Wednesday, January 23, 2002
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Wednesday, January 23, 2002 |
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Several churches unite to offer free baseball clinic By MICHAEL
BOYLAN
The Atlanta Braves will report to spring training at the beginning of next month, but local boys and girls in first grade and up will get a chance to meet and learn from several Braves and other major league players before they leave. There will be a free baseball clinic offered at the Fayette County High School baseball field this Saturday. Registration begins at 12:15 p.m. and the clinic lasts from 1-4 p.m. Atlanta Braves Keith Lockhart, Kevin Millwood, Terry Pendleton and John Smoltz will be in attendance, as will Boston Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek and Michael Barrett of the Montreal Expos. The clinic is sponsored by New Hope Baptist Church, Harp's Crossing Baptist Church, Flat Creek Baptist Church, McDonough Road Baptist Church, Liberty Baptist Church and Unlimited Potential, Inc., which is operated by Tim Cash, a former major leaguer himself with the Houston Astros and now a chaplain with the Braves. Cash has an ongoing Bible study with a number of professional baseball players and puts on two baseball clinics a year, one on the north side of Atlanta and one on the south side. Last year there was a clinic sponsored by McDonough Road Baptist and put on by former Brave Sid Bream. "We learned a lot with last year's clinic," said Pastor David Chancey. "The community enjoyed it and it was a good experience to build on." This year, Chancey teamed up with Al Mead, the associate pastor and minister of sports and recreation at New Hope Baptist Church; Jerry Cross, associate pastor at Flat Creek Baptist Church and Ken Nelms, associate pastor at Harp's Crossing Baptist Church, to put on a larger clinic for what they hope to be a larger crowd. "We had approximately 300 children attend last year's clinic, which conflicted with opening day of Little League," said Chancey. "This year, we are having the clinic before the start of Little League and before the start of spring training so that current players are available." The churches are excited to be working together. It was a way to share the workload, parcel out the responsibilities and have it be a community effort. The cooperation among the churches reaches more congregations and fosters more excitement around the community. Mead is currently overseeing a basketball season at New Hope that includes over 40 churches. "The leaders have come together for the kids and given them something special," said Mead. The pastors also stressed the synergy of the group and their effort to put on a good event for the community. The clinic will be set up with a player at every station and children in each age group will move from station to station. There will be stations for hitting, fielding, pitching, throwing, baserunning and more. Several of the players will also share their personal story of faith. There will be door prizes and a chance to get autographs. Children attending the clinic are asked to wear recreation clothes and tennis shoes. In the case of inclement weather, the clinic will take place in the old Fayette County High School Gym. Parents are asked to park in the Fayette County High School parking lot. There is no cost for the clinic.
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