Some of you have noticed how before tournaments and duals where Silver Lake and Burlington are involved there is a student lead prayer. Brett LaMar and Michael Vanderlinden have started Wrestlers for Christ. We are hoping that others will initiate the same process for other tournaments. It is a very powerful experience for athletes, officials and fans. If you have questions please give me a call. Hats off to Blue Chip Wrestling, Gonz Medina, and Scot Symon. They created, produced, and mailed Wrestlers for Christ Shirts to us for $5 each. And he did it on consignment! We have sold 80 shirts to date and have ordered another 100. Kids and parents are wearing these all over the place! Hats off to these young leaders, and hats off to Blue Chip!

Thanks for the post Harry! I will call Gonz about that.

I LOVE CHRIST!! And the idea of prayer before tournaments and duals and all that. I believe it was the kids state tournament that held and small service last year on the mats before starting up the wrestling on that sunday morning. HOW CAN I GET A SHIRT? I want one. When I was coaching at the Basehor tourney, I was a kid from BLHS wearing a shirt that said, "JESUS" on the front and on the back it said "GOD. WRESTLING. What else is there?" and im getting that one this week. Let me know who to contact to get the other shirt please. And what email or number to use. Thank you!!

I love this idea. We always pray as a team before each meet. How can we purchase the shirts?

Enjoy this everytime we see it happen!
How can we get shirts?

Kim Lovvorn
785-924-3600

it is a great idea. i know the st. james team participated in prayer with them before the derby tournament. and we did purchase some of the shirts. it is about time someone took the lead. god bless and good luck to all.

Great idea, should be done always, Good luck & God bless to all who wrestle and travel this weekend.

If you want to order a bunch of shirts call Blue chip wrestling or email at symon@bluechipathletic.com
If you want a couple let me know.
Graptime@aol.com
This is exciting!
Thanks
Harry

If you want to order a bunch of shirts call Blue chip wrestling or email at symon@bluechipathletic.com
If you want a couple let me know.
Graptime@aol.com
This is exciting!
Thanks
Harry

Harry,

Bring some of those shirts with you to Fredonia this weekend. If you have any left I am sure you can sell the rest.

I have one shirt left, a large. My next order is due Wed next week.

Michael Vander Linden has a few left as well. He will bring them on Saturday. Our order will also be in mid-week, and Michael will have shirts at the Onaga Duals, Tri-Valley League meet, regionals and 3A State

There are also plans in the works for a Wrestlers4Christ Web Site. More to come...

Doug Vander Linden
Burlington Wrestling

This has got to be the best topic I have ever read on these forum! Way to go guys! We will be looking for the shirts also.

My son has been involved in one of the prayer sessions before a tournament and thought it was awesome. He does his own thing before all of his matches, but to incorperate everyone who is interested or willing to step out is the sign of a TRUE LEADER!

Doug has initiated a web site to start a Wrestlers4Christ organization. We have decided from this point on we will sell the shirts for $10 and $ 5 will be put into a bank account. Who knows where this might lead. Our dream would be summer camps, and or scholarships. Maybe our dream of spreading the word through wrestling leaders is already taking off! Thanks so much! By the way, Gonz did give us his blessing on selling the shirts for $10. Doug will have more details soon.
Harry

Just like a church....making a profit and everyone smile.

The growth of this group has been amazing. What started off as a prayer before both days of the 2009 Regional and Class 3A State Tournament has become prayers at many of the tournaments state-wide, and even worship services at Kid's Club tournaments. Thanks to the support of Gonz Medina and Blue Chip Athletics, it has become a t-shirt ministry.

Brett and Michael have talked about how the power of the Internet can be used to share their idea and take it to wrestlers and coaches state-wide and even across the nation. They have used Facebook some to this point, but we would all like to see a fully-functional web-site to give weight to what they are doing.

A web site similiar to what is currently being used by the Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association runs about $200 per year for web hosting and domain registration.

At some point a brochure or flyer that can be produced and printed to share at different events would be nice. Then as Coach LaMar pointed out whether through a summer camp or other resources down the road possibly a scholarship for Kansas wrestlers that live out the mission of Wrestlers4Christ.

At this early stage, the only potential revenue to start doing these things is through the t-shirts. The focus is not "profit" as every dollar is going right back into carrying out the mission.

We hope this helps answer questions you might have about how we hope this organization can grow and reach ever more wrestlers, coaches, managers, cheerleaders, officials and wrestling fans.

If you have other questions or comments, please feel free to e-mail me at dougvanderlinden@hotmail.com. I will share these questions with Brett, Michael and Coach LaMar.

Thanks for Reading!
Doug Vander Linden

I am an idiot. I had 3 people order shirts last week and I lost the paper and deleted the email. Please let me know who you are.
Graptime@aol.com
Harry

The Catholic Leaven published a story on Wrestlers4Christ in their Friday edition. Here is the link:
http://www.theleaven.com/V31/v31n26wrestlers.html

Good Luck to All Wrestlers & Coaches the next 2 weeks!
Doug Vander Linden
Burlington Wrestling