Each week on “Making a Difference,” our hosts interview people making a meaningful impact in their community. Today, James Fenimore and Greg Chapman had the pleasure of speaking with Frank Andrea of Old Plank Christian Academy.
Frank Andrea
Athletic Director/Head Coach Football at Old Plank Christian Academy
Website Address: www.oldplankca.com
Short company description:
Christian Education.
What is a tip for success that you would provide someone in your same industry?
Perseverance with grace.
What volunteer experience has impacted you the most?
Coaching.
How do you encourage your team to make a difference?
Serving a gracious Lord who has more grace than you can possibly imagine.
Transcript:
James:
Welcome back to Making a Difference. I’m James Fenimore, and here we highlight people that are making an impact. Joining me, as always, is my co-host Greg Chapman. Greg, how are you?
Greg:
I’m well, James. Glad to be here today. We have a great guest for us this morning. His name is Coach Frank. We’ll call him Frank Andrea out of Old Plank High School. Coach, glad to have you here. I know you were sharing a little bit about where you’re from, but tell us about yourself, your family, and how long you’ve been coaching.
Frank:
Awesome. I grew up in the Chicago area, moved down to the warmth, and it’s been a long time. I’ve been coaching close to 40 years, 20 years at the high school level. Married just as long, 43 years, to my lovely bride Donna. Two kids, both successful and doing well. So it’s been a long time coaching.
Greg:
That’s great. Something within FCA, a big part of why we do what we do, is helping coaches understand their why. Having done it for 40 years, you must know why you do what you do. So take some time and tell us the secret.
Frank:
I don’t know if there’s a secret, but grace is the number one thing from the gospel. The toughness part and the grit and all that stuff doesn’t really matter because you’re going to fail a lot of times in life. Yet through grace, I’ve been able to continue.
I remember a story about Billy Graham talking to a young man who was torn between going into ministry. I went to a Christian college, and a lot of my peers were becoming pastors, and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I remember reading a book that said you’ll have more of an impact with youth in coaching, and that’s what I ended up doing.
Currently, my journey has led me to Old Christian Academy. The why is basically the kids. You may retire from a profession, but you never retire from the ministry. Now the ministry is not just the kids, it’s also the coaches. These coaches are 20 to 30 years younger than me. They’re husbands, fathers, brothers. The why is getting up every day because of the enthusiasm the Lord gives me, that energy to handle it every day. Enthusiasm is so contagious from our Savior, and to me it’s not work. I love it.
Greg:
Something we see all the time is coaches struggle with their identity. They associate it with wins and losses and job security. We know it’s bigger than that. What would you say to a young coach who struggles with that identity crisis?
Frank:
If you place your identity in wins and losses, you’re going to suffer a lot with those losses, and they’ll never leave you. To me, it’s about winning the hearts of the kids. FCA taught us about winning hearts.
Your joy is when they come back ten years later telling you about their marriage, their job, helping them get into college. Christ is working through it. Being in Christian schools, I hire Christian coaches. In public high schools, it’s tougher to find that caliber, so you look for someone who just loves kids. If they love kids, they can love Christ and find that balance.
If you put it on winning or losing, you’ll go crazy. But if you put it on winning that kid, today’s generation asks why. That gives you opportunity to talk about a lot of things.
Greg:
Just because you’re at a Christian school doesn’t mean all the kids are Christians. So how do you coach with the gospel in mind?
Frank:
Absolutely correct. Most of the kids are not Christians. They’re there because their parents put them there for different reasons.
Every day after practice, I love to speak. I talk about family and being the best version of you through Christ because they’re going to face so many problems and hardships, especially today. With the push of a button, they can be in a bad zone.
We help them deal with that. I can’t tell you how many kids have come to me and said, “Coach, I’m struggling with something.” You use that platform as a coach to talk about Jesus Christ our Savior without restriction.
Do kids make fun of it at graduation? Yeah. But as they get older and have kids, it’s like being a dad. Between 18 and 22 they don’t think you know anything. Then later they say, “Dad was right.”
Greg:
That’s great.
James:
Coach Frank, thank you for sharing your experience. Forty years of experience and a wife who stuck with you through high school coaching—through the grace. I know about grace.
Frank:
Perseverance and grace.
James:
Thank you so much for joining us. This has been really enlightening. This has been Making a Difference. As always, Greg Chapman, our co-host, and I’m James Fenimore. We can’t wait to see you next time.
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