In 1970, 12-year-old Bryan Peoples played in the Royal Ambassador (RA) Alabama state championship basketball game.
On Feb. 14–15, 2003, Peoples returned and coached an RA basketball team from First Baptist Church, Trussville, in the same tournament.
“Playing as a kid myself and then turning around and coaching my son in 2003 was quite a thrill,” he said. More than 400 young men from Alabama Baptist churches across the state participated in this year’s RA/Challenger State Basketball Tournament, held in Clanton. Crusaders are RAs in fourth through sixth grades and Challengers are boys in junior and senior high school.
To be eligible to play in the tournament, besides winning their district tournaments, boys have to meet several qualifications such as completing workbook assignments, memorizing Scripture and participating in missions projects.
According to Steve Stephens, the RA/Challenger associate for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, the qualifying process for the tournament emphasizes missions involvement for the boys.
“This forces them to step out and do things they might not otherwise do on their own,” Stephens said. “They get involved in missions and then see how rewarding it is.”
Peoples said his team of 15 boys worked on three missions projects this year.
Collier Peoples, his son, said that his favorite missions project was ringing the bell for the Salvation Army at Kmart during Christmas. “It was fun helping people out,” he said.
John Sardin, basketball coach and Challenger counselor at Winewood Baptist Church in Center Point, said his group of 14 young men keep busy with missions projects and Bible study.
“Our guys sponsored a food drive, a clothing drive and put together fruit baskets for shut-ins,” Sardin said. “Not only did they do the physical work but they turned in written reports about the activities, did Bible study each week, and wrote out their testimonies.”
“Basketball is the easy part,” he added.
Sardin said some of the RA Challengers in his church come from homes with single moms and the missions projects provide a vehicle for teaching the boys life lessons.
“These guys don’t have father figures. It’s a great way to develop physical and spiritual character,” he said.
“It shows them that there are men out there who are doing good things and that they can do good things too,” he added.
Sardin said he appreciates the structure and instruction that the RA/Challenger curriculum offers the boys in his church. “I understand why it’s called ‘Challenger,’” Sardin said. “It’s a challenging program.”
Peoples said he has been coaching his Crusaders team for the past four years, and this is the first year they were old enough to participate in the tournament. “They played six games in four different gyms in 25 hours,” he said. “It was something these 12-year-olds will never forget.”
Stephens said his favorite part about the tournament is watching the boys enjoy playing and the great attitudes they have about the game.
“I love to see the teams play like Christian gentlemen,” he said. “It is a joy to watch the way they handle themselves and to know they got there by doing missions work.”
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