Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, September 5, 1993                   TAG: 9309050126
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THEY'RE OUT TO WIN GAMES - AND SOULS

\ "Mud evens up the odds," said Troy Konemann, a Church of God youth minister who coaches a Columbia, S.C., church softball team.

That mud, which must have tipped the odds for some other team, since Konemann lost, also muddies clothes.

No doubt coin laundries were ringing with change from Church of God wives Saturday night as they got the guys' uniforms ready for the church service that kicks off today's play.

Joyce Phillips, whose husband plays on the Hickory, N.C., team, said she did laundry during the games last year because of rain.

Some women play on the teams, but the Interstate Church of God Softball Tournament, which is USSSA sanctioned, is mainly structured around guys playing, women and children watching - or sneaking off for a bit of shopping - and everybody enjoying the time to share fellowship.

Trophies for Christian witness are as prized as those for playing the best ball.

"This is more than softball," said Charlie Briscoe. "We like to see people commit themselves to Christ."

More than 20 people made the commitment last year, he said.

The tournament also raises funds for a church project in Raul Pina, Paraguay, through its registration fees and concessions, said Briscoe.

He and his wife, Twila Briscoe, are co-pastors at First Church of God in Salem. They started the softball event 15 years ago. He has 18 years' experience in high school coaching.

Chad Briscoe was batboy for the Salem team that first year; this year, he flew home from Anderson, Ind., where is he is in college, just to help out and play. It's also a time when old school buddies get together.

Joe Doyle, who was Briscoe's classmate at Northside High School, got a special pass from Virginia Military Institute just to join the games.

Charlie Briscoe said the event lost money for the first six years it was held, but last year it made $9,000 for the mission in Paraguay. In addition, some tournament winners will travel to Raul Pina in February to help with a building project.

Similar tournaments are being held this weekend in Oklahoma City and Madera, Calif. There also is a second unrelated softball tournament being held in the Roanoke Valley.

The Church of God event is based at the Salem Civic Center, where today's service will feature talks by members of the mission in Paraguay.

But even the guest speaker, the Rev. Dennis Huebner, pastor of a Columbus, Ohio, church is likely to be in a softball uniform, said Twila Briscoe.

Huebner plays on the Hilltop Church of God team, which won only one of its four games Saturday.

His team had "great spirit, though," said Twila Briscoe.

She said play was stopped for a few minutes during a downpour but at nightfall was close to staying on a schedule as complex as the lineage from Adam to Noah in Genesis.

An hour is allowed for each game, but some years, the last teams have been playing at midnight.

"We thoroughly believe this tournament is directed by God," she said. "If it rains, it does."