Player has priorities in order

By Matt Hill
STAR STAFF
mhill@starhq.com

   Here is some food for thought while you are munching on your turkey leg this afternoon.
   Today is Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays of the year. This is the day where we get together with family and thank God for all our blessings.
   A perfect example of giving thanks was displayed by a Greenback football player on a popular high school sports website last week.
   Last Friday night, Greenback High School's football season came to an end with a 22-7 defeat to the Cloudland Highlanders in the third round of the TSSAA Class A playoffs.
   I happened to be hanging around my best friend last Friday night after work, and we were surfing the Internet. We came across a post by one of the Cherokees' players, and it was quite touching to us.
   I'm going to read it to you. I think you will like it.
   "To: Greenback players and coaches.
   Thank you for the memories and thank you for the opportunity to play this great game called football.
   Don't worry. You guys are winners and nobody can take that away from us!!!
   To: Greenback fans.
   Thank you for you're support and thank you for letting me know that I was loved at Greenback!!!
   To: Cloudland players and coaches.
   Well, it was a great one!! The fan support on both sides was great and those people got their moneys worth. Remember guys, bring back that gold ball to the East where it belongs!! You guys are class acts and care a lot about Cloudland as a school and Cloudland as a community!
   To: Cloudland fans.
   Boy you guys are rowdy!! You guys give great support! Keep it up when your in the 'Boro!! You guys have a lot of love for your team and community!
   To: My Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
   Thank you for the ability that I had to play this great game! Only through you can I breathe and live!!!
   Have a great run CHS, you guys deserve it!!!"
   This is definitely an example of a young man giving thanks. Keep in mind this guy's team just lost one of the biggest football games played in the state this year.
   Too many times in our society, people take losing the wrong way. This is a person that has his priorities in the right place.
   A lot of times in prep sports, there is a lot of trash talking. This person congratulated Cloudland for winning, and definitely set an example for everybody to follow.
   This young man was just happy to play in what turned out to be an excellent football game. He was just pleased to have an opportunity to do what he loved.
   I know from experience how much you should give thanks for doing something you love. I was out of work for over two weeks in the spring with a serious illness.
   Now that I'm well, I'm even more grateful to do what I love, and that is being a sportswriter.
   But the most touching thing in this post is the part about thanking Jesus Christ for the ability to play football. He realizes that we are nothing without God in our lives.
   I've never met this person, but I would love to talk to him. It touches me that somebody can display great sportsmanship and be thankful even in what had to be a crushing defeat.
   If we can learn anything from this young man, it's to be thankful for what you have. Life on this Earth is relatively short, and we never know when we're going to take our last breath.
   What amazes me about this post is it came just a couple of hours after Greenback's defeat. This person didn't whine or say bad things about Cloudland. Instead, he said many good things about the boys from Roan Mountain.
   It's obvious this young man has a thankful heart, so how ironic that this post came around the wonderful holiday that we're celebrating today.
   Thanksgiving is more than just about eating turkey and watching the Dallas Cowboys. The name of the holiday says it all.
   It's about giving thanks.
   We at the Elizabethton Star would like to wish all our readers a Happy Thanksgiving.