10 Sep
High school football player leads team to higher moral standard
Nate Richards was tired of seeing his football teammates damaging themselves and the team by engaging in dangerous behavior.
Specifically, Richards was tired of the drug and alcohol use on the weekends. Though not rampant, it was an issue nonetheless.
“There’s always been an element of it,” Richards said. “I thought I would stop it.”
Richards, a senior at Keller High School in Keller, Texas, did exactly that. He called a team meeting the day before two-a-day practices began. Flanked by a couple of teammates, Richards addressed the players about the problems he saw.
“I thought that during the season, they shouldn’t be doing that,” Richards said about the drinking and drug use. “It not only hurts the team. It hurts them.”
Richards, the team’s center, asked everyone to commit to abstain from alcohol and drug use over the course of the season. In doing so, he hopes that commitment will develop habits in his teammates that may last even longer than that.
The team endorsed Richards’ proposal and established the punishment for those breaking the new rules.
For the first offense, the consequences are physical.
“There’s this big hill here in Keller,” Richards said. “We have to run it every other day for summer workouts.”
He estimates the distance up the hill is about half a mile. So the first time someone on the team violates the team’s moral standards, the entire team has to run the hill twice. The offending player has to run it an additional two times.
For a second offense, the players will go to the coaching staff and ask for the individual’s dismissal from the team.
“Avoiding drugs and alcohol is something we attack as a coaching staff on a daily basis,” said Kevin Atkinson, the football coach at Keller. “The most important thing for young people to realize is that being a leader isn’t a popularity contest. You can’t be afraid to do the right thing. When you’re a leader, it’s lonely at the top.”
But despite the challenges involved, Atkinson said Richards has displayed true leadership in his actions.
“For him to do something like that makes me very proud,” Atkinson said. “It makes me feel like we’re making strides.”
A member at First Baptist Church in Keller, Richards became a Christian when he was 11. His father is Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. His mother is June.
Nate said his decision to stand up for morality was fueled by his Christian faith. He opposed what he saw from some of his teammates for three reasons.
Most importantly, Richards said drug and alcohol use is wrong – especially for those under age.
Second, it harms those involved. And third, it hurts the entire team.
“It’ll slow them down,” Richards said. “They’ll react slower, and not feel as well for a practice or a game.”
If early results are any indication, Richards has been vindicated. The team won its first game 48-34 on Sept. 5.
But to Richards and others supporting his leadership, results on the field are of secondary importance.
“We’ve got the majority of our team doing the right thing,” Atkinson said. “We’ve got a great team chemistry, and it’s because of leaders on our team like Nate.”
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