Service to God, others part of the game plan

It started with two dads who were dissatisfied with how their sports-loving daughters were being coached on a youth volleyball team. Too much negativity, too little encouragement, they believed. Their not-so-unusual concern became the inspiration for an extraordinary solution: creating a new youth sports model that focuses on character development as much as athletic development.

“We’re going to teach at the highest level, but we’re also going to teach life and God,” said Andy Schatz, metro Atlanta sports director for Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Using FCA as an umbrella, Schatz and Shane Williamson, FCA’s metro Atlanta director, started with volleyball and have added baseball and basketball. The long-term vision is to have teams in soccer, lacrosse, wrestling, tennis and cheerleading —- to name a few.

FCA began in 1954 as an organization charged with challenging coaches and athletes from professional through junior high levels to use athletics as a means to share Christian values. Normally the focus is on coaches and teams in schools, in addition to summer camps for young athletes.

“We’ve been doing this for 55 years on campus, but we had never branched outside of that type of ministry into community-based sports” in metro Atlanta, said Williamson. “The awakening to FCA came when the statistics showed somewhere between 39 [million] and 40 million kids [nationwide] are playing off-campus sports.”

FCA is the largest sports ministry in the world, both national and international, with 800 employees in the United States, Williamson said. Up to this point, the definition of community ministry was limited to FCA support from donors, board members, parents and volunteers.

At the core of the off-campus ministry is a highly competitive environment that includes regular devotions and mandatory service projects. Recently, SKY volleyball athletes helped members of a nonprofit Marietta ministry host a Christmas party for underprivileged youths.

The combination of positive coaching, building character and serving others is one that appeals to concerned parents.

“Having Leslye in a Christian league means that she not only gets to improve her skills and have fun playing a sport that she loves, but also provides a great opportunity for Christian fellowship and community service,” said Linda Barnette, whose daughter is on a team for 15-year-olds.

SKY has three full competition teams and almost 40 girls in the developmental league. As director of sports ministry, Schatz’s job is recruiting athletes and coaches and securing donations to offset gym rental fees, scholarships for athletes and other costs. As the program grows and more sports are added, Schatz’s job intensifies.

“Of the 60 staff members in Atlanta, without a doubt he has some of the toughest days [of] anybody,” said Williamson. “He deals with so many factors that our typical staff people don’t have to deal with.”

The FCA model requires careful screening of potential coaches, who are required to be spiritual mentors as well as skilled teachers. Also, Williamson and Schatz agree that the number of teams will never grow beyond the number of available, quality coaches.

“It comes down to the fundamental idea that sport is more than just a game. It’s an opportunity for people to learn more about who they are and who others are. People get caught up in the competition itself, and don’t see anything beyond that,” said Williamson. “There is so much more opportunity there than just teaching the technical and tactical part of sport. … The faith side of things comes when we begin to discover that hopefully all of these opportunities to learn point us toward understanding who we are and who God is.”

For more information, call Andy Schatz at 770-713-2685, e-mail aschatz@fca.org, or visit www.fcaatlanta.org.