How to join
For more information on how to find an Upward team to join, check out the Upward League Finder at www.upward.org.
It’s not about keeping score, but having fun, organizers of Upward say of its football, cheerleading and basketball programs.
Co-director of football Frank Duran may not be keeping track of winning and losing teams he is recording a few statistics.
More than 600 boys and girls from kindergarten to eighth-grade have registered to participate in this year’s co-ed flag football program and cheerleading sponsored by area churches.
That is the largest number of participants in the three years of the local sport group. Basketball and winter cheerleading, which have been around a while longer, also have driven up the numbers to make the group of West Chester and Liberty townships Upward one of the largest in the nation.
While the vast majority of participants live in the Lakota Local School District, he said they come from as far as 20 miles away to play, organizers said.
Director Jay Shepherd credits the local success to the cooperation of community churches.
“When churches realize that they don’t compete against each other and they cooperate, everybody’s got this beautiful alliance,” he said. “Cooperation and synergy among community churches is absolutely the driving force behind it.”
The mission of the Upward organization is to introduce children to Jesus Christ by creating opportunities to serve through sports.
“It’s still competitive and the kids want to win, but we don’t have a champion of the league and we don’t keep standings,” Duran said.
Teams are equally balanced with a rule that all children get equal playing time.
Shephard said the pressure from youth sports today tends to drive children away from joining junior high and high school teams.
Whether it is from overzealous parents, lack of playing time or burn out, he said the numbers of participants dwindle drastically as children get older.
“I think parents are screaming for an alternative to youth sports,” Shepherd said. “It’s just a pleasant experience to go to. You don’t have fights. You don’t have parents getting into shouting matches. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a very positive environment.”
At each game day, parents and students listen to a speaker give a non-denominational Christian message.
“When you ask kids what are you looking for in a youth sports program, they say they want to have fun — they want to play with their friends,” Duran said.
Saturday football games, which are run by volunteers, begin Sept. 19 and go for eight weeks. Signups for basketball will begin shortly.
Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5067 or lhilty@coxohio.com.
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