Steve Christilaw: Coach’s faith comes through clearly in actions

You hear proclamations of great faith all the time in the wide, wide world of sports.

Stick a postgame microphone and a live camera in front of an athlete and you can hear just about anything – from a Richard Sherman rant to Joe Namath trying out his favorite pickup line on a sideline reporter.

More likely than that, you will hear about how all the credit for that thrilling victory, that stunning goal, that game-saving tackle or that world-class catch goes to their Lord and savior.

To borrow a phrase from Shania Twain, “That don’t impress me much.”

That’s not an anti-religion stance – don’t get me wrong.

Yes, I understand giving credit where credit is due. I am in no way diminishing a player’s faith. And, to be honest, I’m not against mixing faith and football. Or boxing. Or basketball. Or life, for that matter.

I’m not so sure about the juxtaposition that proclamation reveals. The athlete making it, just minutes before that, was most likely trying to take an opponent’s head off.

It’s just that there are proclamations made all the time, and they hardly make a blip on the radar. Check your calendar. Do you have National Library Week marked off? How about National Eat More Seafood Month? Didn’t think so.

It’s easy to proclaim faith after you’ve won, after the breaks have gone your way and fortune is already smiling on you. I understand giving credit where credit is due, I do. I also understand why Oscar winners always thank their agent.

The problem is that there is rarely any context. Once the hot air dissipates, there isn’t much substance left.

A subject like a person’s faith is about something deep and abiding. To understand it, you need to understand just how it’s part of that person’s foundation, about how it buoys them in the rough seas that life throws at each of us.

And there’s that writer thing I have going on. We have a saying in the journalism business: Show, don’t tell.

Telling you that something is important is one thing. But if I want you to truly understand that importance, I need to show you the why.

That applies to much more in life than good writing.

If your significant other means the world to you, find ways to do more than just say “I love you.” Show them how much you love them. It means so much more.

Former Seattle Seahawks coach Chuck Knox used to say, “Nothing speaks so loudly as your actions.”

That’s what really gets our attention.

True proclamations of faith, like declarations of true love, are intensely private moments.

If you want me to understand your faith, show me how you live each day.

Adam Fisher has been the East Valley High School football coach since 2000, but I have known of him for longer than that. I’m sure that if I go back through my files I will find that I covered at least one of his games when he was the quarterback at South Kitsap High School, where his dad, Ed, was the longtime coach.

Why haven’t I verified that, you ask? Mostly because I really don’t need that kind of a reminder of just how long I’ve been around this business. The fact that I have now covered not just the sons and daughters of people I covered back in the day, I have now begun to cover their grandchildren.

Adam recently stepped down as the EV football coach. But I couldn’t be happier with why he’s stepping down.

He plans to spend his fall weekends watching his adoptive son, Rodrick, play college football for Mike Leach and the Washington State Cougars.

Adam is a man of deep and abiding faith. And he is one of those remarkable people who truly make their lives their proclamation of faith.

When one of his former students came to him, homeless, a dropout from school and out of options, Adam and his wife, Jolene, opened their home to the young man.

They shared their home. They shared their life. In fact, they welcomed him into their lives so deeply that they adopted him.

A year behind his classmates, Rodrick Fisher has thrived with a family structure supporting him. He was granted an extra year of high school eligibility and recently signed his national letter of intent to play for Washington State.

Adam Fisher has always treated his work as a high school coach as something more than just teaching Xs and Os.

And now he’s leaving it.

But he’s leaving coaching as a role model for all of his former players on how to live a life of faith and devotion. How to be a family man. How to be a human being in the truest sense of the word.

He will be missed on the sideline, but I doubt he will ever be too far away from his students and former players.

But he’s moving on to concentrate on an even more important job: being a dad to Rodrick and to his daughters, Sydney and Ally.

Without saying a word, he’s making the most profound proclamation of faith you will ever hear.