The topic for today, and I'm gonna keep it short and sweet. I'm actually—you might think it's cheesy—but I'm gonna hopefully prove to you, or at least show you and discuss: What is the difference between faith and belief? Because the words sound the same, and a lot of times they are used in the same conversation.

They're used when you talk about maybe your religion or your faith in someone else, another person, a being, or something along those lines. But after doing a little bit of digging—just a little bit—there is a significant difference between the word "belief" and the word "faith."

Demonstrating Belief

So right now, very simple task: If I believe that this chair can hold me. But if I say that I believe this chair can hold me, here's how I would probably sit now.

Coach sits in the chair, but beforehand checks to make sure that it is sturdy and slowly takes a seat.

What did you notice about the way in which I sat? It wasn't confident. It was hesitant. There wasn't direct action. I didn't throw myself fully into it. Because when you believe in something, you believe that it can be true, it could hold me, but guess what? If it doesn't and I fall on my ass, I don't believe it can hold me anymore, because I now have to take a new perspective.

Facing Doubt and Critics

Make no mistake, there are believers and non-believers out there right now amongst you, and I'll tell you there are more doubters out there than there are believers that you can do what you're about to do tomorrow. You don't believe me? Here are a couple of—not exact quotes—but a couple of things that have already come across my email, my phone conversations.

They're already looking at this: You haven't won at Merrillville as a team since 2018. You haven't won at Merrillville since 2018. That was my first year as a head coach. 2018. Every two years we should have rotated them back there. 2020, we didn't play them. COVID. 2022, we lost there. We took care of that. They'll come Regionals. We'll get to that in a minute.

It is now 2024, and you are back in a very, very familiar place. We lost Regionals last year there, in a heartbreaking last play. Here's what the other critics are saying: We lost 35-7. Merrillville's 10-1. We're 8-3. They have more all-conference players than we do. People don't believe you can do it. But again, we saw the essence of belief.

Don't allow that voice in your heads in this room to take over.

I think it was Sammy Ampeliotis when I showed you the videos of the 2023 seniors who said, "Don't believe it. Don't believe the critics. Don't believe anybody else. All of that is outside noise. Shut it down. Block it out. Have the mentality that you're not going to stop until you get what you want."

Overcoming Adversity: The Team's Journey

And I think—I think I know what you want. You have to understand this room, this group of young men: you are tougher than what you really think you are. You are tougher than what you think you are. Because it's not about what's happening externally—never has been. It's not about what's happening outside of our locker room, our practice facility. It's about what's happening inside of you and amongst every single one of you right now and your teammates.

I have a goal board. Some of you have seen it, some of you have not, and I don't have access to the projector right now. The red means these are goals that we haven't hit each and every single game. There are goals for offense, goals for defense, and goals for special teams.

We, in each week, have done the following out of all of our goals. There are 21 goals that you could get each and every week.

Week one against Penn, we got six; we lost.

Week two against Andrean, we got 10; we fortunately won.

Week three against LaPorte, we got 11; we won decisively.

Week four against City, we got 10 points.

Week five against Chesterton, we got 10.

Week six against Crown Point, we got two.

Week seven against Merrillville, we got four.

But at that point, we had a conversation the following Thursday night about critics, whether they're in this room, in this school, or elsewhere. And since then, as I've already told you—I told you Monday of this week—what's changed? And the answer is you.

Against Portage, 10 goals.

Against Lake Central, 12 goals.

Against LaPorte a second time, 14 goals.

Against Chesterton, 13 goals.

You are a second-half football team, second half of the season.

What does Merrillville have to show? Their starters haven't played a complete game in four weeks because of how they round out their season. Their closest game was to Chesterton, 29-23. And make no mistake, our game shouldn't have been as close against Chesterton as it was either.

Embracing Faith: Immediate Action

Here's what I want you to understand: Each of those failures in the beginning of the season—failures to get all of our goals or a large number of our goals—took you one step closer to this next goal. When those bad things happen, when those negative voices in your head after you lost at Crown Point and were embarrassed by them in Merrillville—all that negative stuff, that internal dialogue that maybe we're not good enough, maybe this year just isn't it.

It doesn't matter what happened to you in the past. Right now is about what are you going to do about it in the future because you're blessed with another opportunity. You are blessed with this opportunity to go avenge a regular season loss and show that you are, in fact, the better team because you've shown that right there on that goal.

Faith involves this—in conclusion—faith involves reliance, it involves trust. Faith endures doubt. Faith that that chair will hold me—this is what faith looks like. That's action. That's immediate. That's, I show up, I don't think, I don't question, I go and I take part right now.

It's the obstacles in your lives, it's the obstacle in your football life, the hardships and the mountains that you have had to climb, okay? They have not had to climb those same mountains. They haven't. They haven't had to square off against Penn. They haven't had to figure out in mid-season, "Boy, what do we want to do? Do we just want to kind of turn it in after we lose two straight by running clock?" They didn't have to face those things. They haven't faced hardship yet, except for week three. They haven't faced the hardships that you have, and that's what's going to put you over the top.

Committing to Faith and Achieving Victory

When you are committed by faith, you don't care about the odds, and make no mistake, the odds are against you. You care about only the possibilities, about your dreams, about your goals, and about what you are capable of accomplishing. The harder it is, the better it is, and when it happens—and it will happen—the sweeter it is, because you are going to play motivated now by the looks on those faces of the people who discounted you and said that you couldn't get it done. And the entire evening tomorrow, as we take care of business, I want you to think about them, whether they're nameless, faceless, doesn't matter, and think about their faces as you go ahead, and think about them eating their words tomorrow night when you win, because that's all the motivation you need.

All the motivation you need is the fact that you have the faith that it can be done. Not that you believe. If you believe, you go out tentative. If you believe, you go out and you kind of feel your way around, and then momentum maybe gets on our side and you're like, "Okay, okay, we can do this." And then maybe they score a touchdown and there goes your belief down a little bit. Uh-uh. You walk in there with faith. There's nobody that can touch you. You walk in there with faith and you will get the job done..

Beat Merrillville