Maybe that’s not your thing, and that’s OK. However, as a believer, I’m inspired by those who recognize that they have an audience and that some in the audience need to hear the gospel message. I appreciate their courage.

This is one of the many reasons why I am continually impressed by the work of the Heart of Texas Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Granted, the Heart of Texas FCA is not the only local group using sports as a means to spread God’s love. Mark Wible and Hoops for Hope regularly spread this message worldwide through their countless basketball mission trips. The Links Fellowship, led by Ben Hagins and Ronnie Lee, aims to support golfers at their monthly meetings. Legacy Outfitters chooses outdoor sports such as hunting and fishing as a backdrop to help men become “better husbands, fathers and men of faith.”

Everyone is doing a great job, but the mission of the Heart of Texas FCA is especially dear to my heart this week because I recently had lunch with Director Ben Johnson.

First, let me go back to another lunch Ben and I had together, actually our very first. At that time, I had proposed the idea of ​​an all-star high school football game in the Super Centex area.

“As a perpetual dreamer, I am now ready to throw another idea into the room in the hope that other people will come along and help give it wings,” I wrote in a January 2008 Tribune-Herald column.

Consider Ben my bald eagle. (Because of his wings, you know, and not the top of his head. You know I love you, gentle Ben.) We met shortly after this article was published, and one of the first things Ben said to me was, “Man, did you read my mind?” It turns out he wanted to make a game just like that.

He and his amazing team have done the hard work to make the Super Centex Victory Bowl what it is today – a week-long event featuring six different all-star games in five sports that honors hundreds of Central Texas athletes each year while praising the name of Jesus. The athletes stay with host families and get involved in various community service projects in addition to training and playing their chosen sports.

I’m not taking credit for the Victory Bowl’s success. I was just throwing out an idea that Ben admittedly had himself. The Heart of Texas FCA did the hard work and those guys would no doubt give the real credit to the Lord anyway.

Now, 16 years later, the roles are somewhat reversed. This time, Ben came to me with an idea and I agree that it’s a really good idea worth pursuing. I even promised to help where I can.

Essentially, the idea is this: What if the Victory Bowl banquet looked completely different? What if it was, for lack of a better word, an awards ceremony? Maybe something along the lines of the ESPYs.

Every April, Johnson and his FCA team bring the Victory Bowl athletes and cheerleaders together for a big banquet. They feed the teens, introduce each one, and give them their big entrance. Then they turn the evening over to a guest speaker who brings a message of hope. It’s always a cool event.

Johnson’s heart was stirred by a vision of something bigger, something even greater. He wants to give a series of awards to the best athletes and coaches in a variety of sports, not just reserved for participants in Victory Bowl games.

This is all still in the “slow cooker” phase, as Ben put it, but we’ve been tossing around a lot of different ideas. The event doesn’t have a name yet, but we’ve been discussing the idea of ​​”victories,” which plays on the Victory Bowl theme, which celebrates both success on the field and the victory you achieve in living according to Jesus.

Like the ESPYs, the event will undoubtedly present other awards beyond honoring the best athletes and coaches in a particular sport. For example, ESPN annually recognizes winners of the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage and the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance. There’s no reason why the Heart of Texas FCA couldn’t tell similar inspirational stories, including honoring local teams that are especially inclined to give back to their community, in the spirit of the late University High School football coach Mike Chapman.

And while we’re at it, handing out trophies, why leave it to the locals? We’ve also discussed giving a prominent visiting athlete their own award. Maybe something like the “FCA Share Your Faith Boldly Award,” which would certainly reflect the FCA’s mission. How cool would it be to give someone like Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy or Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone an award like that? (Calm down, folks, no one’s booked yet.)

Given the warmth and humility of these elite athletes, they would probably be particularly touched to receive such an award, and at the same time the honor would go to the person who most deserves it. (And that’s the point.)

To be honest, Ben’s idea isn’t entirely new. In the late 2010s, Will Phipps – then director of the Greater Waco Sports Commission – wanted to organize a similar event. (To be completely frank, I offered my input and help with that event, too.) Phipps envisioned the Greater Waco Sports Awards as an Oscars-style gala with black-tie and a red carpet, but it never really got off the ground. The inaugural event was scheduled for December 2019, but was then pushed back to the following summer due to scheduling conflicts among various teams. It then fell victim to COVID-19, and despite talks of a 2021 premiere, momentum waned.

I hope that won’t be the case this time. Johnson and the Heart of Texas FCA are already well prepared to host a banquet. In a way, they are just changing the date and giving their existing banquet a new look.

Nothing is set in stone, but Ben and I have talked about holding the Victories on a Sunday afternoon or evening in June to kick off Victory Bowl Week. And while there is still a lot to be worked out, Ben is optimistic that the inaugural event could take place by 2025, at the end of this school year.

If you would like to pitch in and help, email Johnson at [email protected].

I will continue to give my feedback at lunch.

After all, it says: “Give us this day our daily bread…”