Veteran coach Doug Charles develops culture of faith and values before football
By John Herndon, 110forChrist.com
LEXINGTON – The size of the crowd doesn’t matter to Lexington Christian Academy football coach Doug Charles. He wants the Eagles to have the same mindset every Friday night.
They are playing for an Audience of One.
And that’s all that matters to Charles, who is in his sixth season leading one of Kentucky’s best football programs. Walk into the Eagles’ locker room and you are immediately reminded that they are to play for the Audience of One. It’s a motto based on what Paul wrote in Galatians 1:10.
“10For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (English Standard Version ®)
“In everything we do in life, I tell our guys, we should do it as if we are doing it for an Audience of One,” Charles said about 90 minutes before the Eagles took the field for what would be a 40-26 win over Pikeville. “I read a book that was very compelling. It’s called Birds of Pray (Rob Maddai with a foreword by Carson Wentz, Zondervan, 2018). A lot of people don’t realize this but there was a revival in the Philadelphia Eagles’ locker room. All of those plush saunas and everything else, they turned into baptismals.
“It resonated even more with me when I took this job. When I took this job six years ago, I wanted my motto to be every year, ‘Audience of One’ and that’s what we talk about a lot. In everything we do, how we interact with each other, how we interact with the referees, how we interact with opponents, in the classroom, at home. In everything we do, we have an Audience of One.”
Make no mistake, Charles expects to win at Lexington Christian Academy. Entering this season, he had compiled a 54-12 record as head coach. Of those 12 losses, 10 had been to the eventual state champion in the respective classes.
Friday’s win over Pikeville, the two-time defending Class A champion, was the Eagles’ first of the year. One of the favorites to be playing for the Class 2A title, LCA had opened with losses to four-time defending Class 4A champion Boyle County and another 4A power, Franklin County.
Playing the best of the best is all part of Charles’ strategy to make Lexington Christian the best it can when playoff time comes. “Nobody wins a state championship in the first two weeks of the season,” he said with a grin. “What you do is you learn a lot about your team. When you play really good teams, they have a tendency to expose you. Some of your deficiencies get exposed.”
The Eagles continue with another monumental test coming on Friday, Sept. 13 when they host two-time defending Class 3A champ, Christian Academy of Louisville then travel across town the following week, taking on Class 4A power Lexington Catholic.
The Eagles will be heavily favored to roll through their district but close the regular season with another test, hosting Raceland, one of the state’s best Class A programs.
Through it all, Charles sees his role at Lexington Christian as more than a coach, but that of a ministry. He’d been a part of the LCA family as a parent long before he was affiliated with the football program. His two oldest children graduated from the school and then Charles and his wife adopted two young children who attend there.
He’d been an Eagle assistant coach for nine years when Ethan Atchley resigned as head coach following the 2018 season. “Up until six years ago, I had never been a head coach,” Charles says with a touch of amazement still in his voice. “But you know when the Lord is working and you don’t apply for a job but that job is offered to you.”
The Eagles have won big, averaging over 10 wins a season under Charles’ tutelage and advancing to the state championship game in 2021. But he says all that is secondary to playing to the Audience of One.
“I have been doing this for 45 years. I have won some games I had no business winning and I have lost some games I had no business losing,” Charles says. “All of us have a day of finality. There is a day you hand the whistle up and hang the cleats up. What is beyond that? What is your purpose?
“We remind our kids you may be at a Christian school and it helps, but it doesn’t matter where we are. I have coached in parks and rec. I have coached in secular schools. In the end, it doesn’t matter. A standard is a standard.”
And Charles knows the name on the Eagles’ jerseys, “Christian,” means his players will be scrutinized, whether fair or not. He reminds people that while the school might be different, the kids he coaches are like the kids who line up across the line of scrimmage.
“They are still teenagers,” Charles says. “I tell people all the time that just because our kids go to LCA, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have peer pressure. It doesn’t mean that their flesh is dead or their hormones have died.
“We talk about it a lot. We talk about how words are important and to choose them wisely. Everything we do in this day in time, good or bad, is being recorded and videoed. Everybody has a device in their hand and everybody is videoing.”
Against that backdrop, Charles, who is 63, brings an old school approach to Lexington Christian football. The Eagles can score a lot of points but do nothing fancy. The emphasis on the field is on blocking, tackling and taking care of the ball. The Eagles had no turnovers against Pikeville but took the ball away three times.
And Charles brings an old-school approach to life.
“I grew up in Pikeville and I tell people all the time that I had a drug problem,” Charles chuckles. “My problem was I was drug to church on Sunday morning. I was drug to church on Sunday night and Wednesday night. I am so thankful for my upbringing.”
Charles knows that the day will come when he will eventually leave the sideline. But for now, he loves what he’s doing too much. He does not take a salary from LCA, yet coaches a Class 2A power.
And on Saturday mornings, he’s back at LCA to coach first- and second-graders. “There’s nothing I enjoy better than watching the little kids. It’s the purity of sport and they are just learning,” he says. “I will be here in some capacity until I am unable to coach.”
Until that time, Lexington Christian will likely be piling up victories before big crowds at White, Greer and Maggard Stadium.
And the Eagles will be playing for the Audience of One. They are reminded of that as they gather to sing following their post-game meetings.
O victory in Jesus, my Savior, forever!
He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him.
He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.
“Victory In Jesus,” © 1939 Eugene M. Bartlett, renewed 1967 Mrs. Eugene M. Bartlett.
110ForChrist.com 