Pelham Park Middle School girl's basketball team gets ready for a scrimmage. Photo Courtesy: Twitter @PELHAM_AD
Every coach has had a time when their players were “going through the motions” in practice. They were unfocused, lazily running through drills, forgetting plays and assignments.
Fed up with the mistakes, the coach would yell, “Get on the line!” This means his players would go to the baseline and run “suicides” in basketball, or the go to the sideline and run sprints in football, all at the coach’s command. The coach’s discipline is in hopes of correcting the attitude and effort of the players, so they can have a productive practice and, in the end, win the contest on game day.
As coaches, we want our players to obey us and listen to every instruction we have for them. The same actions should follow in our lives as believers in Christ. Our goal should be to make the daily habit of obeying the instructions in His Word the first time. If not, then we would have to deal with the consequence of our disobedience.
One of the areas this is depicted is in 1 Samuel 15. Samuel, receiving the message from God, told King Saul to attack the Amalekites “for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt” (1 Samuel 15:2). King Saul was commanded to “totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them…” (1 Samuel 15:3).
King Saul didn’t follow through completely, keeping alive Agag, the King of the Amalekites, and spared the best of the sheep and cattle and everything that was good (1 Samuel 15:8-9). Immediately the Word of God came down to King Saul over his disobedience. “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions” (1 Samuel 15:11). After hearing that, King Saul was angry and cried out to the Lord all night.
Later, Samuel spoke to King Saul over his decision not to fully obey God’s command. King Saul fooled himself into believing he did everything correctly and even built for himself a monument in celebration (1 Samuel 15:12). But Samuel pointed out King Saul’s disobedience saying, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22). King Saul’s mistake led to him losing his kingship over Israel and paved the way for King David to take over.
It is important as coaches that we teach our players the value of obeying our instructions the first time they are told. But also, it is important that we listen to what God has instructed for us to do the first time. Remember, as the coach you are the first sight of leadership your players see every day. The question you have to ask yourself is, “What type of leader are they following?”
UNC head coach Scott Forbes, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben McKeown)
The 2026 North Carolina Tar Heels and head coach Scott Forbes are hoping the baseballs bounce their way in the program’s 13th trip to the College World Series (CWS). North Carolina has fallen short in its previous 12 appearances in Omaha, Nebraska, the second-most appearances on college baseball’s biggest stage without a national title.
Now, with the perennial powerhouse Tar Heels back in familiar territory, Forbes believes this is the team that can finally break through and bring a national championship trophy back to Chapel Hill.
“I’m happy for them, because they get to go. I’ve been to Omaha before,” Forbes said in his postgame press conference Sunday after ousting USC in the super regionals. “I get to see the joy on these guys’ faces of coming back in here tomorrow and preparing to win UNC Baseball’s first national championship.”
North Carolina proved to be one of the best teams in the country all season, earning the No. 5 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. But after sweeping through the Chapel Hill Regional in three games, the Heels dropped the opening contest of their super regional with the Trojans. They staved off elimination with a 4-0 victory Saturday, but in Sunday’s winner-take-all Game 3, they found themselves trailing 3-1 with only four outs left to mount a comeback.
Two clutch doubles in the bottom of the eighth inning drew them to within one. Then a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth tied the game, setting up the heroics from junior outfielder Owen Hull.
Hull’s walk-off double sent the Tar Heels back to Omaha for the second time under Forbes and the second time in the past three years, the only program in the country to accomplish that feat. The win also marked North Carolina’s 50th win of the season and Forbes’ 250th career win. The longtime UNC assistant was named to the head coaching position ahead of the 2021 season after the retirement of legendary coach Mike Fox.
Since being elevated to head coach, Forbes hasn’t been shy about mentioning his faith in Jesus. He did it once again in Sunday’s press conference.
“I’d written a Bible verse on my card today, that no matter what — everything that I do — just make sure I do it like I’m supposed to do it through my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I’m just thankful that He gave me the opportunity to be here and be around these guys. I’m the one that gets blessed by their presence,” Forbes said.
Moments after North Carolina punched its ticket to the 2024 College World Series, Forbes’ first as head coach, he made sure to deflect all praise that was sure to come his way.
“It’s not them getting me to Omaha, it’s me hoping to get them. That’s been my prayer all year,” Forbes said in an on-field interview with Raleigh’s CBS 17 News. “I changed the thought process of how I coached in 2022 and I made a decision that, if I’m a Christian believer, I’ve gotta coach through that avenue.”
“If I’m a Christian believer I need to coach through that avenue.
In that year of Forbes’ paradigm shift as a coach, he was featured in the Heart of a Coach Q&A in the Spring 2022 edition of Sports Spectrum Magazine. There, he spoke about how his faith affects his approach to his job.
“My faith in Christ impacts everything I do as a coach,” he said. “I try my best to make every decision through Him and coach so that others will hopefully see Him in me daily.”
He continued later, “Keeping perspective as to why I coach, I am challenged the most in making sure I remind myself daily that you win in many more ways than just the final score.”
Today and every day we honor and remember the brave men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
North Carolina begins its CWS journey on Friday evening in a matchup with Ole Miss (41-21), which advanced past No. 4 Auburn to get to Omaha. In 2022, the last time the Rebels made it to the CWS, they left with a national championship.
Mississippi State head coach Samantha Ricketts, May 24, 2026. (Photo By Hallie Walker/Mississippi State Athletics)
The student beat the master.
Mississippi State, led by head coach Samantha Ricketts, knocked off perennial power Oklahoma on Sunday with a 6-0 shutout win in Game 3 of the super regional to advance to the Women’s College World Series for the first time in program history.
For Ricketts, the upset came in familiar territory. A former Oklahoma star, she played first base under legendary coach Patty Gasso from 2006-09, setting then-program records for career home runs (48) and RBIs (239). She later spent two seasons as a graduate assistant on Gasso’s staff.
Now leading Mississippi State, Ricketts made history twice in one weekend. Friday’s 11-9 victory marked the first time a former Oklahoma player had defeated Gasso as a head coach. Sunday’s win raised the stakes even higher, making Ricketts the first former player to knock off her former mentor for a tournament or regional championship.
She was quick to give praise to her mentor following the win.
“They’re the standard of college softball,” Ricketts said during her postgame press conference. “What Coach Gasso has built cannot be denied — what this program is and what she’s done. I know, for myself and the relationship to the program, I am so thankful for her and her guidance. I would not be in this seat and in this moment without Patty Gasso.”
Mississippi State took Game 1 of the series 11-9 but lost 7-1 in Game 2. That provided a teaching moment for Ricketts, who’s been at the helm since 2019.
“We talk a lot about perspective,” she said in the press conference. “Even in those tough moments, even after yesterday’s loss when we got punched in the mouth, this is something we get to do. Nobody has to be here. Nobody’s forcing us to be here. We are all very blessed to be in this moment in the wins and the losses.”
The defeat for OU marks the first time in 399 games that it was held scoreless, and this year’s Women’s College World Series will be without OU for the first time since 2015.
Because of Oklahoma’s pedigree, MSU knew it wasn’t expected to win, which allowed the Bulldogs to play from a perspective of just having fun.
“It’s not life or death at the end of the day; it’s softball. And we’re going to go out there and give it everything we’ve got, have fun with our friends, and give glory to God at the end,” Ricketts said in the press conference. “This group, I think, did a really good job of that. We kind of embraced the David-versus-Goliath mentality, and just knew that all the pressure was in their dugout.”
Ricketts has learned a lot from Gasso, but perhaps some of the most important lessons were in how to build a sustainable, winning culture. Much of that has helped Ricketts lead with her faith in God out front and foster an environment where faith is at the core.
“I think what I’ve really learned to do, and starting with Coach Gasso, is just surrounding yourself with people that are strong in their faith, that have the same values and beliefs,” Ricketts said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in 2021. “Just making sure you have good leaders and mentors in place and strong people of faith for your players to look up to.”
She recalled being at Oklahoma and being introduced to team chaplain and Fellowship of Christian Athletes area director Sarah Roberts. Ricketts started attending Sunday chapels, and eventually it became essentially “a whole team event.”
“Everyone just really loved her and her passion and wanted to start off the Sunday on the right foot,” Ricketts said on the podcast. “That’s something we’ve been able to do here [at Mississippi State]. We’ve got a great FCA program as well.”
Join us today on the podcast for a conversation with @HailStateSB coach Samantha Ricketts (@Coach_Ricketts) for a conversation about on leadership and coaching for greater purpose.
Now a coach, her schedule is every bit as busy as it was as a player, if not more. But she knows she can’t let that be an excuse for her time with God to be put aside. She understands she has to keep her priorities in order and make intentional time to be in the Word, because when she’s busy or tired, that’s usually the first thing that gets sacrificed from her schedule.
“I like to journal,” she said on the podcast. “I use typically the Bible app and the verse of the day. I’ll use that to dive in, just pick a verse, and then from there, journal what that looks like for me, what I think the meanings of it might be, and then use that to spark my prayer over my players, my team, my family.
“But that just helps me stay in a routine as well. That [verse is] something that changes every day and something I know is going to be there that I could use to sit down with and spend 15 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever I have, and just try to stay locked in to what I know my priorities are.”
Ricketts and Mississippi State begin WCWS play on Thursday against Texas Tech at 12 p.m. ET on ESPN.
THIS IS THE GET IN THE GAME PODCAST
WITH SCOTT LINEBRINK
Our guest today is Fonzo Martinez, the boys basketball head coach at McKinney Christian Academy in Texas.
In 2026, Martinez led his club to the 4A state championship for the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS). He joins host Scott Linebrink to talk about leadership, faith, winning and trusting in the process.
What a season, what a journey, what a team, what a BROTHERHOOD✊🏼🫡 This team was SPECIAL, and has only cemented the standard and CU1TURE of our program. Time to get in the gym, and start working for next season… we’re coming for that 🏆💍💪🏼
Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, March 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
Heading into the season, some NBA pundits and fans saw this as a “gap year” for the Boston Celtics. Star guard Jayson Tatum was coming off a torn Achilles suffered in last year’s playoffs, while key contributors Kristaps Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday were dealt in the offseason. Longtime center Al Horford also departed, signing with the Golden State Warriors in free agency.
But as the NBA enters the postseason, there the Celtics are, back in familiar territory as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference after posting a 55-26 regular-season record. It’s the fifth straight season in which Boston has finished in the top two in the East. After missing most of the season recovering, Tatum is back playing, and head coach Joe Mazzulla is looking to lead his team to a second NBA championship under his watch.
The way the Celtics closed out the regular season was perhaps a microcosm of the 2025-26 season. Tatum and fellow star guards Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, along with a host of key reserves, were unavailable for Game No. 82, yet the Celtics beat the Orlando Magic — which was battling for playoff positioning — with just eight available players.
“We said it all year, one through [18], whoever steps on the floor, there’s an expectation to put us in position with an opportunity to win,” Mazzulla said Sunday after the game. “Stick to the process of winning. Today is no different than the other 81 games from the standpoint of we had eight guys, and the expectation is to put us in position to win, to execute, to play hard, to play together.”
For his efforts this season, Mazzulla is on the shortlist for Coach of the Year honors. Should he win, he’ll point the spotlight off himself and instead toward God, as he often does when on the biggest stage.
When the Celtics won the title in 2024, Mazzulla donned a black shirt that read — in all white capital letters — “BUT FIRST…LET ME THANK GOD.” As the head coach for one of the most storied franchises in all of professional sports, he sees his platform as an opportunity to regularly give glory to God.
He remained in that shirt for all of the postgame celebration photos and interviews. He was even pictured holding up the Larry O’Brien Trophy, smiling while proudly wearing the shirt. It marked the 18th world championship for the Celtics — the most of any NBA franchise — and the official photo and video documentation of it will forever include his bold and public statement of faith.
The championship celebration continued into the early hours of the morning, at which time Mazzulla walked around the confetti-filled arena with his wife, Camai, and prayed.
“On the walk we were talking a lot about how this can’t change us,” he told the audience at a Nations of Coaches event in Boston in 2024. “A lot of it was praying for the humility and perspective to not allow this to change who we are.”
The Mazzulla home proudly features a “prayer board” where he, his wife, and their children add prayers throughout the year. The board oscillates between prayers for their immediate family, friends and other loved ones. At one point, it included a prayer for Mazzulla to rise through the coaching ranks and become an NBA coach. But as he was making the grind through the Division-II ranks, coaching in the NBA felt like sort of a pipe dream.
“I almost took the ‘NBA head coach’ one down and then she kind of yelled at me and made me keep it up there,” he said at the event.
Before he was married, he started a “vision board,” where he put up pictures of goals he wanted to “speak into existence.” On it were goals like winning the NBA championship and working for the Celtics, and eventually photos of his wife and kids as well as NBA coaches Brad Stevens, Erik Spoelstra and Steve Kerr. There was also a photo of Jesus.
“The vision board kind of tells your story — like I want to work for the Celtics, I want to win a Larry O’Brien Trophy, I want to be able to learn from these three guys … I want to keep Jesus at the center of it, and I want to have a family,” he said. “So it kind of helps you tell the story about where you want to go and how you’re going to get there.”
As he’s grown older as a man and as a coach, so too has his faith and understanding of Jesus — in particular the concept of grace.
“Over the last maybe five to eight years I’ve really made a commitment to study grace and what real love is and understanding [all that],” Mazzulla said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in October 2023. “How I’m able to accept God’s grace or how I’m able to accept His love is going to be how I’m able to give it to my kids or my wife or people. So it’s something that I’ve really been focused on the last few years: grace, love, understanding, mercy, those gifts.”
He’s also able to see how God has orchestrated his career to where he’s gone from the lower ranks of college to coaching an NBA champion.
“There’s no coincidence that I’ve had the opportunity to coach a team of the area that I’m from,” he said on the podcast. “I grew up 45 minutes from [Boston] and God has given me this. I try to be as thankful as I can every single day, knowing it might not last forever, but this is where God has us. So I can’t hide that, and I’m just forever grateful for what He’s done for me.”
Mazzulla and the Celtics will begin their 2026 playoff run Sunday against whichever team emerges as the East’s No. 7 seed from the play-in round.
