Mark Richt recruits in South America

[JohnDeere 0]

yahoo-rivals

Sorry if this old, no date on article.

Richt heads to Honduras

By Special to UGASports – Rivals.com

Spring ball has finished and there are no coaches on the sidelines. Speaking tours are winding down, summer camps have ended, and even the Southeastern Conference summer meetings in Destin have passed.

With only seventy-five days until kickoff, it is the calm before the storm.

Most coaches use this time for vacation, passing the days at various resorts in the Caribbean or at summer lake houses on Lake Oconee and Lake Rabun. University of Georgia head coach Mark Richt, however, has a different destination this summer.

Richt, along with his wife, Katharyn, and children, Jonathan, David, Zack, and Anya, travels today to Guaimaca, Honduras, where they will reside for a one-week mission trip. Many fans in the 'Bulldog Nation' and around the country know of Richt's faith, and his desire to follow Christ's final commandment, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations..." (Matthew 28:19)

"We believe it is important to serve the Lord whether we are here or overseas, but to take a trip away from this country is going to be very important for our children to see how other people live and that everyone does need the Lord," said Richt. "I have wanted to go on a family mission trip for the longest time, but we have always had our summers so busy we just never found the time. Knowing that this was my oldest boy Jon's last summer with us before he goes off to college, I figured this was our last chance."

Jon Richt (6-2, 185, 4.97) has verbally committed to Clemson, and plans to be learning the Tigers' offensive system during summer workouts a year from now.

The Richt family will be serving with World Baptist Missions, a ministry headquartered in Barnesville, Georgia. The ministry consists of a hospital (Hospital Bautista), a feeding program, a day care ministry, and several other programs and services.

"We are especially excited to have Mark, Katharyn, and their entire family serving the Lord here with us in Honduras," said World Baptist Missions founder and President Sandy Cheves. "What a blessing it is for the University of Georgia to have a man like Mark who loves the Lord as their head coach."

Richt and his sons will be doing construction work around Hospital Bautista in the morning and having the El Campo de Futbol de Mark Richt in the afternoons--a ministry intended on sharing the Gospel with the men in and around Guaimaca. Katharyn and daughter Anya will be working in the day care center, ministering to children in the feeding program.

Richt looks forward to what his family will come away with after a week in Central America, and he adds, "I hope God teaches our family that we are very blessed to be in our country and we are very blessed to have the family that we do have and also how important it is to spread the good news across the globe."

The last trip Georgia's head coach took overseas was to an orphanage in Ukraine, from where they adopted their two youngest children. While not having a lot of experience himself serving overseas, Richt's wife, Katharyn, has served in Jamaica and Haiti.

The Richts, who have been planning this trip for over a year, were praying about whether to go to Honduras or to a country in Africa.

"The main reason we are taking the trip to Honduras is because our church, Prince Avenue Baptist, has been sending teams for some time," said Richt, who will be entering his seventh season as the Bulldogs head coach. "Also, my good friend Todd Unzicker is there and that was instrumental knowing he was there and he would be able to guide us once we got there."

After an up and down 2006 season with the Bulldogs, Richt hopes to be able to share the experiences of the upcoming week with the team throughout the season.

"I would imagine I would share some things with our players from this trip," explained Richt. "Just again, to help them understand how truly blessed we are to be in this country and be able to go to college and be able to have an opportunity in life where a lot of people just don't have that opportunity at all whether it is in this country or out."

While the week promises to be a time of service, revival, and good quality family time, the Bulldog head coach does not intend to bring any preconceived notions or expectations. He will simply follow a formula that has helped him become one of the winningest active head coaches in the country, and states "I am just very open to hear what God has to say."

Todd Unzicker was a staff writer and later managing editor for UGASports.com from 2003-2005. He currently serves as a missionary with World Baptist Missions in Honduras. For more in formation on how you can help or serve with World Baptist Missions, go to their website: www.wbmonline.org or to support Todd and his ministry, email tunzicker@gmail.com

[CCTAU 3,335]

This article is old, but I guess I didn't notice where his son was going.

Or maybe I'm thinking of the article where he took some of his players down there to help also. Is this his second time going this year?

Tough call. If your son was good enough to play college football, would you want him to play for you, or go elsewhere?

[JohnDeere 0]

This article is old, but I guess I didn't notice where his son was going.

Tough call. If your son were good enough to play college football, would you want him to play for you, or go elsewhere?

After an up and down 2006 season with the Bulldogs, Richt hopes to be able to share the experiences of the upcoming week with the team throughout the season.

[SouthLink02 8]

Richt has said numerous times that he basically didn't allow his son to come to UGA because of the akward...Father/Son relationship and being the HC

A recent article was a good read on pretty much what happened

http://georgia.scout.com/2/675467.html

“Growing up, he thought he was going to be a Bulldog, until about the 10th grade,” Mark Richt said. “Then I began to discuss with him some of the reasons why it would be good and some of the reasons why it might not be so good. I might have overdone it because he was pretty adamant that it would not be a good idea, and in my heart I don’t think it would be a good idea.”

“It would be tough on me to totally see him an unbiased way,” Mark Richt said. “I would have a hard time doing that, and it would put undue pressure on (quarterbacks coach Mike) Bobo to have the coach’s son right there.”

Imagine, Richt said, if his son had been part of last year’s hectic four-man scramble for the starting quarterback job.

“Let’s just pretend like (Matthew) Stafford was my son, and we decided to play a true freshman, and it’s Stafford and he starts throwing a lot of (interceptions) and fumbling the ball a lot, and I keep saying, ‘You know what, he’s going to get over this thing,’” Richt said. “If that’s my son, I can’t imagine how unmerciful that would have been.”

Richt has never fully trusted himself to judge his son’s talent, he said. Two years ago, when he first began to think Jon had Division I ability, he started asking around for second opinions. Last summer, he got one when Jon was offered a scholarship after a hastily arranged trip to a camp at Clemson.