Police vs. pastors at Game On fundraiser
“We want this community to be a great place for youth to grow up. We want this to be a place of peace that reigns over our city.”
As the players walked onto McCallie School’s basketball court, the stands pulsed with the energy of a high school basketball game. But instead of teenage athletes, the teams consisted of middle-age community leaders, coaches, firefighters and law enforcement officers who wanted to connect with youth.
Music pumped through speakers, and a minister led the crowd in a short devotion at halftime. It wasn’t a traditional basketball game, but most people who attended said it was fun.
It was a chance, said the adult players who took the court, to exemplify a world they want youth to model. One where people played together, the winning team encouraged the loser, and no one fought.
This was the second annual Game On fundraiser presented by Covenant Keypers and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. About 200 people attended.
This year the crowd included a few youth, but mostly older couples and the spouses of the people who played. Organizers said they’ll work to get more families in 2019.
The tournament included four teams of community leaders. The pastors played police officers. Then firefighters played the high school and middle school coaches. The winner of each game, the pastors and the coaches, played for the championship.
The pastors won. The crowd stood to their feet and cheered. Then everyone went home. No harm, no foul, no drama.
Jay Fowler, director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, said that’s how he wants all school athletic events to go.
The event is a fundraiser for both groups, but it’s also about building bridges, he said.
JAY FOWLER, DIRECTOR OF THE FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIAN ATHLETES
“We want this community to be a great place for youth to grow up. We want this to be a place of peace that reigns over our city,” he said.
The teams played just months after Brainerd School and Austin East boys basketball teams broke out in a brawl so bad that it ended in both teams being suspended indefinitely from the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association.
But at this game, like at most games, all went well.
The game provides funding that helps the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. And it helps support women’s and marriage conferences for Covenant Keypers, an organization that Rosalyn Hickman co-founded with her husband, Gary, to support marriages.
They provide free marriage counseling that would cost couples thousands of dollars. She said the average fee for professional counseling runs from $175 to $300 per 40-minute session.
“These are things we need. Statistically we know the breakdown in the family is wreaking havoc on our economy anyway,” said Hickman. “We just want to make sure that money doesn’t keep us from offering the best counseling and the best educational resources that we can provide to our community.”
The concept of letting preachers, police officers, firemen and coaches compete in basketball was Silver Crest Baptist Church Pastor Randy Petersen’s idea, said Rosalyn Hickman.
He wants to help fund Covenant Keypers and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes because he sees the two organizations as a good marriage. One group works with parents. The other works with teens and middle-schoolers.
“So when we come together, he’s got the whole family being ministered to in our city,” she said. “We just wanted to have fun together.”
Contact Yolanda Putman at yputman@ timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.