Special event wraps up Upward basketball season
Basketball players, cheerleaders, volunteers, and families from Perry Chapel Church Upward sports program came out to celebrate the 19th annual end of season in the gym at River View High School on March 5.
Pastor Bob Adelsperger opened with prayer giving thanks for all the people who made the upwards program a success this year.
The Upward cheerleaders performed, and special guest variety entertainer Mark Lippard entertained everyone with comedy, juggling, fire eating, trick unicycling, balance and hilarious audience participation. Each child received a sports bag for participating.
Adelsperger experienced Upward Basketball for the first time and was not the one who started it. “It was Pastor Dave Fowls who was here for 41 years,” he said. “God built this church over a couple generations and called the church to do Upward. Dave sensed that call and they built this new building in order to do that program. I walked into it, and I am amazed by it and humbled by it. The leadership in this church is unbelievable. It takes about 75 people every week to do this. This year we had around 150 kids and we haven’t had that many for a number of years. I’m really grateful that we had an opportunity like this.”
Adelsperger believes there is a lot that can happen through basketball. “Parents are trying to raise their kids with good values and basketball teaches all kinds of life skills,” he said. “Also, we have tried to incorporate sharing the faith with kids and families and specifically our faith in Jesus Christ. We make that a part of what we do, and people have responded well to it. They want that input and influence in their kids and their family’s lives so we have just kept rolling with that and that’s what we have been doing for 19 years now. I’m experiencing it now for the first time and I am amazed by it. It’s really very interesting because the pastor before me, Dave Fowls said the church is about a half hour from everywhere. We are out in no man’s land. Yet, in the hollow where the church is sitting God has chosen to use in all these different ways. It’s a privilege to be a part of that and contribute to that thing that God has built for all these people. Sports are a metaphor for life. The apostle Paul also said it was a metaphor for faith. They said he finished the race, referring to running the race in Hebrews 12 verses 1and 3.”
Judy Fowls said, “I’m very pleased that Pastor Bob has continued this, and his wife Diane is very involved and said she would coach again tomorrow if she could. Every year this is great entertainment. My husband loved evangelism and he knew that the hills and hollows as he called them were filled with people who needed to hear about Jesus. He learned about Upward basketball in early 2000. Our church was growing, and we had already expanded several times and so he and the elders decided it was time to build a multi-purpose facility that we could worship in and have a gym where we could have these Upward games. It became a reality, and we opened our doors for the first time on Mother’s Day 2003. My husband would be very excited to see all the people here today. He would be very pleased with how it has grown and continued. We have had a good staff working over the years. My husband and I had seen stories and videos about Upward Sports and it was Caz McCaslin’s dream to reach people through sports. This has really been a good thing for our church. It has helped our church to grow as people who didn’t know our church existed heard about Upward and would bring their kids. The kids heard about Jesus through the devotions they had at practices. It takes a lot of volunteers to make this happen.”
Toni Lee, Upward basketball director, has coached all the 19 years and she has 19 different color shirts to prove it. “I played basketball for River View and graduated in 1980. I think I am the only one who has coached every year. We have kindergarten through ninth grade. We have so many new families this year, first time players. Four teams play at a time, every team practices for an hour during the week and at half time we have devotions, and the parents can listen in. On Saturdays between each game, we have a devotion at half time. ”
Upward Sports is a non-profit 501 organization with the mission of “promoting the discovery of Jesus through sports.” Upward Sports partners with churches in the US and Canada to bring youth sports ministry in their local communities. Upward Sports was founded in 1995 by Caz McCaslin.
Perry Chapel Baptist Church is located at 19476 TR 380 in Warsaw. For more information, call 740-327-5800 or visit www.perrychapelohio.com.
