing that life lesson.
We also need transformational practitioners in non-Christian schools, going as far to the edge of the “church-state” line as they can.
We don’t need Joe Ehrmann to change the world or even just the boys in Baltimore. We need lots of Joe Ehrmanns, and Marv Zuidemas and Kevin VandeStreeks and such all over the world of athletics in their own godly, inspirational ways.Posted by Bob Topp, Calvin College class of '78 on 01/23 at 12:23 AM
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