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Today I am writing a brief post about one of the hardest times in my life.  I was coaching at a local high school and halfway through the season our head coach and my good friend passed away suddenly and unexpected.  This was a huge loss for his family, students, athletes and the community as a whole.  I am going to go into all the details of what happened, but instead will talk about the loss of a dear friend and coach and how the coaching staff and team responded to that loss.  Losing important people in out lives is never easy and brings a rush of emotion that we deal with for sometimes months or even years.  I was the offensive coordinator at the time so when my friend passed I was asked to continue the season as the interim head coach.  I remember the conversation with the principal when he asked me to take things and finish the season.   I gladly took the responsibility not because it was a chance to take the program over.  It was the right thing to do in honor of my friend, play

I am going on record to state that I began this blog to talk about faith, family and how God can enable us to live a better life.  I have been a Christian since my early teenage years and like many have strayed at times, got real close at times, been part time, went to church, did not go to church and everything in between,  However, through all of that I never lost faith or wavered from my belief that God is real and Jesus is my savior.  With this said and the recent events that have occurred in my life I now plan to get back to Gods word, do his will in my life and share his word to inspire, motivate and hopefully offer my readers hope of Gods grace, mercy and will to be in our daily life's.  This blog is called Heavenly Notices because of a miracle I received in September of 2020. I was a dead man walking and my mom came to me in a dream and told me things I needed to go get checked and was 100 percent correct.  That was not coincidental or made up.  It was a true miracle and I

Today we continue a series of blog post I have been writing using the alphabet to define successful people. These words often are mentioned when we look at successful, well rounded people that we know.  Not just your run of the mill person, but people that stand out from the crowd.  Amazing people that set themselves apart from others at work, in sports and in life.  Have you ever met a person that just attracts talented people and lights up a room when they walk in? You may be that person or certainly have the potential to be that person as well.  As I tell my students and athletes weekly, life is what you make of it and you will get out of what you put into it.  In my career I have coached with peers that met many or all of these characteristics.  I have been fortunate to coach a few guys also that had most of these traits and they went on to play high level sports, own businesses and make huge differences in their community.  I encourage you to find you letter of success.  You ask,

I took a few days off from blogging as I have been recovering from Covid 19 over the Christmas Holidays.  I am writing this to tell my story of the battle I fought with Covid and how it has impacted me and the family this past week and a half.  Since Covid hit we have been very focused on avoiding it the best we could and took precautions to not contract it.  That all changed a week and half ago as we were exposed to someone that did not know they were a carrier and within a few days the wife and I started feeling bad and suspected that we may have contracted it just prior to the Holidays.  It started out like a common cold with runny nose, chest congestion and stomach ache.  We tried for three days to find a testing site close to the house and eventually drove down the road about forty five minutes to be rapid tested.  We were steadily getting sicker and within  a few days of the test we got the results back that we were positive for the virus.  At this point we cancelled Christmas wi

  Today I am writing about remote learning and giving some basic ideas and tips on how as parents we can not only survive but thrive during this Covid 19 mess.  As a career teacher it has been a daily learning experience for myself and my students.  It is up and down roller coaster ride of positives, negatives and in between.  With the various stages of Covid, spikes, slow downs and the gaps in between kids have learned 100% online, hybrid learning, and some even in class fulltime.  It is frustrating as a teacher and parent as it has added even more stress, anxiety, and tasks to our daily schedules that are already jam packed. I did some research and put together a simple list of things that have worked for me as a teacher and have helped the students and parents I teach to do a good job of maintaining grades, assignments, and online schedules.  It has been very challenging and is not the best option for most kids, but it is what it is for now.  As parents and teachers our options are

  Coaching, Mentoring and Guiding  Think about the people that have taught, coached, guided, mentored and helped shape who you are through their leadership in your life.  I have been fortunate to have some of the best mentors, coaches and peers anyone could ask for throughout my career in the business world, teaching and coaching.  I learned so much from these special people that helped shape who I am as a coach, mentor and guide for others.  As I have gotten older and closer to retirement age my priorities have changed quite a bit and my goals are a bit different. I can also say on the reverse side that I have learned how not to coach, mentor and guide people from some peers, coaches, friends, relatives and others along the way.  I am not saying they were particularly bad overall at what they did, in fact, most of them were solid people with good intentions.  They just had some weaknesses in their planning, implementation or process of leading people.  I have strived to be the best I

  Today I am writing about having a winning mindset in life.  The definition of winning is to gain victory, overcome an opponent, gain status or conquer something or someone.  As a career football, wrestling and softball coach I have spent the better part of my adult life trying to win sporting events.  I have had my fair share of victories along the way and accomplished some pretty amazing goals.   However, I have had tough losses along the way and learned as much, maybe more from those defeats about dealing with life and its shortcomings.  As a player I had the opportunity to be on some really good teams one in particular in college that was undefeated and a championship program.  As a high school coach I have been part of state caliber programs, coached on conference and regional title teams.   On goal I have as a head coach is to win the ultimate prize, and that is a team state title in football or wrestling.  I have won conference titles and had numerous conference, regional and a

As I sat down to write today after eating a really yummy breakfast with my wonderful wife.  I was finishing up my third cup of coffee (shhh, don't tell my doctor) and talking to my wife about all the things we are blessed by and with.  We talked about our family, our daughters, in-laws and all the people that bless and pray for us daily.  So I decided to veer off of my typical posting today to write about these wonderful blessings.   I looked up the definition of blessing and it is to have Gods favor and protection in your life.  That hit home for me because without that we can wander through life, fighting things, having troubles and not knowing why those things happen to us.  As my wonderful mother used to say to me as a child "son, count your blessings" everyday.  I take that serious and do my best to count them so I stay grounded and never forget where I came from and most importantly, where I want to go.  I will not get there without the list below and Gods grace, me

  Finding Your Heart Losing heart is defined as feeling overcome by doubt and other feelings that you cannot accomplish something you set out to do.  I often write about sports and use them as an analogy because I have spent three fourths of my adult life as a football and wrestling coach.  I have seen so many young people lose heart as they prepared, practiced and competed.  Most of the time people lose heart because it gets hard, things are not going the way they were envisioned and that will  make someone quit. Adults often lose heart in relationships, jobs, family obligations and other activities.  A job gets tough so they quit because the boss is a jerk.  A marriage gets rocky so they quit and walk away.  Life gets tough and deals hard blows such as cancer, sickness, health issues and personal problems.  Have you ever quit on something or watched a person quit.  Did you give a true effort or did you just walk away because it felt like too much was at risk to overcome it.   I had a

  The Lighthouse A lighthouse is a refuge for weary travelers.  It is a light that shows the way to ships and boats on the ocean.  My wife loves a lighthouse and one of her favorite activities when we travel is to go and look at lighthouses.  For many years we would travel to the coast and go seek out a lighthouse.  The bible talks about a lighthouse also and the light is always Jesus.  I love the old gospel song that talks about the lighthouse and my mom loved it also.  It told us that Jesus is the lighthouse and just has a way to lift the spirit. Without a lighthouse ships would wreck, sailors would perish and the precious cargo would sink to the bottom of the ocean.  A lighthouse is significant to ships just as Jesus is significant to mankind.  He lights the way for us to keep from getting lost.  He shows us through his grace and mercy that salvation for our souls can be attained by seeking his light.  Just as a lighthouse is built strong on a firm foundation to withstand storms, t