Follow the Fellow who Follows his Dreams

Coach Butler of the Blue Thunder girls' soccer team.

Finian's Rainbow is a musical with a happy ending set in the south. One of the songs that catches my imagination is "Look to the Rainbow."
    
        Look, look, look to the rainbow     Follow it over the hill and stream     Look, look, look to the rainbow     Follow the fellow who follows a dream.

My brother is a fellow with a dream. He can put a group of girls ages 10-12 on the soccer field together and turn them into Blue Thunder, an undefeatable force of nature. His girls in their first year of playing were one win away from making it to the state tournament.


I love to hear my brother talk about "his girls" and "his parents." He is a natural teacher and possesses a high amount of integrity on and off the field.


This first year, his team was so cohesive, that coaches from the opposing league were certain my brother was cheating because his girls could not be beaten. They surmised there must have been older girls on his team, although my brother gets his girls the same way the other coaches do, from the league's lottery system. 


Each time coaches approached him on the field, near his girls, to challenge him, his first thought was always to protect his girls from hearing the ungrounded accusations. He succeeded until one of the last games of the season. Then he had to let his parents and girls know they were being accused of cheating.


My brother, his girls, and their parents kept their grace through the storm and after each game, they went to the center line in true good sportsmanship display, to shake hands with the teams they defeated and whose coaches were defaming them.


When they lost the last game they played this season, the one that kept them from advancing to the state tournament, they stood proudly, yet sadly, on the center line to congratulate the victors on a good game.


My brother's dream is to play in the state tournament. He almost made it his first year as a select soccer coach. His parents have told him whatever he wants to do as a coach, they will follow him because they have seen the positive influence he has made on the lives of their daughters.


When we follow positive people who are following their passions and dreams, we never know how far they will take us. Sometimes it may be to a pot of gold at the end of Finian's Rainbow.
_______________________________________________________________
Dear Lord, thank you for the positive role models, like my brother, in the world who work with our children to teach them how to accept negative influences, victory, and defeat in life with grace.