CHOCOWINITY — Playoff football has arrived. “Seize the day” is a message often espoused in locker rooms this time of the year. After all, each outing could be a team’s last for the season.

Southside coach Jeff Carrow and the Southside team have something they call “my story.” Coaches or guest speakers will periodically tell tales relating to football and life.

Carrow shared a story of his own after the Seahawks’ Monday practice. He told the Seahawks of his late uncle, Lee Beacham, who was paralyzed at the age of 13 in a diving accident.

“Growing up as a young kid — not just me, but my family members and community members — he was very well known,” Carrow said. “He taught us things like how to fish. He got us into athletics.”

It amazed Carrow that his uncle, hardly able to move anything from his neck down, could teach him how to throw a football or a baseball. Beacham’s ability to coach without being able to show has been an inspiration to Carrow throughout his life, and especially now that he’s a coach.

“He was a strong, faithful man. He influenced so many people, not just with his faith that he carried, but also by being able to overcome things and keep a positive attitude,” Carrow said. “And he loved sports. Absolutely loved sports.”

Carrow said he’s been told that Beacham worked hard just to learn to write again so he could help keep stats for Washington football and baseball.

“Whatever he could do, he figured a way to do it,” Carrow said. “He was the major influence in my life. … When things are down, it keeps me going.”

One could tell the message resonated with the Southside players just by glancing around the room. Their faces were somewhat sober, yet the determination to seize the opportunity Thursday against Northside was apparent.

It’s an important message at this juncture of the season. No football team playing this week has another game to look forward to.

It’s do or die.

Moreover, this story serves as a reminder of the bigger picture. These are the kinds of life lessons coaches attempt to communicate. Football — and high-school athletics as a whole — is about so much more than winning and losing.

This “seize the day” mentality is as important off the field as it is on it. That is, after all, what coaches want to instill in players. They want to leave them with life lessons that they can carry with them even once their days on the gridiron are up.

It remains to be seen how much longer the Seahawks will get to play football. Even so, Carrow hopes the story of his uncle and the other lessons he’s taught Southside’s players will stay with them for a long, long time.