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B-P Athletics named Champion of Character
BrewtonAthletics
Champions: NAIA student-athletes and BPC athletic staff accept the NAIA Champions of Character Institution designation. Back row, standing (l-r): Maurice Veal, Charlie Piho, Athletic Director Steve Barker, Head Women’s Basketball Coach Sug Parker, Chris Jordan and Brandon Skinner. Front row standing (l-r): Keri Reese, LaTreace Johnson, Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach Candice Close, Flita Kirkendoll, Keke Gatling and Gavin Chapman. - photo by Photo by Kelly Arnold

MOUNT VERNON — Brewton-Parker College’s Athletics Department has been selected as a 2006-2007 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Champions of Character Institution, according to BPC athletic director Steve Barker.
“The NAIA Champions of Character program creates an environment in which every NAIA student-athlete, coach, official and spectator is committed to the true spirit of competition through the five tenets: respect, integrity, responsibility, servant leadership and sportsmanship,” according to the NAIA Web site.
“The five core charges of the NAIA Champions of Character have made a huge impact with our teams here,” said Barker, who is also the head coach of BPC’s men’s basketball team. “The program truly creates a great environment among our athletes and their willingness to help in their local community.”
Barker said the program “has made an even bigger impact on a national level, so much so that the NCAA has made their own program, Character Counts, modeled after the NAIA program.”
BPC student-athletes participated in several community service projects in the 2006-2007 academic year, which the NAIA reviewed in their selection process. These activities include the following: both baseball and basketball teams volunteering at the fall festivals of both Toombs Central Elementary School and Montgomery County Elementary School; a youth reading program; a drug awareness program for Toombs Central Elementary School; participating in a community clean-up and campus clean-up.
“At each event, with the exception of the drug awareness program where we had about eight students participate because it was in a classroom setting, there were close to 50 student-athletes volunteering,” Barker said.
Brewton-Parker College is the only accredited four-year Christian college in south Georgia.

Arnold is Brewton-Parker's director of news and public information.

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