When I joined the Boy Scouts - Troop 17, Reform, Alabama - the Scoutmaster had, over the preceding few years, produced several Eagle Scouts. Now, these were good boys, from good families, and they're due a lot of credit for reaching the rank of Eagle, but the key was the Scoutmaster. I have seen it played out once again since then, when John Lammers was the Scoutmaster just down the road in Carrollton, Alabama, and led several boys to work to become Eagles and succeed. I'll venture that perhaps one of those boys, whether in Reform, back in the early 60's, or Carrollton, several decades later, might have made Eagle regardless of who the Scoutmaster was, but that's a big "might", I'll tell you! 

That Scoutmaster, when I joined the Scouts around the age of twelve, was the driving force behind all those boys attaining the rank of Eagle. It was a determined goal of his to help those boys reach that goal in their lives. And it was a big deal in a small town to have such an accomplishment. I was anticipating that I, too, would be shepherded and encouraged and led to become an Eagle, like my father before me (he made Eagle in Decatur, Alabama, back in the 1930's). But then something happened that took away that prospect. The Scoutmaster, a well-respected man in little Reform - as he would have to have been back in those days to have even been a Scoutmaster - was caught in the act of adultery. Almost immediately, probably with much urging from both Scouting officials and community leaders, he resigned as Scoutmaster, and it wasn't too long after that when he left town, in shame and disgrace, never to be seen again. 

Scoutmasters like him are few and far between. The same as with coaches like Saban. So, the motivator being gone, the achiever, the pusher, the inspiration, and I, being a little shy, and one who had much need of such encouragement and motivation, never made Eagle. In fact, no one in our Troop after that made Eagle for decades to come. Boys and young men, in Scouting, sports, or whatever endeavor, need leadership, and only exceptional leadership produces champions. The boys in Troop 17 who were just coming in when the scandal of adultery broke over the head of our leader really never had much chance of becoming Eagles. The members of the University of Alabama football team haven't had the chance to become champions since 1991, because they haven't had the leadership since Gene Stallings retired - until now. They may not make it all the way, undefeated, this year, but at least they now have the chance! The chance that was ours - to become Eagle Scouts - evaporated when that exceptional Scoutmaster resigned. We had the desire, and no doubt some talents that would have helped us along the way, but we needed that leader who would push us onward to the ultimate goal.  

Eaglets would never become Eagles alone. They would simply starve to death - no matter how much potential to soar they might otherwise have had. Without Mama and Pappa Eagle, they just wouldn't make it. Same goes for would-be Eagles in Scouting.  

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