Competing for Christ

Joshua Eargle sees it all the time. The head football coach at East Texas Baptist University, Eargle’s team has a growing number of young men who grew up without a father at home.  He hears the stories of their lives and knows many are fighting to learn how to become a man without having a role model to show them how to do it. He can relate.

“I was one of those statistics,” Eargle said.  His own father left when Joshua was a couple weeks old. Eargle spent his first eight years living with various aunts, his grandmother and, briefly, his mother. Even though his dad wasn’t around and his living situation often changed, there was one constant in his life that God used to bring difference-making men into his life: sports.

“I’ve always had a godly man in my life as a coach, all the way back to Little League baseball,” Eargle said. “God always placed those men in my life. For whatever reason, He put a desire in my heart through sports, and that was our natural bond. The men in my life used sports to lead me to Christ.”

Eargle’s first Little League coach, Bill Faircloth, had two sons who played on the team. “But he didn’t treat me any differently than he treated his own sons,” Eargle said.  “That was a first for me. He was the first man in my life to share with me the plan of salvation. I was eight or nine years old. Athletics was his vehicle to gain my attention because he saw I had the passion for playing sports.”

Eargle also recalls spending time at the home of childhood friend Kellen Clark, whose dad, Keith, was his basketball coach. He learned basketball skills from Clark, but more importantly, saw firsthand  “what a godly man looks like, how he treated his wife and kids and how he treated us on the basketball court.”

And then there was Mark Bachtell, the athletics director and football coach in Eargle’s native Brownwood, Texas, who allowed Eargle to work out with the high school team as a junior high student.

“He would just pour into me,” Eargle said. “When I got to high school, I saw how much he made God a part of his football program. It wasn’t just lip service, and it wasn’t just correlating two different worlds. Two worlds became one. It was a lifestyle.”

“I was saved when I was 15 years old. I gave everything to God, and I haven’t looked back since that day at church camp. But it was really Mark Bachtell impressing upon me to be the man God had called me to be, and not just be a good athlete.”

A few years after Eargle’s spiritual transformation in high school, he moved in with his uncle, Chuck King, who spent more than a quarter century coaching high school football. It was during his time living with King that Eargle decided he wanted to become a coach one day.

After graduating from the University of Memphis, where he was a four year letter winner on the gridiron, Eargle accepted an offer to become a graduate assistant at the University of Southern Mississippi. At USM, he made a promise to himself and to God.

“I told myself that if God was going to give me a platform, no matter how big it was, I would shout His name from the mountaintops, and I would help young men who didn’t have dads learn what it means to be a godly man,” Eargle said. “I would use the game of football to do that, and God has since blessed me very richly.”

His coaching travels have taken him to every level of NCAA football, including USM, Ouachita Baptist, Nicholls State, LSU, Arkansas-Monticello and Southeastern Oklahoma State before arriving for his first head coaching position at ETBU prior to the 2013 season. He also worked one season as an assistant coach at Hallsville High School.

Through all his stops, he has followed the examples set by Bill Faircloth, Keith Clark, March Bachtell and Chuck King, and he has kept the promise he made as a young graduate assistant.

“I have a passion for the game of football and I have a passion for young men to grow and realize who God is,” Eargle said.  “I have a passion for Jesus Christ and what He’s done to allow me to have a relationship with the Heavenly Father.  Football’s just an avenue for me to mentor these young men and be an example.

“I told myself that if God was going to give me a platform, no matter how big it was, I would shout His name from the mountaintops, and I would help young men who didn’t have dads learn what it means to be a godly man. I would use the game of football to do that, and God has since blessed me very richly.”

Joshua Eargle

“Mobberly Baptist Church really emphasizes being mentored by someone and mentoring someone else. When Pastor Stone put that out on the forefront, it really grabbed my heart because that’s what I try to do. I try to mentor young men. I’ve got 120-130 guys on my roster, and I’m trying to pour into those young men.

“Many of them come from the same background I had. Moms do a phenomenal job. Grandmothers and aunts do a phenomenal job. But they just aren’t a man. To be a man, you have to have that example. It’s one thing to read about it, it’s one thing to watch in someone else’s home, but it’s another thing to have a man stand beside a young man and explain biblical truths that are so important in today’s society that all young men need.”

Eargle’s wife, Kristen, agreed, saying her husband is interested in much more than growing a football player.

“There’s more to it than Xs and Os,” she said. “Joshua is trying to build character in young men, giving them an environment to learn and be equipped to lead their future families.”

Eargle leads by example, leading his own family with perseverance in the face of trial. The couple’s second daughter, Landrey, was born early with a congenital heart defect that has required open heart surgery and a litany of hospitalizations, tests and drugs that are necessary for her to live.

“With each challenge, he never panics,” Kristen said. “Ever. He points me to the throne, reminding me that God is our Healer and Source. He won’t let anyone in our family fear the unknown.

“A lot of coaches age fast and some get so caught up in making their own name great,” she continued. “They miss the most important thing they’ve been blessed with – their own family. Joshua’s faith has kept him grounded, not only in how to handle negative situations, but how to keep priorities where they should be. He’s unique.”

Originally appeared in Mobberly Magazine in 2016