Teenage girls will soon have a new option to play club volleyball while growing deeper in their faith.<\/p>\n
Athletes In Action (AIA) will be running a new club program later this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We’ve been running volleyball camps for many years and this is a natural extension of that,” Steve Klassen, Regional Director for Athletes in Action youth initiatives, says.<\/p>\n
Competitive club program coming<\/p>\n
“We’ve decided to launch an actual club team. So we’re launching a girls club volleyball program that will compete in local tournaments and engage in real-world competition.”<\/p>\n
Klassen says AIA camps offer a safe space for conversations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We talk about competition, we talk about the way that we should act as athletes and how to honour God in real competition, but we’re not really engaging in competition. This is an opportunity to live out some of those Athletes in Action values and talk about who we are, what our identity is, and how we be true to that person that God created us to be, both on and off the court.”<\/p>\n
Controlling emotions<\/p>\n
Teaching the athletes that we’re not always going to get it right is important for Klassen.<\/p>\n
“When you’re trying to change that sort of behaviour and restore someone’s default setting to the way that it ought to be, there is going to be some trial and error involved. It starts with being intentional about what we talk about and the way we talk about it.<\/p>\n
“In our camp curriculum, we talk a lot about what it means to be a good teammate and who the teammates in our lives are. That referee that makes the bad call, that’s a person. They’re not intentionally trying to sabotage you. They’re doing their best to manage the game that you’re a part of.<\/p>\n
“So how do we honour that person in their efforts, even when we don’t think they’ve made the right call? How do we represent Jesus in that space? The\u00a0old phrase: what would Jesus do? That becomes really live in that moment.”<\/p>\n
Klassen says it will be a constant reminder to the players.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We actually have some really good examples biblically of the way that Jesus reacted in those moments. So we’re going to talk about it every practice. We’re going to talk about it in every huddle, and we’re going to practice in and practice out, game in and game out.”<\/p>\n
RELATED STORIES:<\/p>\n
Remember the why<\/p>\n
As AIA is entering the new space, Klassen says it is important to remember the why.<\/p>\n
“We’re a nonprofit. Our goal is not to strive for bigger and better always. We are very good at certain things like sports camps, which we do all summer long. We run academies and clinics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“This is an opportunity\u00a0for year-round ministry. I’m really excited about the idea that we can actually engage with these girls throughout the calendar year.<\/p>\n
“We can be doing academies with them and clinics in the spring. We can be doing camps in the summer. We can be running our team together throughout the rest of the calendar year and literally growing together as time goes.”<\/p>\n
More than volleyball<\/p>\n
Besides the volleyball aspect, Klassen is excited for the discipleship aspect.<\/p>\n
“That element of discipleship is one thing that’s really been a challenge for us in our ministry. And that’s okay. I think that we’ve done well with what our goals have been, but as we begin to stretch out a little bit,\u00a0I’m really excited about that discipleship aspect.”<\/p>\n
When Klassen first joined AIA, he remembers club volleyball was the dream.<\/p>\n
“When I first got taken on by Athletes in Action [eight years ago], this was something that I was having a conversation with my mentor about in the first week. Wouldn’t it be cool if we had our own gymnasium and we could actually enter into real competition? What would that look like? And now all of a sudden, Douglas Mennonite has made it possible for me to come and have my office space in their church building and has invited sports ministry to be a part of what’s happening in their gym.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Others will watch<\/p>\n
As AIA prepares to enter the new space, Klassen says there may be extra eyes on the team.<\/p>\n
“It’s a big responsibility to enter into a field like this and wear your banner on your sleeve so everyone knows who you are, everyone knows what you represent, and then you’re going to enter into a secular space and there might be more eyes. People might be watching more closely to see how do you represent that.<\/p>\n
“As we enter into the world, whether it’s our workplaces, our homes, or our schools, people know who we are; it’s important that we act in a way that represents Jesus well. That is going to be at the forefront of the mission.”<\/p>\n
Who its for<\/p>\n
Klassen says it is open for girls in the 13U and 14U. “That is\u00a0anyone born September 1, 2012 or later. You do not need to profess Christian faith to be a part of our program. This is open to everyone. We would love to just open up life’s big questions together and play together.”<\/p>\n
To prepare for the season, three free clinics will be offered<\/a>. The first is at Winnipeg Mennonite School, 26 Agassiz Drive on Oct. 19. The second clinic is on Oct. 27, followed by Nov. 17. Both are at Douglas Mennonite Church, 1517 Rothesay Street.<\/p>\n Any adults looking to get involved, Klassen says there is a role to play. “We are actively interviewing coaches as we speak. If you love volleyball, you have a heart to invest in the next generation,\u00a0and you want to use your faith and integrate that with your sport, we would certainly love to meet you. Come to athletesinaction.ca<\/a>.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teenage girls will soon have a new option to play club volleyball while growing deeper in their faith.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":923933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-923932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=923932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/923933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=923932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=923932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=923932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}