The sports and day care ministries are the reason I have been a member of Baptist Temple since I was 9 years old...almost 40 years! The day care introduced me to BT, but it was the sports ministry that drew me in.
I watched Pete Burton coach a women’s softball team at South Side Lions Park. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I found out one of the women from that team would be coaching a youth boy’s softball team. Wanda Phillips was the coach. Cleta Foster, Evelyn Walker, and Marcia Frazelle served as assistant coaches. These women taught us more than how to play a game. They used each practice and game as an opportunity to witness to us and teach us life lessons. I’m not saying it was a religious service or devotional time. What I am saying is that they would show us love, patience, encouragement, and strict discipline should we need it.
Here’s one life lesson that remains with me to this day. To be eligible to play in that week’s game a player could not miss Sunday School for two weeks in a row. Coach Phillips had me so scared to miss Sunday School that I would attend the First Baptist Church of Sinton and bring back the bulletin to show I had been in Sunday School when we went there to visit my grandmother.
On one occasion, our pitcher and best hitter, Steve Hartsfield, was “benched” because he had missed Sunday School for two weeks in a row. Coach Phillips could have chosen to “overlook” his absence. Instead, she announced at practice that Steve would not be playing that week. These are the kind of life lessons we learned from these women.
As teenagers Mike Edwards and I moved up to the men’s team. There was one small problem for me. I wasn’t as good as most of the men on the team. I would only be put in the game in the late innings when the game was usually out of reach. That’s when Max Brunnemann and I developed a relationship that I cherish to this day. Max was the catcher. He took me under his wing and showed me how to play the position of catcher. Our pitcher was Mr. Ray Black. Max taught me how to place the glove just the way Ray wanted it.
During some games, at the objection of some of the players, Max would take himself out of the game so that I could play. If you know of Max’s competitive nature, you might think this was a tough decision for him. However, if you really knew Max, you would know a man full of love and compassion. He realized that softball was a ministry and that all should be included.
Even though I wasn’t athletically gifted, the men on that team made me feel as if I belonged. The greatest game in the history of Baptist Temple softball is the one that never was played! At practice some of the men talked about how much fun it would be to play a practice game against the women. The reason the men gave for not playing the game was that they “did not want the women to get hurt.” Between you, me, and the fencepost, I think the men knew the Baptist Temple women might have won.
The sports ministry is an important part of Baptist Temple. I’m sure glad that Pastor Jorge is supporting the various sports and extra-curricular activities here. You never know if one of the kids you are ministering to today will make a profession of faith, join Baptist Temple, and spend the rest of their life loving and worshipping the Lord. I know that is what happened to me.
Published in the Baptist Temple Church Bulletin on May 15, 2011 in recognition of BT’s sports ministry during our centennial celebrations.
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