FCA camp another success
By Chris Whitaker, the Americus Times-Recorder
AMERICUS - Georgia Southwestern finished hosting a Fellowship of Christian Athletes football camp for a second-consecutive year.
More than 700 players and coaches attended last year, and GSW reported that more than 500 players and almost 100 coaches from 11 high schools attended this year.
"Georgia Southwestern is an area that's conducive to local teams so they don't have to travel far," said Bill Cox, FCA Director for the Albany area, which includes 10 counties. "We toured the campus, and it's ideal. We appreciate everything because it helps both of us out. It's just what we need."
The camp featured morning and afternoon 7-on-7 passing competitions while linemen had their own section for drills and clinics, including a competition Tuesday afternoon. Its venues included the lower soccer field and intramural fields on campus, and the football field at Americus-Sumter.
In the evenings, Vance Watts from Tallahassee, Fla. led worship, and Derrick Moore, the FCA football chaplain at Georgia Tech, was the speaker.
"We're just excited to see what God is doing to do," said Cox. "Our camps are so much different from what the world has to offer. We don't just give them the physical element of competition, but the most important part - spiritual. Everybody gets a Bible and a T-shirt, and they hear the gospel in the evenings and lives are changes. That's what it's all about.
"That's the reason the coaches come, not the competition part. We're the only Christian organization that offers a camp that will offer the physical, mental and spiritual. It offers it all."
GSW Athletics Director Jaclyn Kaylor said the FCA has a lot of options available as far as locations are concerned, and she's glad it chose to come back to Americus.
"We're excited; it's good for the whole school," she said. "It's a good advertising and recruiting tool. We brought in 500 students who might not have seen GSW before, and they may include us on their list of colleges to attend. It's also a good fundraising opportunity for our school. They paid to eat in the cafeteria, they slept in the dorms, and they used our facilities. It's good for us to keep a good relationship established with them."
Schools attending the camp included: Americus-Sumter; Bainbridge; Brantley; Brookwood School; Clark Central; Dougherty; Thomas County Central; Thomasville; Tiftarea Academy; Tift County; and Westover.
Click here to read an additional opinion piece by the Americus Times-Recorder concerning GSW and the FCA camp.
