Linebacker’s Life Changed Forever by Divine Intervention

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – It wasn’t long ago that First Presbyterian Day School junior linebacker, Will Black, was struggling to find his way in life.

But Coach Greg Moore saw something underneath his third-year starter’s bad boy persona.

One day after practice, Moore threw an audible at his middle linebacker.

“He asked me a question that he said would hit me right between the eyes,” says Black.  “He was like, ‘Will, are you a Christian?’ And I said, ‘No, I am not a Christian.  I hate God, I hate Christianity, I hate all of it and I really don’t want to talk to you about it right now.'”

His determined coach didn’t give up.

He made Will promise him that he’d call him if he ever decided to get saved.  Moore continued to pray for Will, and it didn’t take long to get an answer.

“He told me that he felt like God put a date in his head,” says Black.  “And I was like, ‘What?  God doesn’t speak to us.  He doesn’t do that anymore.  Like, you’re crazy.'”

Moore says the date in his head was August 12th.  Still ten days away, he wrote the date in a letter to Will, sealed it, and put it away in his desk.

While reading a devotional a few days later, Will felt a tug at his heart and called his coach to tell him he was ready.

“And he was like, ‘Alright well come over to my house, and we’ll go to the school and I want you to open up that letter,” says Black.  “And so it was Sunday, August 12th, and I went over to his house and he took me up here, and I opened the letter, and I was like, ‘Coach, if this says Sunday, August 12th, I’m gonna pee my pants.'”

And it did.

Will broke down and walked out on the field where it had all started just a few months back and accepted Christ as his Savior.

Since then, he’s grown in his faith, and his teammates have shared in his experience.

“It’s pretty dangerous putting someone like him (out there) and expecting him to change just like that–not like slowly getting into it,” says senior quarterback Brooks Stroud.  “But he’s done a very good job with it and he’s living it out.”

Moore says the experience has had an effect on the whole team.

“When you see some of the stuff that I’ve gotten to see this Fall in our locker room, I completely get it when people say the scoreboard doesn’t matter.  Because to see what’s happening in people’s lives, (it) really makes it where you don’t even care what the scoreboard says anymore.”

With just one game left in the regular season, Black leads FPD in tackles.  He’s just five away from 100.

The Vikings (6-3) host Aquinas (7-2) Friday night at 7:30.  A win would most likely put the Vikings in the playoffs.