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This is a space for coaches, trainers, and leaders who love the game — but don’t want the game to cost them their family, their integrity, or their soul.
Here, we talk about leadership, pressure, culture, identity, and the quiet tensions no one prepares you for when you step into coaching.
This isn’t about chasing wins at all costs.
It’s about restoring what the game was meant to form in us — and in the players we lead.
This podcast is presented by the Beloved Coaches Collective, a community committed to coaching from identity, not insecurity.
I’m Coach Sanders.
Let’s redeem the game — one coach at a time.
Welcome back, coaches, trainers,
players, family, basketball lovers
to the Redeeming The Game podcast.
I am your host, coach Matt Sanders.
I am beyond grateful that you guys
are joining what God has given us the
vision for, which is redeeming the game.
Through the person and the power of
Jesus Christ who has he's saved us all.
And so I'm super excited
for today's podcast.
We are gonna continue to dive
deeply into what God showed me as
he changed my life five years ago.
And.
Transformed me from a coach who lived
by the numbers on the scoreboard and the
numbers on my record into a coach who
knew and became more aware and continues
to become more aware of my beloved
identity beloved child of the king, and
a righteous and redeemed son of God.
That is called to be a coach and
the purpose is to share the game
of basketball with the gospel of
Jesus Christ to the whole world.
So without further ado, I'm excited
you're here today and let's dive in.
Most coaches don't realize, and
I know that I would say that I
didn't, that when it happens,
we're not really aware that when.
Performing as a coach comes
in, we don't actually realize.
It's happening.
We actually, I know I did not start
coaching in performance, right?
I wasn't trying to perform for the
validation of the people around
me, my boss, my wife my mentors.
I wasn't, that's not how I
was wired in the beginning.
In fact, I remember when God gave
me the desire to become a college
bas, a college and a high school
basketball coach in the ninth grade.
That I remember the burning desire
I had in me was to really share
the experience with the players.
I remember having this mantra.
I wanted to be a player's coach,
and I'm sure that for all of
us as coaches, you probably.
Have said that, and so I never set
out with the expectation to perform
for the love and appreciation and the
validation from the world around me,
whether it be my boss again with boss
or players or parents or even my wife.
But most importantly, God I didn't set
out to that, but slowly it crept in.
The expectations in
your mind, they pile up.
The the standards in which you set
the course of your whole coaching
philosophy they get piled up inside you.
And I know this for sure because again,
as I shared in the last podcast, I
wanted to be a Hall of Fame coach,
and the only way to do that is stack
wins, and I definitely lived in that.
Mindset especially after I got
started coaching and it, this wasn't,
this doesn't come in like a flood.
It just it creeps its way in, right?
It doesn't come in full speed.
It doesn't smash you in the face.
It's like a it's like a weather system.
It moves in slowly.
And before I knew it, before
you know it, you're not leading.
I wasn't leading, I was auditioning.
And let me tell you what it did to me.
It took my fire for competition
and my fire for the game and my
my desire to love the kids and
it stomped on it, to be honest.
It snuffed out the love for them.
And ignited this fire in me that I had
to be loud and boisterous and call out
all the mistakes so that we could win.
That the, I was auditioning
through the wins.
I was auditioning for everybody's
approval and validation through the wins.
And I, what I found myself was
I wasn't trying to just win.
I was trying to prove something and
I look back on it now, just being
completely honest with you, that I
think I spent the better part of the 25
years of my career trying to prove one
thing that I was a championship coach,
and I don't really know the basis for
that other than like as a competitor.
And as a high school player,
we never won a championship.
And so I went down this path this rabbit
hole of like I needed to prove to the
whole world, but mostly myself that I
could do that because we didn't do it.
And then that, that proving would
land me in a sense of belonging
that it would make me feel, and
the people around me see that I was
competent in what I was called to do.
And most importantly.
There is this phrase out there
still in all of athletics, but
mostly in basketball, is like,
I'm gonna prove the haters wrong.
I'm going to prove my critics wrong.
The people who don't think that I'm good
at this, I'm gonna prove them wrong.
And that's actually wins.
Coaching kind of stops living in
the way it was designed by Dr.
Naysmith and the God of the universe.
A act of service to the kids with the game
and being a father-like figure to them.
Like that's when it stops being that
that's when it stops being a service.
And then all of a sudden
you're on a stage.
You're always on the stage.
I you guys know almost every, if you
listen to ev almost every coach just
pick one division one, whatever it
is, and they get on the post game
interview and listen to how many times
they say this phrase performance.
Well, he, such and such
didn't perform well today.
We as a team, we did
not perform well today.
Me as a coach, I didn't
perform well today.
So therefore, the basketball court itself,
instead of being a sanctuary and being
a place to worship God through what he
created, it becomes a stage to perform.
You are actually acting, I'm sure
you've heard this phrase too, like
coaches get behind the microphone,
at the Final four, and they talk
about the stage that they're on.
Literally, basketball is a performance
to almost the whole world, and
it was never designed for that.
It was designed to be a discipleship
tool to bring people into the fold
and teach them about who Jesus is.
And Jesus, according to the
scripture, was the servant of all.
He lowered himself into servanthood.
That is not stage like and performing.
If you're serving, you are not
performing, you are acting out of service.
And that's incredibly powerful.
And what a different view on coaching.
What a different view on playing, what
a different view on the game, right?
So, for I don't know about for you.
Take a kind of a deep breath here
and think about this, and maybe
this is a question to ask yourself.
I, is that performance
not exhausting as a coach?
It asks, doesn't it ask you
to give the game something?
Is it, does it not ask those two things?
Does.
Is it not exhausting?
Is that not exhausting?
I know it was for me.
And does it not ask that you give
the game something instead of, as
I shared with you yesterday, that
you tell people about Jesus with
basketball, they're moving together.
Is that not what it was designed for?
Is that not what God has
used, designed through Dr.
Naismith that it used to be to work with
and work through both the willing and
the doing of his good pleasure in it?
Is that not what it's designed for?
Because it was never designed
to give us two things.
See the kingdom of God.
If you coach with the kingdom and
you bring the kingdom into your
practices and into your locker room,
and into the bus rides and into the
game setting, the kingdom of God
defined in scripture is righteousness,
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
So is the game designed to
give you an identity as a child
of God and give you peace.
No, it's not.
It's not at all.
In fact, the game comes alongside the
Kingdom of God and it works with peace.
It works with righteousness.
It works with joy.
It doesn't do the opposite because
you were never like the year that
my team won 22 games at the end of
it, and we won a state championship.
I can tell you right now,
there was no peace after that.
In fact, I remember on the van ride home
from the state championship, I was weeping
in the bus because I was like, I was so
empty and it felt like I had no peace.
And all of us, I think all of us as
just as normal human beings, like
I think that's what we would say.
We would want peace in our lives.
We would want joy, we
would definitely want that.
And I remember thinking that, and then,
I, on the other side of that, a season
that went two and 20, or two and 22 that
I've shared with you the same, it was
the same, the feeling was no different.
Both of them are empty.
One of them may have been a little
heavier because, losses carry weight.
But truthfully, they
were the same feeling.
Last year I, I retired and one of the
teams that I coached won a championship.
They were a well-oiled machine, and
I remember standing up on the ladder,
cutting the net down, knowing we're
gonna get a, we're gonna get a ring
and we're gonna go to the nationals.
I I know that's coming and I remember
standing there for the first time in my
career cutting the net down, thinking in
my heart, this actually feels peaceful.
I actually enjoy this.
Not because we won, but because I
love the game and I'm turning and
I'm looking at the players and the
assistant coaches and everybody's got
this beaming look on their face and
then the Lord was like, you are enjoying
this because you know that I designed
it to be enjoyed because I enjoy it.
How powerful is that?
Was it I just to be frank with
you, I cut down five other nets.
The other five nets that I had cut
down as a coach felt nothing like this.
One zero.
They felt almost as zeroed out
as you could be because the,
those things were never going
to bring me identity and peace.
I actually had peace in the moment we
won the game on a last second play.
I didn't make the play.
The player made the play and had peace.
There was no anxiety.
Whether we were gonna win or lose.
Because I know that God loves me in
the midst of whether we win or lose
or we lose the championship, right?
So let's anchor this with a scripture.
Galatians one 10 says, and
I am now trying to win.
Am I now trying to win the
approval of human beings or of God?
If I were still trying to please people,
I would not be a servant of Christ.
And to be truthful, that verse
should stop you in your tracks and
should make you really reflect.
If I'm a servant of Christ, I am not
playing, coaching, training, leading
for the approval of human beings.
In fact, I'm not even doing any of that
for the approval of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity.
I'm not.
I'm doing it because I know they love
me and they died for me so that I
can love this game as they love me.
John three 16.
Three 16, for God so loved the world
that he sent his only son, come on.
That's powerful.
I hope you can feel that verse
should stop you in your trash.
You're doing this as a in, in service
to the goodness of God in your life.
Into the game so the kids can
see the goodness of God on you.
Because when approval is not the goal,
and people stop being the judge of
your life and your, the life, your
life in a mirror to God's word and who
God's says you are, instead of people
saying who you are, imagine that piece.
It's powerful.
It's a different way of living.
Proverbs 29, 25.
Fear of man will prove to be a snare.
The fear of man will grapple you.
It will.
It will ensnare you like
a animal in the woods.
It will, the fear of man, but the fear
of God, the reverence of God, what he's
done in your life, that kind of fear.
What it does is it actually brings
peace because you know he's doing this
in and through you, both the willing
and the doing of his good pleasure.
That's actually what's gonna happen.
Isn't that powerful, man, I hope you
feel that because I feel that today.
I really feel in my heart that you
coaches, you trainers can hear this and
the players and parents too, that the
God of the universe loves you so much
that he approves of you by this, that
I would send my son to die for you,
so you would know how much I love you.
We, he loves this game, coaches,
trainers, ladies and gentlemen.
He loves this game and he loves
you and he first loved you.
So let me ask you something honestly.
Well, who are you coaching for right now?
Are you coaching for your players?
Are you coaching for the administration?
Let me, let's rephrase it.
Who are you coaching for approval
from your players, your administration
the people who your haters or are
you coaching from your calling?
And let's pause real
quickly and talk about this.
There is a vast difference
between calling and purpose.
Calling as measured and defined
in the dictionary is actually an
occupation, something that you
do as a daily part of your life.
The purpose in your life is that
when you become aware and you say
with your mouth that Jesus Christ is
Lord and that he died for your very
sins and the darkness of who you are
to awaken you to his righteousness.
That is your purpose.
And so in your calling, you're
coaching the game, you're training
the game, and your purpose is to
intertwine it and share the good news.
Remember, basketball was meant through Dr.
Naismith designed to
be a discipleship tool.
It was missionaries who took it across
the world, not just any Joe Schmo.
That's how it became global.
They actually went to the
Philippines, so coaching.
Coaching from your beloved
identity coaching, from your
righteous identity coaching.
Know, knowing that you are righteous
and redeemed, that you have been made
new you are a new creation in Christ.
It removes the pressure.
It actually transforms you.
It doesn't change.
It doesn't change what you do.
You still prep.
Right.
We've talked about this.
You still you demand excellence.
You you prepare like you're
gonna win the championship.
That it just transforms how you do it
and how you see it, and you stop allowing
the game to tell you how you matter.
Now you know that your calling
is coaching and training.
And your purpose is to share
who Jesus is with the game, and
it's a different way to live.
So if this episode said name something
or said something that you're carrying,
I want you to know that one of the
reasons that God has laid it on my heart
to do this podcast is You're not alone.
I'm here.
We're here.
I've created a free resource called
The 10 Things I Shared with this, with,
I'm gonna keep sharing this with you.
The 10 things I wish I
knew as a Head Coach.
It's available now in the notes.
Please grab it.
It's free.
I want you to see it.
It's a a wonderful pathway to learn how
to coach this game from your identity
in Christ and what he's called you to
be, and not just be defined by your wins
and your losses and your performance.
How many of you would like for
to go back to being a lot of fun?
So I am super excited
that you joined us today.
I'm grateful that you have jumped in
with us with this coaching community.
Let's let's continue to redeem the game.
You don't have to audition anymore.
You know who you are as a coach, and you
know what this game was designed to do.
Let's keep redeeming this game together.
I hope this blesses you and
we'll see you next time.