SPORTS ARE vitally important to any community, especially those geared toward youth, teaching responsibility, teamwork, commitment, personal drive, and any number of other values. Sports provide a wonderful place for friendships and community to form. It isn’t easy for one person to get a team together — school systems organize so many sports. Wilson County is blessed to have those same opportunities available for homeschools through Tennessee Heat.
Created as a faith-based sports program nearly 17 years ago, Tennessee Heat has grown from a single middle school boys basketball team to offering nine different sports for elementary, middle, or high school homeschool students. The goal, coach and board member Ryan Scott said, is to give those homeschool kids that opportunity of competitive team sports in a way that shares the gospel with those young people and their families.
“We are a faith-based organization first and a competitive sports platform second, but we do compete against local, area, middle school and high school — public and private — and other homeschool programs around the region,” Scott said.
Hundreds of kids from around Middle Tennessee participate in Tennessee Heat every year, Scott said — some in multiple sports and some in only one. The program offers football, volleyball, cheer, cross-country, basketball, baseball, track, archery, and tennis. This next spring, Tennessee Heat will be adding a boys soccer program to the mix. The possibilities are endless, limited only by the number of coaches.
“We are exploring the possibilities of a girls softball team and possibly adding a golf program back, and just praying about the right person being able to help us with that,” Scott said. “We’re always looking to potentially meet needs of families that are homeschooling, looking for their kid to have that recreation activity.”
Every organizer and coach is a volunteer, although there is an option for coaches to get a small reimbursement for some of their expenses. It isn’t an option often taken.
“Most of our coaches put money into the program more than they would take anything out,” Scott said.
While the program is limited to registered homeschool students, there is no geographical limit to who can be a part of Tennessee Heat. Members come from all over Wilson County, as well as from Cookeville and Clarksville. Non-athletes are welcome to join in that community as well. Scott and his wife, Kristi, the cheer coach, put on a homecoming dance every year after the homecoming football game. Such a community is something that public or private schoolers find easily. Those in homeschool, by contrast, must search for those opportunities.
“We’re not trying to replace public or private schools. We’re really just trying to meet the need of a movement of people that have decided that they feel that homeschooling their kids is what they want to do,” Scott said. “Not everybody is going to homeschool their kids — not everybody should — but for those that feel called to do so, we intend to serve and help them.”
That service has extended to the whole community, as volunteers from Tennessee Heat have refurbished an abandoned football field in Mount Juliet and regularly help the local middle school maintain its field. Many of the coaches were impacted positively by their own coaches and mentors when they were young, and Tennessee Heat’s work is a way to carry that positive impact forward.
“[It’s] our way of trying to make a difference in the community and helping other youth programs outside of our own, as well as trying to be a good citizen,” Scott explained.
Tennessee Heat has greatly impacted the many children who have gone through the program and the many communities they have competed with and volunteered for. For Wilson County, it means that every child has the opportunity to learn and grow through sports, and the community will feel the positive effects of those opportunities for many years to come. GN
