Since fall of 2009, the Bill Glass Champions for Today (CFT), a group of retired Christian athletes from the National Football League (NFL) and other professional playing fields, have come to FC every year and performed various stunts and shows of strength.
These feats, including rolling frying pans, bending steel bars and doing push-ups with the added weight of a person, are intended to catch the audience’s attention, give a visual of the Christian faith and deal with common life issues in a unique and relatable way.
Last year, a team from Hume Lake Christian Camps came and hosted a lunch for students, which was followed by a presentation from the athletes of CFT in the FC Gym. This year, they will be performing again at FC during the Thursday chapel, Oct.4. Chapel will be held after second period from 9:35-10:15 a.m. in the Peoples Church Student Ministries Center Main Room.
FC sophomore Shannon Martens enjoyed the event last year and looks forward to the CFT presentation this Thursday.
“I was amazed by the football players’ power,” Martens said. “It takes a lot of strength to bend a bar with your teeth. Their message really spoke to me, too.”
For nearly 20 years, CFT has traveled around America, presenting the gospel through their performances to children, students and adults in churches, schools, prisons and youth facilities.
The specific branch of CFT that is coming to FC is the Central Valley CFT program. On Thursday, they will feature former NFL player Leonard Larramore.
Larramore grew up in Jacksonville, FL and played football in high school but was unable to play college ball. Years after he left junior college due to an illness in the family, he played ball for the St. Augustine Tigers, a semi-pro team out of St. Augustine, FL.
At a playoff game, a Buffalo Bills scout invited Larramore to try out for their team. Larramore walked on to the Bills, having never played college football, and played there for the 1994 season. He was traded to the Carolina Panthers and played until 1998.
Larramore recently joined Champions for Today and is also a part of Power Unlimited Team, an organization with a mission and program similar to those of CFT. He was invited to be on the Power Team and he started speaking in churches and schools with other ex-professional athletes.
“It was so self-fulfilling and such a good thing to do that I basically got hooked on it,” Larramore said in an interview with Motivational Messages. “There’s just something about making an impact, a positive impact.”
Larramore hopes to give kids the message that regardless of where they’ve come from in life, they have the chance to create their own story, and that the only thing that matters is where they want to go in life.
“If I can plant that seed in each young person, it gives them hope,” Larramore said. “They may not have any money or worldly possessions but they can say, ‘One day I can do something great.'”
FC seventh grader Chloe Hunter saw CFT with her friend, Cayla Rivas, a few weeks ago and looks forward to seeing them again during chapel.
“It was pretty cool,” Hunter said. “They had Cayla and somebody else hang on a bar and they twisted them around. We’re really excited that they’re coming again.”
For more information on Larramore, see an interview here. For more information on Central Valley CFT, watch this video, visit CFT Fresno’s website, or call 559.299.6769. For more news, read the Oct. 2 article, BREAKING: Air pollution pushes ozone levels.
