Spare Change - December 2022
For the Love of the (Game) Savior
Upward season is in full swing! We are starting the 14th season of the Upward basketball and cheer program at Oakhill. Every year, boys and girls from kindergarten to 8th grade sign up to play in our league. This year we have our highest league enrollment with 222 basketball and cheer participants! We also have 50 coaches signed up to help. We will have many other volunteers that will help us when games start. We are thankful to the Lord for the many children in our program and the volunteers that serve. The Upward Sports Ministry is a unique and wonderful ministry. There are several reasons for this:
1. Emphasis on Spiritual Things
Upward is not just a basketball and cheer league. We strongly emphasize the spiritual. During each practice, coaches lead the players through a devotional. This year they are looking at snapshots from characters listed in Hebrews 11. The devotions build throughout the season emphasizing truth from God’s word and the gospel. We also have an intentional gospel presentation at one point in the season. Players can respond and we follow up with them if they want to know how to become a follower of Jesus. Finally, we do half-time devotions to bring a spiritual element to the games as well. Upward only works if we emphasize the spiritual along with the physical.
2. Emphasis on Relationships
Another goal of our Upward league is to build relationships with our players and families. We want the Upward experience to be a positive one. We have found that if our staff, Upward leaders, coaches, and other volunteers focus on building relationships then we have a stronger league. We have connected with many great families that have played every year until their child ages out of the program. Relationships are key to making Upward great.
3. Emphasis on Skills
Upward is a competitive league, however we emphasize the players' growth over competition. We want this to be a league where kids of all skill levels will feel welcome. We also want to see them grow in their skills as the season progresses. It is always so amazing to see how players improve. When we emphasize skills, all players feel valued and encouraged.
4. Emphasis on Affirmation
Finally, Upward emphasizes an affirming attitude during games. You might see parents getting hot or coaches yelling at referees in other leagues. At the Oakhill Upward league, we see almost none of this. We work hard to create a positive environment where everyone from the players, to the coaches, to the referees, to the parents are affirmed. We know that people make mistakes, refs will miss calls, players will miss shots; but even through all of that, we want to be encouraging. Our Upward league has a great reputation, and we hope to continue this tradition each season.
I hope you understand why we think the Upward Sports Ministry is so special. If you want to volunteer to help during the season, please contact me at
The biggest way you can help is to pray! Pray for our players to respond to the truth of the gospel. Pray for our coaches as they work with the players. Pray for a safe, fun, and positive environment in practices and games. We can never have enough people praying for us! Thank you for your support and prayers!
