By CHAD BONHAM 

On June 17th, Director of Wrestling Wynn Michalak represented SportsLife at a camp hosted by EPOS (Epic Performance Athletes) in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The wrestling event hosted 190 student-athletes and was part of a much larger weeklong multi-sport camp that included 1,400 kids and dozens of volunteers.

“It was incredible,” Michalak said. “The athletes wrestled in the morning then they had life skills classes in the afternoon. There was also a church service in the evening.”

The opportunity developed over the past few years largely due to strong relationships established by SportsLife Wrestling’s staff with EPOS director Marlon Houston and volunteer Jeff Snapp.

“Camps like this help connect us with sports leaders within the wrestling community,” Michalak said. “I got to hang out with some of the leaders and speak to them, but this year was more of an entry point for SportsLife Wrestling to get plugged in with EPOS and cultivate future opportunities for leadership training.”

While Michalak served as a volunteer coach, he found that the divine opportunity came when he was allowed to share his testimony with the young athletes.

“God calls us to share our testimony whenever we can,” he said. “This time it wasn’t leaders, but I know some of those kids needed to hear what God laid on my heart. Some of them may have parents that are really hard on them and some don’t have parents around them at all. They get attention from the wins and they need to understand that winning is not where they get their value. They’ll always have losses and often fall short of worldly expectations. But it’s okay because they can’t miss the heavenly expectations because God has made them perfect in His image and they can find their value in Christ. That’s what fills them up.

Michalak’s message hit home because it was something he had personally experienced. As a three-time All-American at Central Michigan and U.S. Open champion in 2015, his successful career wasn’t without its ups and downs, which brought “a rollercoaster of emotions.”

“I went from hitting plateaus and being inconsistent and doing it all by myself to growing and enjoying wrestling even more …”

At one point, Michalak was asked a question that briefly took him off guard: “What was the big thing that took you to the next level in your wrestling?”

“I had to reflect on that for a few seconds,” he recalled. “But then I realized the answer was Jesus. I went from hitting plateaus and being inconsistent and doing it all by myself to growing and enjoying wrestling even more because it wasn’t about the wins and losses anymore. After Christ became the center of my life, I started to view wrestling as a gift from God.”

Moving forward, Michalak is hopeful that the relationship between SportsLifeWrestling and EPOS will continue to grow.

“Working at camps like this has been the result of networking for the past six months,” Michalak said. “It allows me to rub shoulders with coaches and sports leaders and explain to them what the ministry is and how we’re here for them.”