Kickoff
Classic
Reach kids where no one else can.
In the middle of the school day. In the locker room. On the bus home. Student leaders are right there in 14 North Central Florida counties, running huddles their own classmates show up to. This August, we’re putting hundreds of student-athletes on a bus and in front of the gospel. Partner with us and help fill the room.
What partnership built in North Central Florida this year.
Every number is a real student in our 14-county footprint. The campaign focus is on five of those counties: Alachua, Union, Gilchrist, Dixie, and Levy.
Source: NCFL FCA ministry impact, 2025–2026 school year · northcentralflfca.org
The 2026 FCA theme. Kids don’t have to prove themselves on the field, in the classroom, or to their parents. It’s already been proven for them. That’s the message students carry into every campus huddle, and the one we carry onto every Kickoff Classic stage.
We reach kids in a placeno one else gets to.
Most ministries reach kids after they walk into a church. FCA students reach them before. On campus. In the locker room. On the bus. In the cafeteria. In the hours kids spend with teammates and the student leaders sitting right next to them.
That access is rare. It’s also why over half the students in our huddles have never been to church before. Your dollars protect that front door.
- Student-led, on campus during the school day, not after.
- 164 huddles, every week, across 14 counties.
- Student leaders and teammates who know the kids’ names.
No guesswork. Just the line item.
Here’s exactly what each sponsorship dollar buys at the August events. Three tiers, three concrete things, no overhead pie chart.
Delivers a school bus full of coaches and student-athletes from a North Central Florida campus to the Classic. The most direct line from your wallet to a kid in a seat.
Sponsor a busNot mailed. Not on a shelf. Handed to 36 students by a student leader who already knows their name. They go home, in a backpack, that night.
Sponsor BiblesThe gospel in four colors on a wristband. 75 kids walk out of the Classic with a conversation-starter they wear to school the next morning.
Sponsor wristbandsPrefer to give directly? Use the FCA giving page for North Central Florida →
The 6th annual Kickoff Classic, on two nights.
Buses pull in. Sonny’s feeds the room. Coaches share The Four. Frank Reynoso takes the stage. By the end of the night, dozens of kids have made a decision they’ll carry with them all year.
Last year’s Classic helped put 553 commitments to Christ on the board across our service area. Help us raise more chairs this year.
Anonymized for the student’s protection. Real handwriting, unedited.
This is what 553 commitments look like up close.
A real card from a real student at the 2025 Kickoff Classic. They checked the recommit box and wrote two questions on the bottom of the card:
“How do I stop Vaping?”
“How can I grow Closer to God?”
That’s the work, in a kid’s own hand. Sponsorship dollars get a student on the bus, fed at the event, handed a card, and connected to a student-led huddle that follows up the next week. The 553 number on this page is built one card at a time. We don’t romanticize them. We answer the questions.
Three steps. No fundraising pressure.
A partnership at NCFL FCA looks different for every giver. Start with a conversation and find what actually fits before any check is written.
Fill the form. 90 seconds.
Name, email, phone, and a quick note on how you’d love to help. No pledge box, no history form.
20-minute conversation.
Coffee or a phone call. Noah or someone on the team listens for what fits, and reports back on what we’re working on this year.
Plug in at the right level.
Sponsor a bus, fund Bibles, host a huddle, volunteer, or just come and see a Classic. Whatever fits.
Noah Wilbanks
Area Director, North Central Florida FCA
Noah leads the NCFL team that has grown from a single staff member to a roster of more than 20 in just a few years. When you fill out the form, he or someone on his team picks up the conversation directly. No auto-responder. No development queue. No national office.
Partnerships at NCFL FCA are relational, not transactional. That’s the deliberate design.
The Head Ball Coach backs FCA. Will you?
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Steve Spurrier · on FCA
When a coach who has seen every level of the game says a ministry is the real deal, it’s a shortcut around the donor-vetting question every careful giver asks. The work is local. The dollars stay local. The fruit is local. The endorsement just says it out loud.
Start the conversation.
Tell us a little about how you’d love to help. Noah or someone on the NCFL FCA team will reach out personally within one business day. No pressure. No pledge form.
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What partners ask before they say yes.
Does my gift stay in North Central Florida?
Yes. Dollars given to North Central Florida FCA fund the staff, programs, events, and Bibles in our 14-county service area. The Kickoff Classic campaign focuses on five of those counties (Alachua, Union, Gilchrist, Dixie, Levy). Nothing routes to a distant national fund.
What is FCA actually doing on a school campus?
On campus, it’s all student-led: huddles that student-athletes run for their own classmates, peer-to-peer mentorship, and student-led Bible studies. FCA on a public school campus is a student-initiated, student-led activity, that’s how it’s designed and how it stays. FCA staff support and equip those student leaders off campus; on school grounds, the students run the huddle. 164 active student-led huddles right now.
What exactly is the Kickoff Classic?
An evening rally for student-athletes and coaches across the region, held twice each summer at the start of fall sports. Lake City hosts on Tuesday, August 4. Gainesville hosts on Thursday, August 6, at Westside Baptist Church. Sonny’s BBQ feeds the room. Guest speaker Frank Reynoso shares the gospel. Many students hear the message for the first time.
I can’t sponsor at one of these tier amounts. Can I still help?
Of course. The $350 / $250 / $105 tiers map directly to Kickoff Classic line items, but partnerships at NCFL FCA take a lot of shapes: monthly support at any level, in-kind donations, hosting a huddle, volunteering at events, or connecting us to a school or coach. Start the conversation and we’ll find your fit.
Is there a long sales pitch on the other side of the form?
No. The form goes to Noah’s team and someone reaches out for a short call or a coffee. We listen first. If a partnership doesn’t feel like a fit, we say so. Either way, you’re welcome at a Classic to see the work yourself.
Can I give directly online instead of starting with a conversation?
Yes. The FCA national giving page for North Central Florida is at my.fca.org/?form=ncflorida. For relational partnerships (sponsorships, hosting, ongoing involvement), the form on this page is the better starting point.
Reach kids
where no one elseever gets to.
A North Central Florida partnership is the rare giving decision where every dollar has a face, a county, and a date attached. If this is the kind of work you want behind your name, the next step is one short conversation.
- Your dollars land in Alachua, Union, Gilchrist, Dixie, or Levy. Not a national pool.
- Three clear tiers: $350 a bus, $250 Bibles for 36, $105 wristbands for 75.
- A direct conversation with Noah’s team. No development queue.
- An open invitation to come and see a Classic in August.