What I have been doing in my absence

I haven't been very faithful in my blogging recently due to the craziness of my schedule. Last Saturday my wife graduated from college, which was a huge milestone in our family's life. I also have been working very hard on completing a book with Sports writer Al Pickett. Al is an incredible sport's historian and sports writer. You can catch him on his daily radio show, or countless articles each week for numerous high profile magazines. Our book Brother's Keeper is on target to get published by the end of the Summer. I have attached the introduction to our book to let you in on a little of what we have been working on...

Introduction
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother? He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?
--Genesis 4:9

For the last ten years, Coach Steve Warren has given me an incredible opportunity to serve as chaplain of the Abilene High football team. As the years have progressed, although the teams I have worked with are quite unique from one another, there are two things that remain constant.
The first thing that remains the same is each year I give the team a theme, which have ranged from band of brothers, allegiance of one, we know that you will know, and many more. The second thing is I get to meet with the team privately each week prior to their game.
This year was different; I struggled most of the summer before the 2009 football season to come up with a theme. One particular evening, as I continued in my struggle to find the perfect theme, I began to scan the Bible. About twenty minutes into my search I came across a familiar story about Cain and Abel. The story is quite intriguing.
Following in his Father Adam’s footsteps, Cain became a farmer. Although the Bible unfortunately does not give us a great detail of information about Cain, an extremely important life lesson was birthed as a result of the life he lived. Cain’s story begins with he and his brother Abel bringing an offering to the Lord. The Bible then begins to unfold a story that will never be forgotten. The story declares that God was not pleased with Cain’s offering whatsoever, but found great delight in Abel’s sacrifice.
As a result of God’s declaration, Cain grew increasing angry and jealousy oozed from the depths of his bones. His anger became so great that it led him to murder his own blood, his brother. After Cain murdered his brother, Genesis states, “Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don't know,” he replied. “Am I my brother's keeper?” (Genesis 4:9)
Am I my brother’s keeper? What an incredible thought. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. “That’s it,” I thought to myself, that’s the theme for Abilene High’s 2009 football team.
Each Thursday, prior to game day I joined the varsity football team to watch the special teams’ film of the opponent the team will play the following day. After the film session, Coach Warren releases the team to me. During this time, I share a few motivational thoughts with the team, and then I open the floor for the team to share with one another.
I remember it as if it was yesterday. It was the middle of August when I walked through the classroom door to meet with the team for the first time to start off the 2009 season. Like I had done previously for years with the team, I watched the special teams’ film of Fort Worth Dunbar, the team that the Eagles were going to play in the season opener.
Coach Warren then released the team to me; the returnees knew it was time for me to share the theme for the 2009 season. As I cleared my throat, I said, “Guys, my name is Chad Mitchell, for those of you that don’t know me, I’m the chaplain of the team. I’m here not to preach at you, not to tell you what to do, but only to be a friend to you. Each year I give the team a theme. I have struggled for quite some time with coming up with a theme for this year’s team, but I feel in my heart I have found the right one.”
With a little bit of anxiety, I said, “It is brother’s keeper. I have seen a lot of great athletes come through this program, but I have not seen a team completely sold out to their brother, willing to take care of each other both on the field and off. For you to be successful, for you to create history here at Abilene High, each one of you has to become your brother’s keeper.”
--Chad Mitchell

I have spent more than twenty years covering Abilene High football. For fifteen years, I was sports editor of the Abilene Reporter-News and wrote hundreds of game stories and features on the Eagles.
For the last six years, I have provided color commentary on the radio broadcasts, joining Chuck Statler for the play-by-play of the Eagles’ games on KZQQ 1560 AM in Abilene. Our broadcasts, which are also heard live on the World Wide Web at www.gofridaynight.com, are used for the audio portion of the replay of the games each week on AISD cable channel 7, too.
In addition to that, I have become the unofficial historian of Abilene High football after writing the book, Team of the Century: The Greatest High School Football Team in Texas, in 2004 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the first of Abilene High’s three consecutive state championships in 1954, 1955 and 1956. The Dallas Morning News had given the Abilene High teams of the 1950s the title of “Team of the Century” in 1999 as the top high school football teams in Texas in the past century.
As the 2009 season began and the Eagles began to roll over their opponents every Friday night, Chuck and I would ask each week after another lopsided victory, “But how good are we?” Just a year earlier, Abilene High had cruised through the regular season with a 10-0 record, only to lose its bi-district game to Mansfield. The University Interscholastic League realignment in 2008 had moved Abilene High to a new, much weaker District 3-5A, and the prevailing thought was that the new district had left the Eagles unprepared for the rugged competition that was waiting in the playoffs.
Playing Fort Worth Paschal and Haltom somehow just wasn’t the same as facing Odessa Permian and Midland Lee during the regular season.
Then there were the other question marks that always accompanies a new season. Herschel Sims returned at running back after a fine sophomore campaign. But the rest of the skill position players – at running back, quarterback and wide receiver – were all new. Quarterback Ronnell Sims, up from the junior varsity, obviously gave the Eagles their best running threat at that position since Marcus Johnson seven or eight years earlier. But could he throw the ball effectively when teams shut down the running game?
What about the defense, which seemed quick but undersized? Just how good were these Eagles? That was the question Chuck and I asked each week, right through Week 10 of the regular season and the start of the playoffs.
Something seemed different about this 2009 version of the Eagles, however. They were consistent, never seemingly having a lull, a half or a game in which they appeared flat or ill-prepared and failed to live up their potential, no matter how much they dominated their opponent.
They also were getting better and better as the season progressed. The offensive play-calling became much different from previous years, adjusting to fit the team’s personnel. The defense, which relied on all-state linebacker Chris Williams a year earlier to make the big plays, instead became an 11-man unit that was minus a star but somehow always seemed to have everyone is the right spot on every play.
But, when the season began, can I say I foresaw the magical 15-0 state championship season that was about to unfold? No, but I became more and more of a believer as the season went on.
When the championship game ended at the Alamodome in San Antonio and the Eagles had their first state title in fifty-three years, I did something I don’t normally do. I went to the Abilene locker room to congratulate Coach Warren.
“Thanks for taking me on a wonderful ride,” I told him.
It was a magical ride for thousands of Abilene football fans during a season in which a group of ordinary high school football players became an extraordinary team. From Chad’s eyes on the sidelines and his Thursday meetings with the team to my eyes in the press box, we thank you for allowing us to take you on another magical journey, reliving a state championship season in which a group of athletes learned what it meant to become their “brother’s keeper.”
The team even chose “Bro Keep,” their slang abbreviation of “Brother’s Keeper,” to adorn their state championship rings.
--Al Pickett