PHOTOS COURTESY OF GRACE FELLOWSHIP AWANA participants at Grace Fellowship Church sing the AWANA theme song during opening ceremonies. It's no ordinary youth sports league.

Grace Fellowship Church's Upward sports program offers competitive play that develops the skill levels of all players.

Upward basketball, one of three sports offered through Grace Fellowship's recreation ministry, begins its fourth year with evaluations for players five years old through second grade scheduled for today from 4-6 p.m. Evaluations for third- through sixth-grade athletes will be Thursday from 4-6 p.m.

After evaluations, league organizers use a computer program to create evenly matched rosters.

Teams practice once a week for an hour, and children's pastor Justin Reeves -- who leads Upward along with volunteer director Bruce Schroeder -- said coaches emphasize affirming their players and developing each athlete's fundamental skills, discipline and commitment to teamwork.

Teams are divided as follows: five-year-olds playing alongside kindergarteners, first-graders with second-graders, third-grade players with fourth-graders, and fifth and sixth grades together. Upward may have enough players this basketball season to field separate boys' and girls' teams, Reeves said.

Logan Trotter turns up the field during an Upward flag football game. Games for the youngest players are unscored, but matches for older athletes typically are tightly contested, he said.

"We want to teach the kids how to do it the right way," Reeves said. "When you do things the right way, it's going to be more competitive."

A four-week practice schedule will begin soon after evaluations, and an eight-week slate of games will be under way by December.

Every practice ends with a Bible devotional lesson.

"We want to introduce children to Jesus Christ by creating opportunities to serve through sports," Reeves said.

Pastor Paul Kenley noted that his church's goal is not to "indoctrinate" players or pull church-going families away from their congregations, but to provide a safe activity for children and to minister to the community. A large percentage of Upward players do not belong to Grace Fellowship, the pastor said.

Administrative pastor Jeff Cockburn said the church's sports program creates a unique opportunity for coaches to care for their players and share the gospel.

"Once you develop that trust with the kids and then they hear you teach about Christ, it just seems to be more effective," Cockburn said.

More than 150 players participated in Upward basketball last season, and this year more than 100 played Upward flag football, which will finish its second season with an awards ceremony Saturday at 5 p.m. Soccer season begins in the spring, and Grace Fellowship hopes to add Upward baseball in 2010.

The football awards ceremony coincides with the second of three presentations by Team Impact, a group of body builders who use feats of strength to share their testimonies as Christians. Team Impact shows run from 7-8:30 p.m. each night from Friday through Sunday, and the group also will present the Sunday message at 10 a.m. in the Grace Fellowship worship center.

"It sort of blows the stereotype of a Christian witness out of the water," Kenley said, "because here are these guys breaking baseball bats and concrete blocks, and yet they have a really powerful witness. It really strikes a chord in our secular culture."

Along with its sports programs, Grace Fellowship offers AWANA, a discipleship program in which students earn merits -- similar to Boy Scout or Girl Scout badges -- by completing Biblebased projects. AWANA led by Rodney and Carrie Seaver, is held on Sundays from 4-6 p.m.

The program emphasizes parental involvement and rewards students for bringing their friends with them.

"It not only gets the kids grounded in Scripture, it also gets the parents involved in what the kids are learning," Reeves said.