MEN OF GOD SPOTLIGHT :: JIM GROBE
I recently met with their head coach, Jim Grobe, to talk about his faith in God, football, and a season that gave us all a reason to believe that we can overcome any obstacles that we may face in life.
One of the reasons that we love sports is because there is always the chance that the underdog can overtake the favorite. We watch to see which team that is said to have no shot will prevail over the more powerful or more storied team, giving us the hope that we too can overcome incredible odds in our lives. When these upsets happen, they offer a sense of hope to all of us that we will have a day that we will shine as well.
Last season, the Wake Forest Demon Deacon football team proved that they too could overcome the odds and become champions. In the preseason, they were picked to finish last in their division with the experts believing that they didn’t have what it took to excel in the ACC. They believed in themselves and overcame injuries, history, and skeptics to win the ACC Football Championship and play in the Orange Bowl. A school long known for its’ basketball and golf, with such famous alumni as Arnold Palmer and Tim Duncan, stood at the pinnacle of the college football world.
I recently met with their head coach, Jim Grobe, to talk about his faith in God, football, and a season that gave us all a reason to believe that we can overcome any obstacles that we may face in life.
His Life
Jim Grobe grew up in Huntington, WV and played college football at the University of Virginia after he spent two years Ferrum Junior College. After graduation, Grobe began his coaching career, a career that would span the ranks of high school football, assistant coach in college football, and finally up to the head coaching ranks in college football. He took his first head coaching job in college at the University of Ohio, where he turned around a fledgling program and then moved to Wake Forest to resurrect a program that had fallen to the depths of the ACC.
Q
July 14th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
As a person who works for Wake Forest and encounters Coach Grobe quite often, I would like for people who don’t have that opportunity to know that the Christian witness and character and humility expressed in this article is what we see in him all the time. It’s totally consistent with what we see in his staff and players as well, and in many other coaches, athletes, administraters, and support staff in our athletic program. Our athletic director Ron Wellman is the key man of faith in bringing together so many other people of character and faith, and Ron has been encouraged by two superb presidents, Tom Hearn and Nathan Hatch, who understand the positive role athletics “done right” can play in a university. God has richly blessed Wake Forest with many students, teachers, staff, and supporters who are deeply committed to Him and one another. I should also add that in addition to these people who know Christ, God has blessed us with many other men and women of character and commitment who come from other faiths or who have not made a faith commitment.