Life Way Christian School Approved By AAA

The Life Way Christian School in Centerton has grown in student population steadily since its beginning in 2000 and it took another step forward this week.

Life Way became sanctioned by the Arkansas Activities Association with a vote of the AAA's executive board of directors on Tuesday.

At A Glance

Life Way Christian School

Location: Centerton

Enrollment: 526

Sports Offered at High School Level: Basketball, soccer, baseball, softball, volleyball, track and field, cross country, golf, skeet shooting and cheerleading.

Notable: Athletic team nickname is the Warriors. … School was founded in August, 2000. … Graduated their fourth senior class recently. … Fielded competitive sports teams for the first time in 2007.

AAA executive director Lance Taylor said Life Way's athletic teams will play an independent schedule for the 2015-2016 school year, then be placed into a conference when a new cycle begins in August 2016.

However, Life Way administrator Luke Bowers said school officials haven't made a decision yet on what course the school will take in the immediate future.

"We're just making sure we're 100 percent before we pull the trigger," Bowers said. "I'd say by August we'll know what we're doing."

Taylor said the process to become a AAA member isn't difficult, but there's some time involved.

The school must be accredited by the Arkansas Non-public School Accrediting Association, which Life Way is.

"We do an on-site visit of their facilities to make sure they're safe," Taylor said. "We might give them some suggestions and we sit down and go over our handbook. There are a whole bunch of rules, coaches' education and things like our sportsmanship code. We walk them through all of it.

"Then we make a recommendation and it goes before our board for a vote."

Life Way and Pine Bluff Lighthouse Charter School were both approved as members earlier this week.

Life Way athletic director Todd Ring said limiting travel for the athletic teams is a big reason why the school wanted to join the AAA.

"Right now we're playing in the Arkansas Association of Christian School and in basketball we're OK and volleyball, decent," Ring said. "We play Providence Academy and some home school groups. But you get into some other sports and the closest conference games are in Little Rock. Some are as far down as Magnolia.

"We are able to run in open cross country events in Oklahoma for cross country, but in track we travel to Little Rock or Pine Bluff every weekend."

The move to the AAA would also allow parents to attend more games because even home games often start around 4 p.m. to allow teams to get home at a decent hour on a school night, Ring said.

"It also enhances our other programs like our fine arts and our academic teams to give them opportunities," Ring said. "It would also mean less time missed in the classroom."

Ring also said the athletic programs are ready to make the move from a competitive standpoint.

"Our teams have competed well," Ring said. "Our girls basketball teams have won four out of the last five state championships and our boys won it two years ago. Baseball made it to the finals."

Sports on 06/14/2014

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