Kurtis Townsend
Assistant Men's Basketball Coach
University of Kansas

Chosen Attribute: Leadership

Dictionary definition: "An act or instance of leading; guidance; direction."

My definition: "Being a role model to the athletes and people I am around every day and just doing what I can where I am with what I have."

What has helped me develop leadership: "Become a Better You" by Joel Osteen – "It was a good book for me, encouraging me to be comfortable where I am right now with my life. I want to be a head coach one day, but if that never happens, I know I am able to touch a lot of people with the platform that I have right now."

Favorite Scripture that deals with leadership: Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV) – "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

Why I chose this passage: "I think that describes how important leadership is, not only with my own kids, but also with the kids I come in contact with either through recruiting, coaching or competing against them. It is important to train these kids because of the way the culture is. There is so much negative out there. And it is really important that they have people around them who see things another way and can open their eyes to a different way of life than what they see within their generation."

How I have shown leadership in my life: "Through my actions with my kids, my wife and my finances, and just trying to help the people I am around on a day-to-day basis. To me, leadership isn't just telling people what to do. I am the furthest thing from a perfect person. I make as many mistakes as anybody, and sometimes that is the best way I learn."

"But also, I apply the old saying of showing people how you want them to act as opposed to telling them. What you do has more of an impact on them than what you say."

How I have shown leadership in coaching: "Because of the influence I have on young people, I try to be a model with my actions every day. I try to listen and coach with integrity and let people know what I expect from them. And when people know you care about them as a person, and you listen to them, they are more likely to listen to what you have to say."

As a leader, I try to put other people ahead of myself and be more of a servant — serving my players the best way I can, whether it is listening or helping them deal with their problems. But ultimately, leadership is showing them integrity. I am going to tell them the right thing to do, even if it hurts. I want them to know how important integrity is, and that it is the biggest thing in leadership. And I honestly believe that is why God has put me in this situation: To be on a platform where people listen. And so, I just want to make sure I send the right message."

Johntel Franklin


The coach never considered any other option. It didn't matter that his DeKalb, Ill., High School basketball team had ridden a bus two and a half hours to get to Milwaukee, then waited another hour past game time to play. Didn't matter that the game was close, or that this was a chance to beat a big city team. Something else was on Dave Rohlman's mind when he asked for a volunteer to shoot two free throws awarded his team on a technical foul in the second quarter. His senior captain raised his hand, ready to go to the line as he had many times before. Only this time it was different.

"You realize you're going to miss them, don't you?" Rohlman said.

Darius McNeal nodded his head. He understood what had to be done.

It was a Saturday night in February, and the Barbs were playing a non-conference game on the road against Milwaukee Madison. It was the third meeting between the two schools, who were developing a friendly rivalry that spanned two states. The teams planned to get together after the game and share some pizzas and soda.

But the game itself almost never took place. Hours earlier, the mother of Milwaukee Madison senior captain Johntel Franklin died at a local hospital. Carlitha Franklin had been in remission after a five-year fight with cervical cancer, but she began to hemorrhage that morning while Johntel was taking his college ACT exam. Her son and several of his teammates were at the hospital late that afternoon when the decision was made to turn off the life-support system. Carlitha Franklin was just 39.

"She was young and they were real close," said Milwaukee coach Aaron Womack Jr., who was at the hospital. "He was very distraught and it happened so suddenly he didn't have time to grieve." Womack was going to cancel the game, but Franklin told him he wanted the team to play. And play they did, even though the game started late and Milwaukee Madison dressed only eight players.

Early in the second quarter, Womack saw someone out of the corner of his eye. It was Franklin, who came there directly from the hospital to root his teammates on. The Knights had possession, so Womack called a time out. His players went over and hugged their grieving teammate. Fans came out of the stands to do the same.

"We got back to playing the game and I asked if he wanted to come and sit on the bench," Womack said during a telephone interview. "No," Franklin replied. "I want to play."
There was just one problem. Since Franklin wasn't on the pre-game roster, putting him in meant drawing a technical foul that would give DeKalb two free throws. Though it was a tight game, Womack was willing to give up the two points. It was more important to help his senior guard and co-captain deal with his grief by playing.

Over on the other bench, though, Rohlman wasn't so willing to take them. He told the referees to forget the technical and just let Franklin play. "I could hear them arguing for five to seven minutes, saying, `We're not taking it, we're not taking it," Womack said. "The refs told them, no, that's the rule. You have to take them."

That's when Rohlman asked for volunteers, and McNeal's hand went up.

He went alone to the free throw line, dribbled the ball a couple of times, and looked at the rim.
His first attempt went about two feet, bouncing a couple of times as it rolled toward the end line. The second barely left his hand. It didn't take long for the Milwaukee players to figure out what was going on.

They stood and turned toward the DeKalb bench and started applauding the gesture of sportsmanship. Soon, so did everybody in the stands. "I did it for the guy who lost his mom," McNeal told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "It was the right thing to do."

Franklin would go on to score 10 points, and Milwaukee Madison broke open the game in the second half to win 62-47. Afterward, the teams went out for pizza, two players from each team sharing each pie. Franklin stopped by briefly, thankful that his team was there for him.
"I got kind of emotional but it helped a lot just to play," he said. "I felt like I had a lot of support out there."

Carlitha Franklin's funeral was last Friday, and the school turned out for her and her son. Cheerleaders came in uniform, and everyone from the principal and teachers to Johntel's classmates were there. "Even the cooks from school showed up," Womack said. "It lets you know what kind of kid he is."

Basketball is a second sport for the 18-year-old Franklin, who says he has had some scholarship nibbles and plans to play football in college. He just has a few games left for the Knights, who are 6-11 and got beat 71-36 Tuesday night by Milwaukee Hamilton. It hasn't been the greatest season for the team, but they have stuck together through a lot of adversity.

"We maybe don't have the best basketball players in the world but they go to class and take care of business," Womack said. "We have a losing record but there's life lessons going on, good ones." None so good, though, as the moment a team and a player decided there were more important things than winning and having good stats.

Yes, DeKalb would go home with a loss. But it was a trip they'll never forget.
"This is something our kids will hold for a lifetime," Rohlman said. "They may not remember our record 20 years from now, but they'll remember what happened in that gym that night."

This article was written by Ron Brown for Sharing the Victory website.

A couple of years ago I investigated the fan attendance of NFL games. I found that approximately one million people per week attended the games. That's a lot of people! Now, just think if I were to also count the number who attended college and high school football games. That total would be astronomical! With the number of people involved, imagine the amount of money Americans spend in the experience of attending football games every week. Tickets, food, gas... It would really add up.OK, now that's the financial investment. We then must look at the amount of time we invest traveling back and forth to games, not to mention the hours during the game.And, of course, our talents are either being used or ignored during that block of time. You're cheering or booing, watching and going through a lot of gestures as you root for your team.

So, I ask you this: Is it worth it for you, sports fans? I ask you, parents of athletes: Is it worth toting your children around to sporting events at all hours, missing church and family meals?

You, athletes and coaches, are spending enormous hours practicing, studying opponents and training. Think of all the broken dreams, unfulfilled promises, comparisons and rejections. Oh, there's some fun and glory in there for you, but most of us playing or coaching right now will eventually be asked to leave this game that we love — whatever the sport. It lends itself to replacements and impatience and new folks with new ideas. Period. How do you like them apples?

It's interesting to me that, when Jesus told the parable of the shrewd manager in Luke 16:1-13 (NASB), He reminded us that the things in which we invest regarding our time, treasure and talents will eventually fail us. So, are we too involved and invested in sports? If it's all going to fail us, then what's the use? Ah, but in verse 8, Jesus makes another intriguing statement: "…for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light." In other words, Jesus reminds us that the non-Christian has learned how to be shrewd in this world by using activities such as sports to build Satan's kingdom. Jesus also expresses an indictment to us as Christians for not using talents (like sports) to advance God's Kingdom. It's about kingdomizing the sports world with Christ.

So, let me ask you again: Is it worth it for Christians to heavily invest our time, talents and treasures in sports? Absolutely! Here's why…I once had a conversation with an athletic director who was not a Christian. He struggled with my using coaching as a platform to promote Jesus Christ. In other words, he thought that was a little on the "shrewd" side. I reminded him — respectfully, I hope — that I saw him on a TV commercial promoting a car dealership using his influence as an athletic director. What does an athletic director have to do with selling cars? Shrewdness! I further reminded him — respectfully, I hope — that our head football coach was using his influence on a TV commercial to promote a local pizza business. That was kind of a "shrewd" move by the pizza industry, don't you think? Whatever it took to advance the pizza kingdom, I suppose.

So, then I hit him — respectfully, I hope — with the punch line. Why can't, or better yet, why shouldn't I use my coaching influence to advance the Kingdom that I so believe in, that I long to continually invest in: the Kingdom of God.

I don't know what it looks like for you in your sports world, but whether you are a fan, parent, player, coach or administrator, you are using sports to advance one of two kingdoms: Satan's or God's. There is a godly "shrewdness" that is honest, gentle, loving, but very intensely strategic, moved only through the character of Christ. That is what Jesus is saying to every Christian involved in the sports world. Not only do we have the right to use sports as a tool to promote Christ, we have the responsibility to do it!

So, go before the Lord today and humbly submit your role in the sports world, and take on a Christ-centered, kingdomizing attitude that moves you into strategic action. There's nothing like stewarding sports for Jesus.Remember, there are two ways of doing sports: God's way or man's way. Which will you choose?

Dear friends and fellow BUGgers,

Hope the year 2009 have kickoff in great ways for you. I am all excited to see how and where our good Lord will take us this year. We have many things install for the year. The Malaysia Sports Partnership people are gathering to see how they can continue to grow the ministry. As we do we shall keep you well inform of all the happenings within Malaysia as well as beyond.

Continue to come back for updates as well as to be encouraged by some of the happenings within the lives of GOD's sports people all over the world. There are many lessons we can take with us from the playing field.

I was given a bookmark by a couple from my church and I just love it. It is a Sports Prayer bookmark. Just want to share it with you and may this truly be our prayer as we press on and charge on in the year 2009.

O LORD, GRANT ME THE COURAGE TO TRY,
THE STRENGTH TO ENDURE,
THE HONOR TO EXCEL,
AND THE FAITH TO BELIEVE.

Matt Lepsis was having a blast - doing drugs, partying and even playing in NFL games while he was high. The Denver Broncos offensive lineman had established himself as one of the league's more underrated left tackles and was rolling in money, having signed a four-year, $25 million contract before the 2006 season. The last thing on his mind was God.

Every day when he woke, the first thing he did was get high. He enjoyed the effect drugs had on him. He was no longer painfully shy around his wife or at the parties they attended.
"For the first six games of the year, I was high," Lepsis said of the 2007 season.
By his choice, that season would be his last in the NFL. Lepsis left it all - the game, the drugs, the money - to follow God. "I was getting deeper and deeper into things I shouldn't have," Lepsis said. "I started to feel this presence. I felt the presence of God, which I never felt before."

Now, instead of helping push the Broncos toward the playoffs, he's pushing himself through Dallas Theological Seminary. Lepsis' spiritual journey is amazing and mystifying. He realizes some of it sounds far-fetched. He admits he can't explain everything. But he promises it all happened.

Lepsis had dabbled in recreational drugs since he was a tight end at the University of Colorado, but it never became a habit. Painkillers taken after a season-ending knee injury in 2006 led to daily use of recreational drugs. "The first thing I did when I woke up in the morning was get high, and I would try to stay that way all day long," said Lepsis, who won't say what drugs he used. The NFL's annual substance-abuse test didn't uncover Lepsis' hidden addiction. He said he practiced about 10-15 times last year while under the influence before trying it in a game.
"I look back on it, and it was really foolish of me," Lepsis said. "There were definitely times when I wasn't even really there. I was physically there, but I was in another place mentally."
Lepsis understands that he was being self-destructive, but he didn't feel that way at the time.
For most of his life, he hated his introverted personality. But the influence of drugs changed him. He joined the party crowd and was much more comfortable around people, including his wife.
But Shana Lepsis - despite enjoying the new lifestyle - wasn't so sure about the changes.
"He was turning into a person I wasn't really able to recognize," said Shana, who has been married to Matt for 8½ years. "Definitely not the person I married."

Even though his wife grew skeptical, Lepsis never hit rock bottom. But somehow he found religion anyway. "Usually this person was in the gutter or had no other place to go," Lepsis said. "For me, it was the total opposite. I was having a ball. I was playing in the NFL, making a lot of money and I found this thing that helped me. I was on top of the world."

Some odd signs began to get Lepsis' attention. The first came when his phone rang as he was playing with his kids. When he answered, a song was playing. Lepsis, a fan of the Dave Matthews Band, heard the lyric "The difficulty is coming" from the group's song titled "#41."
Days later, he heard music coming from headphones in his locker. Again he heard: "The difficulty is coming." But he didn't remember leaving on any music. Another phone call with the lyric followed that week. "I'm like, ‘I'm really getting scared,'" Lepsis said. Lepsis was terrified of flying so his initial interpretation of the message was he would die in a plane crash, maybe on his next flight for a game at Indianapolis. "I'm thinking, how am I going to break this to (Broncos coach Mike) Shanahan that I can't fly to Indy?" Lepsis said with a laugh.

At a birthday party before that trip, his mind started to wander. He told the birthday girl about his fear of dying in a plane crash. She replied that he shouldn't worry because God was in control.
"I was like, ‘What? God?'" Lepsis said. "It got the wheels turning a bit." He started to wonder about his drug habit and his "crazy thoughts." He started to think about his priorities, including whether the money he always had coveted was that important.

On the flight to Indianapolis, Lepsis approached Jason Elam, the team's kicker and a devout Catholic who had studied world religions at Liberty Theological Seminary before that season.
Elam listened to his teammate and suggested that he come to a chapel service the next day. The guest speaker's message was about fear. "He was at a place where I felt like God was trying to get a hold of him and talk to him," said Elam, who now kicks for Atlanta. Shortly after the trip to Indianapolis, Lepsis told Elam his story and asked if he could pursue religion while continuing to do drugs. "He was trying to rationalize what he was doing," Elam said. "Either you believe what you say, or you don't. And if you believe, you have to believe all of it."

At Elam's urging, Lepsis decided to ask God for help. He went in a closet at his home and closed the door. "It was the first time in my life I had said a meaningful prayer," Lepsis said. "I said, ‘This thing is out of my control. ... I can't stop. It's too powerful.'" He woke the next morning and, for the first time in many months, didn't get high. But he had a "horrible, miserable day" at practice and that evening told his wife that he "must have been a fool to think God would help me." She asked him to try again. With the closet door closed, Lepsis prayed once more.
He didn't get high the next day either. He told a couple of his teammates what he thought might be happening. Lepsis is practically apologetic that he can't adequately describe what happened to him, but he felt God answered his prayers.

"This overwhelming sense of peace and purpose came over me," Lepsis said. "It was like at that moment God was telling me, ‘This is what you're going to do for the rest of your life.'" In the middle of his 11th season with the Broncos, Lepsis' thoughts quickly shifted to religion and God. He quit drugs. His wife said she can't believe how they went from one lifestyle to another almost overnight.

"I don't think anybody was worried, but guys knew he went through this big change," guard Ben Hamilton said. "A lot of people noticed. I think he left a good example once he did this change."
One drawback to Lepsis' religious awakening was the timing - half of the season remained.
"From that moment on, I was completely consumed by how I was burned out with football," he said. "It was the toughest season, by far, I've played in. I had nothing left to give football."

Although he never had read books regularly, Lepsis began to go through three a week.
One book - "How Good is Good Enough?" - given to him by Elam focused his thoughts. He said he realized he had sinned and needed Jesus Christ as his savior. But Lepsis was having a tough time convincing his parents and some friends what was happening. So he prayed - asking God to help others understand what he was going through - for 20 minutes while taking a shower at the team hotel before a game in late October. When he opened the shower curtain, "Jesus" was written on the foggy mirror. Lepsis said he knows that a previous guest wrote it on the mirror. Or maybe it was a maid. He understands there's a rational explanation for it. But to him, it was another sign. "What are the odds the week after I've prayed to be saved, this is on my mirror?" Lepsis said.

One day after the 2007 season, Lepsis knew he was finished after 150 games. He went to Shanahan and told him he was retiring. He felt a relief he couldn't believe as he drove from team headquarters. With music blaring, he began pumping his fists. Then he heard his phone chime.
Before each season, Lepsis would write on his calendar or type in his phone an exclamation to mark the day after the last game. The chime alerted him to the postseason message that he had forgotten: "Freedom has arrived!" "I laughed and just said, ‘That's how God works,'" Lepsis said.

Lepsis doesn't know what he wants to do with the rest of his life. He might become a pastor or chaplain. Right now he is enjoying learning about religion with his wife, pregnant with their third child, by his side. Lepsis has told his story in five or six churches and about 15 times to smaller groups. He remains shy around people but feels at ease when telling his story. "They say ‘Here's a guy who was in the NFL and seemed to have it all, and he's telling us he wasn't fulfilled,'" Lepsis said.

Lepsis said that he misses hanging out with teammates, but that he misses nothing else about the NFL. The game and his destructive lifestyle are far behind him. "I'm glad I didn't stay on that path," Lepsis said. "I have a purpose now."