It's no secret that classical Christian schools focus intently on the serious business of academics. You might naturally wonder, then, about the role of the athletics program in such a school.

You might even be tempted to assume that a school like Bloomfield Christian School (BCS) offers sports only as a way to attract students that otherwise might want to attend larger institutions with more extracurricular activities. However, a good athletics program actually serves a much bigger purpose within a classical Christian school.

A good athletics program functions like a laboratory where students have the opportunity to practice the lessons they have been learning in Bible, literature, history, and other subjects. 

In late spring, BCS held its annual sports banquet. Near the end of the night, the baseball coach handed out three baseballs to players that had made extraordinary contributions to the team throughout the season.

Rewarding Courage

The first baseball went not to the player that scored the most runs or stole the most bases or struck out the most batters. Instead, the ball went to a player that the coach politely described as "one of our less experienced players. "

Now, to anyone who watched a BCS baseball game this season, it would have been obvious that this player had never played before and that he didn't really understand all the rules. Sometimes the umpires had to tell him when to leave the field because he was out or even when he should be heading down to first base.

But the coach's award wasn't a gesture of sympathy. Rather, Coach Carey said that this player had taught the entire team lessons about courage that helped them attain a truly impressive record of wins. It takes courage for anyone to play high school baseball, especially when batting. Some of the pitchers can throw over 70 mph or 80 mph – but those throws aren't always very accurate. In one game this year, opposing pitchers hit BCS players with pitches 10 times by my count. Walking up to the plate and hanging in the batter's box knowing what could very well happen takes some real guts.

But walking up to that same plate under those same conditions when you have never swung a bat in a real game before – and lots of people are watching – takes an entirely different level of courage. And being willing to ask questions in practice when you know all of your teammates probably know the answers takes an entirely different kind of guts.

It was this courage that Coach Carey was celebrating. And it was this courage that helped inspire the rest of the team to face down inaccurate pitchers, to attempt to steal bases when they weren't sure they could make it, to go for the catch when it would have been easier to field a ball on a hop, and in short, to do all the courageous things that led to a winning season.

The other players and students at the sports banquet also recognized this player's courage. They applauded enthusiastically for the award, some of them rising to their feet and cheering.

Rewarding Leadership

Lest you think that BCS is the kind of school that hands out trophies to everyone for participating, I should mention that the coach also handed out a baseball to the player who was undeniably the best on the team. Even then, he emphasized the player's character, especially his truly outstanding leadership abilities, more than his athletic skills. Coach Carey even laughingly recounted overhearing a student say that this player was the real coach and that the other coaches were "just there for adult supervision."

Rewarding Humility

Rather than talk at length about his team's big wins, the high school basketball coach recounted their "best losses" and how much they had learned from them. Setting an amazing example of humility for the students, he even confessed what he felt to be his biggest failure as a coach during the season and applauded his players for following the commands of scripture and quietly confronting him about it.

Rewarding a Positive Attitude

At the beginning of this article, I mentioned that the baseball coach handed out three baseballs, but so far I have only talked about two. The other baseball went not to a young man that was one of the best or one of the worst on the team, but to the player who was arguably the most average on the team. That player also happened to be my son.

Coach Carey said that this player taught the team about the importance of confidence. At the beginning of the season, the coach heard him mutter, "I'm not a very good baseball player." As the season progressed, the coach and other players encouraged him, building his confidence. His skills grew along with his confidence, and near the end of the year, he helped turn a double play that was one of the highlights of the season. The coach called it out as an example of the importance that the right attitude can make in many different aspects of life.

Even though the season was over, Coach Carey wasn't finished encouraging my son. As he awarded the baseball, he read a few lines of a poem called "Thinking" by Walter Wintle.

Life's battles don't always go

To the stronger or faster man;

But sooner or later the man who wins

Is the one who thinks he can.

Rewarding Christ-like Character

Other coaches recognized players who had diligently prepared in the off-season and players who kept their cool when opposing teams were antagonizing them. They mentioned the time when middle schoolers "wasted" an entire minute of game time hugging a player who had just made her first basket because they were so overjoyed about a teammate's success. They recounted stories of team prayer and Bible studies where the players grew closer to God as well as each other. And an assistant coach whose daughter was graduating brought everyone to tears when she choked up as she spoke about how much the sports program had taught their daughter and what it meant to their entire family.

Very, very few (if any) BCS athletes are likely to go on elite colleges or professional sports careers. But that's not the real goal of a classical Christian athletics program. Instead, the athletics program – like the rest of the school – is working to raise up "bold and obedient ambassadors for Jesus Christ." I believe that they are succeeding in that task admirably.

This same celebration of character happened over and over again all night long . BCS coaches mentioned their teams' successes and the many trophies they brought home, but their real focus was on the times when they saw their players demonstrate Christ-like character. It was a moment full of truth, goodness, and beauty. And that's what classical Christian education is all about. And that's why we love BCS, and why my children are involved in the sports program.