GREENE COUNTY
This upcoming Monday, the lake area division of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) will be hosting a golf tournament fundraiser at the Oconee Course at Reynolds in Greensboro.
FCA is a Christian-based organization that helps support local middle and high school sports teams so that they can further develop their players on and off the field.
It has been prominent in Lake Country for years, and Jason McBay has recently been the one to help it expand. McBay, a former Morgan County softball coach, explained to the Lake Oconee News how he came into the position of the Lake Oconee FCA area director, and the impact they’ve had on surrounding schools.
“About two years ago, I left the classroom and went into full-time ministry with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes,” McBay said. “My role as area director is to oversee the ministry in Morgan, Greene, Putnam, Jasper and Taliaferro counties, so we have about 18 different middle and high schools we minister which comes out to be about 300 coaches and 1,800 student-athletes across all sports.”
To continue to utilize its resources for the benefit of the community, FCA holds fundraising events that are supposed to be fun and relatively accessible for anyone who wants to participate.
McBay acknowledged that they’ve held events like this in the past, and this year’s board thought it would be a good idea to do it again.
“We have a new board of nine members that represent the five counties, and our big fundraiser is the golf tournament on May 8, and it will be at the Oconee course at Reynolds,” McBay said. “We have 104 golfers that are going to participate in a scramble event. We’ll also have the closest to the pin, longest drive, and a chance to win a boat from Skier’s Marine because they’ve donated a boat for a hole-in-one.”
McBay also explained where the proceeds will go and how they will be utilized for the benefit of the youth sports community after the tournament is over.
“The whole point of having this golf tournament is to raise money for our ministry resource fund. That’s where we buy bibles, ‘Filled With Faith’ events that are community-wide worship services,” McBay said. “It will also help pay for pregame meals or breakfast for the FCA meetings we have in the mornings sometimes. All of our dollars come out of that ministry resource fund, so that’s why we try to host fun events like this.”
Others in the community have been able to see the impact that FCA has had on their athletes as well.
Lake Oconee Academy baseball head coach Mark Miller acknowledged how McBay is constantly at games supporting his team, and delivering inspirational messages to the players.
“He speaks to our guys in the dugout, and I think he’s spoken 9-10 times so far this season,” Miller said. “We try to have him come out at least once a week, and we have about a 30-minute time where we get together and he shares some scripture with us. It always has to do with something the guys are trying to achieve that week and it ends up being a great motivational tool for our players.
Overall, FCA is constantly trying to expand its outreach and get members of the community involved, which is why a local golf tournament has been successful in the past.