THE LINDY BAIN LOOP IN CROZET, VIRGINIA

New cross country trail honors WAHS coach

Credit: Submitted photo

Western Albemarle High School cross-county team members and others gather near the sign for the school's new course in Old Trail Village. The course, which was unveiled on Sunday and is open to the public, is dedicated to the WAHS boys cross-country coach, Lindy Bain (third from left).

By TASHA KATES 
Published: June 05, 2011

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Lindy Bain didn’t see his name right away after the wrapping was pulled from the sign for the new Western Albemarle High School cross country course in Old Trail Village.

As the audience of more than 70 people began to clap, the boys cross country coach looked up a few more inches. The new 3.1-mile course, which is open to the public, was dedicated on Sunday as the Lindy Bain Loop.

Kim Connolly, president of the Friends of Western Albemarle Cross Country, said the people who donated money for the new cross country course kept suggesting a name for it.

“They said, ‘you have to name it for Coach Bain,’” Connolly told the crowd.

Present and past colleagues and students said Bain deserved to be honored for the work he has done with students over the years. Bain, who is in his 24th year of coaching at Western Albemarle, said after the reveal that he had no idea that the Old Trail Course would be dedicated to him.

“It’s probably a good thing they didn’t tell me or I would have tried to talk them out of it,” Bain said, laughing.

The course will give Western Albemarle cross country athletes a place to practice and hold meets.

Gaylon Beights, Old Trail’s developer, joked that part of the reason he agreed to have the course in Old Trailis to prevent the students from running in the road.

Student-athletes said the trail at the high school is a bit treacherous. Calvin Wheat, who ran with the team for four years before graduating on Friday, said the newer trail appears to be less steep.

“Our times might be better,” Wheat said.

Katie Farina, a junior and a girls cross country team member, said she is hoping that the new course will allow the team to host an invitational at home next school year.

William Tillery, a 1982 Western Albemarle graduate and a former assistant track coach, said the addition of the course will be a benefit for the students, the residents of Old Trail Village and the greater community.

Tillery said Bain has been his mentor for 11 years.

“The opportunity to work under him is something I will never forget,” Tillery said.

The antichrists Among Us

Our hostile age charges the Gospel with falsehood, oppression, limiting moral freedom, meddling where it doesn’t belong, and much, much more. In reality, it is our secular age that is the wellspring of lies, which oppresses our generation with half-truths and outright lies, which destroys morality in the name of license, and which, through its meddlesome government and schools, demands to control and rule in every area of life. It is not we who are guilty of screwing up the world, but all who are the enemies of Christ.  ~T. M. Moore


As Chuck Swindoll speaks of American cults in his excellent book Improving Your Serve, consider the pyramid to narcissism:

I

Me

Mine

Myself

"You deserve a break today."  "Have it your way."  "Do yourself a favor."  "You owe it to yourself."  "If it feels good, do it."  "Look out for numero uno."  “You only go around once, so you have to grab for all the gusto you can! Why settle for less?”

On Homosexual (NOT gay which means lively and vivacious) Unions

"This is NOT about denying rights.  It is about upholding a truth about the human condition.  Marriage is NOT simply a mechanism for delivering benefits:  It is the union of a man and a woman in a loving, permanent, life-giving union to procreate children.  Please DON'T vote to change that.  If you do, you are claiming the power to change what is not into what is, simply because you say so.  This is false, it is wrong, and it defies logic and common sense."  ~Archbishop Timothy Dolan

Is Scotty McCreery an Idol, a Hero or Merely a Boy?

With all the hoopla swirling around Scotty McCreery since he won American Idol last week, it's given me pause to reflect on the significance of earning such a title in our corrupt culture.  Given the nature of the production and his age, is seventeen year old Scotty truly a model of excellence?  For his age, he appears to be a thoughtful boy, and those who know him attest to the uprightness of his character.  His mom chaperons and guides him wherever he goes.  She is older, but is she wiser as she has led her impressionable young son into participating in such worldliness?  What has Scotty done that has presto-chango turned him into an instant hero?  Has he selflessly saved lives?  Has he sacrificially laid down his life for another?  What heroic act has he performed?  Has he displayed distinguished courage?  Can we admire him for his brave deeds and noble qualities?  Realistically, how noble can one be at age seventeen?  Has he earned the title of Prince?  Have years of experience of walking with Jesus made him a mentor, a sage or a counselor?  He certainly has attained fame, recognition, fortune, and popularity.  It's evident that he is regarded with blind admiration, adoration and devotion, but does that make him someone exemplary, or is he a mere image of something visible but lacking in substance?  Is he a figment of our imagination - a fantasy of what we want him to be?


I concur that he has moxie as a singer, but he has simply cultivated a God-given gift.  Without that, he would never have made it onto the stage of American Idol.  Can we admire him for something with which God has blessed him?  At opportune moments, Scotty does appear to give God the glory for His success, but is this genuine, and how can a seventeen year old understand all that entails?  How can we tell at his young age?  The statistics prove that most freshman in college, who purported to be Jesus' disciples while still in high school, fall away from their Lord, Master, and Saviour into lives of narcissism.  Is Scotty simply parroting his parents' faith as they've guided and instructed him to do?  Will the faith he proclaims to have in Jesus remain as the trials, persecutions, sufferings and pain of this life inevitably come?  How will he react to shattered dreams?  Will he allow Jesus to refine him into deeper purity and holiness or will he fall away from his first love?  Jesus' own words in Matthew 7:14 are quite sobering, " But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."  Will Scotty be included among the few to find eternal life?  That remains to be seen, does it not?  He's still only a boy.  Scotty will require much guidance from those older and wiser in their walks with the Lord.  Many prayers will need to be prayed on his behalf.  Many hours must be spent by Scotty in Bible reading and study.  Even then, there is no guarantee that Scotty will "endure to the end" as Jesus says in Matthew 24:13 must occur, for one to acquire eternal life. 


As Timothy 4:12 declares,  "Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity."  I pray this verse exemplifies Scotty's young life.  If it does, and his heart is right before God as he matures, maybe one day Scotty will be a hero and a mentor to his children and grandchildren, as well as to others.  That is yet to be determined.