A Jacksonville State softball player gets baptized during an event before the Conference USA Tournament. (Photo courtesy of Cassidy Paxton/Liberty Athletics)
More than 100 women are competing against each other in the Conference USA Softball Championship this week, but before the games began, many of them spent Tuesday night cheering on 26 players from different schools as they got baptized in a hotel pool.
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It all happened organically after an organized worship event Monday night on the campus of Western Kentucky University, which is hosting the CUSA tournament. The event, called “Worship on the Hill,” was hosted by the WKU Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter in partnership with Crossland Community Church in Bowling Green, and included worship and teaching. By the end of the night, 29 college students were baptized.
In attendance were members of the Jacksonville State softball team, who remained in town after playing WKU last weekend to close out the regular season, and were invited by Hilltoppers softball players. Many were moved by the message and worship and felt a call to be baptized, but due to a team curfew had to leave the event before baptisms began. Not to be deterred, they contacted a WKU player and asked if they could host a baptism event at their team hotel the next night, with Worship on the Hill organizers helping lead.
“For the most part, the Lord just stirred on their hearts that night,” WKU FCA director David Byrd told Sports Spectrum. “As they left and we were on the heels of the event, we thought this was another great event where God moved. Come to find out, He wasn’t done.”
Byrd called Crossland senior pastor Gregg Farrell, who preached the message the night before, and without hesitation he was on board to help facilitate the impromptu baptism event. Those JSU players invited their friends and competitors from WKU to witness, but word spread even further. Byrd said when he arrived at the hotel, just about every one of the six schools competing was represented, with an estimated 70-80 players surrounding the pool and probably dozens more coaches and other adults.
From the pool, Liberty head coach Dot Richardson shared a message, followed by Farrell doing the same and sharing his testimony. Then the Jacksonville State players who planned on doing so were baptized, but from there, “kids just started responding left and right, one after another,” Byrd said.
Individual teams have celebrated one or several members getting baptized, but seeing multiple schools from a conference come together to get baptized and celebrate the night before they’re set to compete against each other is quite unique, Byrd said. Part of the message shared was that while it’s natural to feel competitive, those who are believers need to be Christ-followers first and competitors second.
“What made it really special is these softball players have been competing against each other all year,” Byrd said. “They’ve gone through a lot of competitive moments together, but the Lord was moving so heavily in the room that you didn’t sense any of that competitive spirit. It was peaceful. You could sense the Lord in the room.”
One team will leave the weekend as a conference champion and secure a berth in the NCAA Tournament. But Byrd said he’s more excited to see what happens when these players go back to their respective campuses.
“This is something you can’t just forget about or explain away,” he said. “It’s to be determined what the Lord does with that, but I think we can say confidently that He’s going to use it somehow.”
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