South Dade Baptist Church Reaching Out to our Community through the Ministry of Colonial Christian School 17105 SW 296 Street  ~  Homestead, FL 33030 Phone: (305) 246-8608  ~  Fax: (305) 246-1542 __________Website:www.colonialchristianschool.com - Email: CCSPatriots@aol.com__________     William Long                                                                          Terri Morrissey   Senior Pastor, S.D.B.C.                                                                        Administrator, C.C.S. June 17, 2011 Dear Patriot Parents, Students and Friends,               As you begin your well-deserved summer break, I would like to ask you to take some time and reflect on this past year's accomplishments in the Colonial athletics program.  I also want to inform you of an exciting and long awaited addition to the Patriot athletic program!             I believe that the Colonial Christian athletic program has truly experienced a Luke 1:37 school year.  For with God, nothing will be impossible.  We at Colonial have no doubt that God is in control.  Every step of the way, it was God Almighty that allowed us to move forward and accomplish things that many thought impossible!  Some feats, we haven't seen or experienced in over 25 years.              When I accepted the athletic director position last summer, I came into this program with many hopes and dreams.  As an alumnus of Colonial Christian and former Patriot athlete, my vision for Patriot athletics is also my passion.  With the full help and cooperation of the Colonial teachers, staff, and administration, I went right to work on filling up game schedules for all six sports.  The sports program teamed up with the teachers and implemented Athletes and Angels, a free tutoring program for any athlete that wanted or needed help.  Another (behind the scenes) addition was my working hand in hand with the administration, making it possible to receive weekly progress reports of all of the athlete's grades and encourage and challenge them to keep pushing.  Lastly, with the help of many involved parents, coaches, and athletes, we saw the development of a fantastic Sports Boosters that God blessed with enough funds to purchase new uniforms for 5 out of 6 sports, new equipment for all 6 of our sports, and many other needs too numerous to list!               From the very beginning, it was my goal as well as Mrs. Morrissey’s goal to add quality and excitement to our sports program here at Colonial Christian.  As early as the first month I was hired as the athletic director, the question was asked if I was planning on adding more sports to our existing program.  At that time, and all through this first year of my directing, I was determined to build what God had already blessed us with and put into action: Psalm 37:7 and 1 Peter 5:6 -- Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.  God blessed our patience and faithfulness with a young and promising volleyball team, a soccer team that had more wins this year than we have had in the last 10 years, a girl's basketball team that was District Runner-Up Champions for the second year in a row, and a boy's basketball program that has strengthened and that also had the most wins in a single season since the mid-eighties!  Our girl's softball team is also young and very promising to be a contender for next year's District trophy.  Then you have our baseball team. This was just our second season for Patriot baseball. We not only had a combined record of 6 wins and 1 loss against Redland, Island and Princeton, we also beat all three of them for the District Runner-Up trophy!               It is undeniable that our God has blessed our efforts and faithfulness! I am a firm believer that Patriot athletics is and should be a tool to help Colonial Christian reach out to the kids in our community.  Our first goal for our athletes is not to win all of our games; it is to win each and every athlete to Christ!  I believe that God has blessed Colonial because we have carried out Matthew 6:33 -- Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.               That brings me to the next piece of information. As I mentioned already, this past year there have been MANY questions from parents, students and even our own administrator about Colonial starting another sport, specifically football. Even before I came on as your athletic director, the question and desire for football was in the air.  My answer was always “we need to strengthen what God has already given us, before we move forward into another sport.”  I was determined to build and wait on the Lord for His guidance and timing.               Seeing how God has blessed our efforts in the athletics program, having an increase in enrollment, and a constant desire being expressed to bring back Patriot football, I am excited to announce that Colonial Christian will be launching a football program beginning this coming school year!  To get this program started, we will have to lean on Ephesians 3:20 -- Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we ask or think!  Colonial can make all the “plans” for starting football, but it will all depend on whether God supplies us with the right amount of students that are needed to have a football team.              This letter is to let you know that Colonial Christian is fully committed to building a football program and has a vision for our students to offer all we can to add quality and excitement to the sport of their choice.  With that said, I am now asking that anyone interested in being a part of our football program, please contact me through the school office (305) 246-8608.  We will be sending out an e-mail blast along with this letter to help make our students aware of this awesome news.  Please spread the word throughout the community!              Due to the necessary moves that must be made to start this program, it will be necessary for me to see that we have the right amount of fully registered CCS athletes interested in playing Colonial football by July 15th.  If you, or anyone you know is interested in participating, we will be holding a meeting on June 30th at 7:00pm at Colonial. The amount of interest shown on these two dates will basically determine whether we will be able to move forward with our plans or continue the planning for the following school year.  Please begin to seek God’s blessings on this effort in prayer.             God Bless and Go Patriots!!    Chris Haskins               CCS Athletic Director