iSoccer

I play in a soccer team for our church, in a church league. Last year we were playing in the top division of the league. I can’t remember right now how we finished the season. Okay, I can remember it was in the bottom half of the table. It wasn’t a great year, we didn’t win any awards – or so we thought.

Seeing something about soccer on the cover of The QB (June 2006 issue), the bi-monthly magazine put out by the Queensland Baptist Services Group, I picked it up and flipped through. They put together three pages on the church leage, what with the World Cup on and all – and our team got a mention, on page 10. Let me quote:

“Winning a Grand Final is a great achievement for any team and undoubtedly the aim of many; but in the QBSA, teams play for another title considered even more important. The greatest commendation a side can receive is to be awarded the Steve Medlin Trophy. Each year, one team from across all divisions is recognised in this way as the team that best exemplifies the fair conduct and Christ-centred lifestyle which should typify such a Christian competition. The current holder of the Steve Medlin Trophy is Ashgrove Baptist.”

It’s great to hear our team were given that sort of recognition, but seeing that paragraph in The QB was the first any of us knew of this ‘greatest commendation’, let alone that it was another title we could have possibly been playing for. Not being in the first division this year (due to combining the church’s two teams, not being relegated, I would like to point out), we probably won’t get the same recognition, but I hope we continue to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the award.