The Season Arc
Nothing has happened yet.
That is actually a remarkable thing to be able to say. No losses to process. No roles to defend. No chemistry problems to manage. No record to explain. The season is entirely ahead of you, and right now, in this room, before the first whistle blows, every version of what this team could become is still possible.
What you do in the next few weeks will start to determine which of those versions actually emerges. So the way you begin matters.
Read this passage slowly.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 — NIVLet that sit for a second before you move.
In the beginning. The first word of the first sentence of the first book is about the act of beginning — the moment before which nothing existed and after which everything was possible. Creation begins with intentionality. The void does not accidentally become something good. It is spoken into purposefully, and what emerges reflects the character and intention of the one who began it.
The beginning of a season works the same way. The culture that takes root in the first week of camp is the culture that will be hardest to change in November. The habits formed in the first practices are the ones that surface under pressure. The tone set in the first team meetings — about accountability, about standards, about what this team is going to be — shapes everything that builds on it.
You do not get to choose whether the first week sets a tone. You only get to choose what tone it sets. The team that approaches the first practice as an opportunity to establish something intentional is in a different position by midseason than the team that treated it as a formality before the real season starts.
This is the beginning. Begin it well. Everything that follows builds on what you put here.
You do not get to choose whether the first week sets a tone. You only get to choose what tone it sets. Begin it well — everything that follows builds on what you put here.
What one thing do you want to be true about this team by the end of camp that isn’t fully true yet? What do you have to do in the next two weeks to make it true?
Intention-setting question. The answers function as individual commitments to the beginning of the season.
This is the beginning. It is entirely open. Begin it with intention.
This devotional is specifically for the first team gathering of the season, before any practice has occurred. Its power comes from the genuine openness of that moment.