TAKING MISSIONS TO THE MAT
AN INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN BLACK AND NGAO SHOUA FROM VICTORY SCHOOL OF WRESTLING
What if missions could be right in your backyard? Word On The Street (WOTS)interviewed co-owner Kevin Black from Victory School of Wrestling who is doing just that. Victory is a USA Wrestling Chartered Club on Main Street in River Falls, Wisconsin. Their focus is to help athletes reach their full human and athletic potential through focusing on the body, mind, and soul. Through this interview, we were able to see how God can lead someone and use the talents He gave them for His glory.
How did you get trained in wrestling?
Kevin Black (K): I started wrestling as a little kid in elementary school, here in River Falls. We had organized programs in middle school and high school too. My dad was a coach, and I just really enjoyed the sport.
How did you get the business started?
K: When I was at the University of Wisconsin, we were involved in a couple of different organizations. My wife and I were really active in Athletes in Action, Christian Sports Ministry, and Campus Crusade. I was in the final stages of my competitive years and was trying to make a U.S. team, maybe even into the Olympic team area. When I finished competing I had shifted my perspective on being more interested in coaching than training. My wife and I then saw an opportunity to create a club and do something that really had never been done in this area: put together an elite training atmosphere to invest in the lives of athletes through wrestling and use that to engage in a full-time ministry.
Do you have a type of partnership with Victory School of Wrestling? Are you the main owner?
K:I started Victory as a sole proprietor in 2007, just doing it out of our house. I did everything, which was difficult. We later moved into this space but decided to take a pause for seven years. When we took the break, I started coaching at River Falls high school. The level and the quality of people who were competing were different, so for the last couple of years, we had been thinking we have to get this thing going again. The wrestling community needs it. I then partnered with Derek Miller, a successful businessperson, who owns some properties in town. We joined forces because I wasn’t so great at the business side of things, but I was good at the people. we are in an LLC and have hired a coach to run some of the middle school and high school practices.
What are your business hours?
K: Every hour. Some of our wrestlers are lifting weights in the morning before school, jobs, or whatever responsibilities they have. However, because kids are in school for most of the day and people work, most of our wrestling stuff happens between 3 and 9 pm.
What are your goals for Victory School of Wrestling?
K: Our goal is to help athletes reach their full human and athletic potential and leave this space ready to change the world for good. My personal mission and vision are for people to have a personal relationship with Jesus and meet God, which influences what we do here at Victory. The Victory piece is to use this approach of body, mind, and soul to help athletes be the best that they can be, both on and off the mat.
How do you implement spiritual training along with your physical training?
K: It’s different for different people at different times, but we start first with that identity piece; knowing whose we are to know who we are. You’re bigger, and well, you’re part of a bigger story. Wrestling isn’t who you are. That’s healthy for people, even if they don’t pursue Jesus. Hopefully, they would encounter Jesus. Then they can explore that, and we can give them an opportunity to explore. The first piece is that they have to know that wrestling is just what they do. This isn’t their identity. Yes, that matters if we’re trying to win souls to Christ, but it also matters even if they just want to be the best athlete they can be. That is the formula. If they do it for themselves then their individuality isn’t enough to help them reach the top. They have to have a bigger cause. That’s where we start with the identity piece. There are other things that we can weave in with some of these female athletes. Ngao Shoua meets with Liz once a week and does an athlete-specific Bible study to talk about ways to be motivated by our faith. We’ve done different things with Bible studies, talking about their spiritual growth, and being intentional. Some of the hands-off stuff is really just helping them know that they’re more than their sport. That then leads to bigger conversations.
How does training as an athlete parallel to training as a Christian?
K: Our training should be harder than the competition. How we train and how we practice is how we perform and compete. Practice doesn’t make perfect; practice makes permanence. Some students practice at a really low level of stress or pressure and then aren’t equipped for the competition. In life, we have to be equipped for those things too. You have to be prepared for the best and the worst. I think when we signed up for Christianity, we want sunshine and rainbows, and it’s not sunshine and rainbows. If you were to read any of the stories in the Bible very few of them are. Starting with just a basic understanding of who we are in Christ, who God says we are, who God says He is, is step one. That would be something like in our performance practices. We learn a skill at the very basic level. In life, we don’t always have the luxury to start with the basics, like sometimes you get thrust into a situation. It’s the worst of the worst, right? And I’m not minimizing those things, but if we can come back and just sit with the basics and start and build on that in any education scenario or spiritual growth or athletic performance, the basics are what matters. The basics are where you build a foundation. Now I’m in my 40s and I’ve been through a lot, but I know that when we can come back to the basics, it can help us through those more difficult situations.
What’s your favorite part about this job?
K: People, I like people. That is what we do. Sometimes it’s tricky to get things done and check things off the list. My favorite part is just the messiness. The messiness of ministry and the messiness of people. Proverbs 14:4 says, “Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; but much increase comes by the strength of an ox.” If you’re not in a mess you’re probably not impacting things and it’s scary, and it’s hard.
IF YOU’RE NOT IN A MESS YOU’RE PROBABLY NOT IMPACTING THINGS…
If you could say one thing to the readers of this magazine, what would you say?
K: We have to take God at His word. And who He says He is. We want our pastors, parents, or other people in our lives to tell us who God is, but really, God reveals Himself to all of us. And that’s available to us through the Bible. We should be interested in who He says He is. He has the ultimate authority and is a credible source. I would even go a step further to not only pursue who God says He is, but who God says you are. Being in a relational coaching spotlight causes us to hear a lot of critics, including ourselves. Listen to who He says He is, and if you want to know who you are, listen to who He says you are.
We also had the opportunity to interview one of Kevin Black’s wrestling students, Ngao Shoua Whitethorn. Keep reading to find out her story.
How did you hear about Victory School of Wrestling?
Ngao Shoua (N): I knew the business because I knew Kevin for so long. I’ve known Kevin since 2017 or ‘16.
Are you training for something specific?
N: Yes! I am training for Junior World Team Trials to be on the Junior World Team.
What is your current level?
N: This is my last year being a junior, first year being a senior-level athlete.
K: And she’s a Junior National Champion.
What is one thing that you’ve grown in?
N: Physical strength. It was difficult in high school because I had to get surgery on my arm twice, so I was out for a couple of years. Nobody really taught me how to lift weights properly as a wrestler. After coming here, having Gabby give us lifts to do, and scheduling with our wrestling schedule, I could tell a difference in my physical strength.
What is your favorite part?
N: The journey. It’s awesome because you learn a lot in life just through wrestling in your heart, body, mind, and soul. I feel like that’s a big thing. Don’t take this stuff for granted. As long as you appreciate it, you’re going to learn something for all areas of your life.
How will these skills that you’ve learned here benefit you in the future?
N: Being an athlete, you have to exercise, drink correctly, and eat correctly, so I think it will benefit my health in the future. I think it will also help me mentally because a lot of the stuff we do is mentally and spiritually challenging. However, the reward is so much greater since there is so much pain and difficulty along the way. I think having the discipline in your heart to do it will definitely help you in the future when hard things come along the way.