The Penalty Box:
November 25, 2020 at 3:32 a.m.
By Roger Grossman-
One of them is “life isn’t fair.”
But, occasionally, we hear of story in which the outcome is fitting. We find someone or a group of someones whose written a final chapter to their story that makes us smile and say “good for them, they deserve that.”
The Grace Men’s Soccer Team has written such an ending.
The Lancers won the National Christian College Athletic Association national championship Saturday night in Florida.
To win a title and cement a place in the legend and lore of your school is great enough. Beating your fiercest rival, Bethel, 4-0 in the championship match makes it all the better.
But here’s the thing: this team had already done something that no one will ever forget long before they arrived in Florida—long before the put their boots to the ball in August. They didn’t need to win at all last week to be winners.
Let’s go back to April 1.
Hoosiers were “hunkered down.” Some businesses were forced to close. Anyone who could started working from home. Local schools had shut their doors, and college campuses were empty—including the one in Winona Lake.
The magnitude of the Coronavirus had not totally set in, but with every day that passed we knew that what was happening was different than even the oldest of us could ever remember.
And at that moment in time, when emotional darkness was descending on the world, the men of Grace College Soccer gave us a light to show us the way to hope.
They decided to run to raise money for local and international COVID-19 relief funds, including IMA World Health, the Salvation Army in Warsaw and Elkhart's COVID-19 Community Response Fund. Their goal was to run for 48-straight hours and raise $10,000. One of the player’s grandparents had both contracted the virus, and it claimed their lives. They wanted to do something about it.
And so they started running…and running…and running.
They were home, so they ran on their own. They each documented their journey using friends phones and Go-Pro cameras, and it was great to follow.
As the second day of running ended, they did a most amazing thing—they just kept running.
And they ran…and ran…and ran for five more days.
In the end, they raised over $12,000 for those organizations. On top of that, the whole world noticed. ESPN and other local, regional, national and international media outlets shined a bright spotlight on their effort.
They did good at a time when we needed good. And while being praised, they shifted that praise to the God who put the idea in their hearts in the first place.
Almost eight months later, some of those same guys celebrated winning the NCCAA national title in men’s soccer.
Life isn’t fair. Happy, Hollywood-type endings don’t happen every day. Not everyone who seems to deserve a perfect ending gets one. As a matter of fact, very few do. Which is good, because when they do happen, we need to savor them more. They are like a blanket just out of the dryer.
When it happens here, all the more.
Well done, men. Thank you for showing us what giving is and loving is and reminding us all that we should let our lights shine in a world that needs it more than ever.
When those final whistles filled the warm, Florida air Saturday night to unleash the Lancers’ on-pitch celebration, a might roar was heard around Winona Lake and around the globe.
It was the joyous sound of appreciation from everyone who remembers what Grace Men’s Soccer did when it seemed like there was nothing anyone could do.
It marked the end of the Lancers’ championship journey. It marked the end of a 2020 filled with quarantines and cancelled games and, like the rest of us, an uneasiness about the future.
And I guess, in a way, those finals whistles meant the Lancers run that started in April had finally ended.
One of them is “life isn’t fair.”
But, occasionally, we hear of story in which the outcome is fitting. We find someone or a group of someones whose written a final chapter to their story that makes us smile and say “good for them, they deserve that.”
The Grace Men’s Soccer Team has written such an ending.
The Lancers won the National Christian College Athletic Association national championship Saturday night in Florida.
To win a title and cement a place in the legend and lore of your school is great enough. Beating your fiercest rival, Bethel, 4-0 in the championship match makes it all the better.
But here’s the thing: this team had already done something that no one will ever forget long before they arrived in Florida—long before the put their boots to the ball in August. They didn’t need to win at all last week to be winners.
Let’s go back to April 1.
Hoosiers were “hunkered down.” Some businesses were forced to close. Anyone who could started working from home. Local schools had shut their doors, and college campuses were empty—including the one in Winona Lake.
The magnitude of the Coronavirus had not totally set in, but with every day that passed we knew that what was happening was different than even the oldest of us could ever remember.
And at that moment in time, when emotional darkness was descending on the world, the men of Grace College Soccer gave us a light to show us the way to hope.
They decided to run to raise money for local and international COVID-19 relief funds, including IMA World Health, the Salvation Army in Warsaw and Elkhart's COVID-19 Community Response Fund. Their goal was to run for 48-straight hours and raise $10,000. One of the player’s grandparents had both contracted the virus, and it claimed their lives. They wanted to do something about it.
And so they started running…and running…and running.
They were home, so they ran on their own. They each documented their journey using friends phones and Go-Pro cameras, and it was great to follow.
As the second day of running ended, they did a most amazing thing—they just kept running.
And they ran…and ran…and ran for five more days.
In the end, they raised over $12,000 for those organizations. On top of that, the whole world noticed. ESPN and other local, regional, national and international media outlets shined a bright spotlight on their effort.
They did good at a time when we needed good. And while being praised, they shifted that praise to the God who put the idea in their hearts in the first place.
Almost eight months later, some of those same guys celebrated winning the NCCAA national title in men’s soccer.
Life isn’t fair. Happy, Hollywood-type endings don’t happen every day. Not everyone who seems to deserve a perfect ending gets one. As a matter of fact, very few do. Which is good, because when they do happen, we need to savor them more. They are like a blanket just out of the dryer.
When it happens here, all the more.
Well done, men. Thank you for showing us what giving is and loving is and reminding us all that we should let our lights shine in a world that needs it more than ever.
When those final whistles filled the warm, Florida air Saturday night to unleash the Lancers’ on-pitch celebration, a might roar was heard around Winona Lake and around the globe.
It was the joyous sound of appreciation from everyone who remembers what Grace Men’s Soccer did when it seemed like there was nothing anyone could do.
It marked the end of the Lancers’ championship journey. It marked the end of a 2020 filled with quarantines and cancelled games and, like the rest of us, an uneasiness about the future.
And I guess, in a way, those finals whistles meant the Lancers run that started in April had finally ended.
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