It all began last December when Christian Today Australia in Sydney asked their columnist Mark Tronson, Well-Being Australia chairman, a Baptist minister and cricket chaplain whether he might add to his busy schedule a daily sports article.
In January Mark Tronson put to Christian Today Australia a proposal which was accepted and in February the daily sports article was initiated.
By March, Mark Tronson had sought out four young sports writers who were assigned 'the same day each week' for their sports article to be published in Christian Today Australia. By April the system was well and truly up and running.
The young sports writers program has now been functioning for three months with many remarkable responses, and as a result, the first ever Christian sports writers mini-conference was planned for Friday night and Saturday morning 11-12 June on the Gold Coast, hosted by the Gold Coast Christian Family (Church) at Mudgeeraba.
Clayton Hinds from Townsville writes the Friday sports article with the assigned task of the NRL, Rugby (Super 14) and Cricket. Clayton and Anna Hinds returned from an 18 month short term mission in Africa last year.
Jeremy Dover from Melbourne writes the Thursday sports article with the assigned task of the AFL and other sports. Jeremy is an IronMan athlete and a marathon runner and is the Bannockburn Presbyterian Church minister (near Geelong).
There was one young sports writer from Townsville and another from Melbourne. Then England gets a mention.
Wesley Tronson after seven years has recently returned from the UK, and in 2007 was a member of the Manchester Juniors Football Team which was the only English soccer team that calendar year to win any international tournament (in Prague).
Wesley Tronson who was from the south coast of New South Wales seaside town of Moruya, on his return to Australia came to live in Tweed Heads, the north coast of New South Wales. He's writing the Wednesday article on all things Soccer: The English Premier League (EPL), the World Cup and the Socceroos.
The fourth young sports writer was Rosemary Timmins, originally a Melbourne girl, studying journalism at Bond University on the Gold Coast writes the Tuesday sports article on all sports and features many women's sports.
Mark Tronson himself writes the Monday article and has that Monday spot retained for guest writers.
Each day a sports article can be read in Christian Today Australia http://au.christiantoday.com/ and the entire list of sports articles are housed in the LIFE column http://au.christiantoday.com/life/
The Sports Writers mini-conference is looking at their philosophy, long term strategy and moreover, steps to recommend sports writers for the international network.
A number of others will be in attendance at the mini-conference such as Christian Today Australia personnel, Kate Dorrington who specialises in tabloid editing, and Dr Russell Hinds, as a consultant.