Beyond The Mat

This story appears in FCA Magazine’s July/August 2015 issue. Subscribe today!

In March, Joe Burroughs led the North Hardin varsity wrestling team to a Top-10 finish at the 2015 Kentucky State Wrestling Championships. Less than two months later, he resigned his coaching position at the school in pursuit of something greater.

Burroughs didn’t leave North Hardin for a higher profile coaching job that would bring greater prestige within Kentucky’s tight-knit prep wrestling community. After giving his life to Christ at an FCA wrestling camp last summer, Burroughs knew the path God wanted him to follow. So the veteran coach walked away from North Hardin with one goal in mind: to use his passion for wrestling to ignite the sport for Jesus.

“I was always a true believer in the sport of wrestling, as far as it making you a better person—especially if it’s done the right way,” said Burroughs, who coaches at the No-Ox Wrestling Club, which he founded more than a decade ago. “But wrestling combined with Jesus Christ makes you a great person—one who can change generations.

“There are no limits to what a person who’s been successful in wrestling can do with Jesus Christ in his or her heart.”

• • •

Burroughs’ focus and passion for Christ wasn’t always evident. In fact, he spent years headed in the opposite direction. Although he was raised in church, Burroughs never had a true relationship with Christ. So, once his mom stopped making him go, he drifted away.

During high school, Burroughs focused on wrestling. He planned to wrestle for the University of Kentucky, but injuries derailed those dreams. Soon enough, he was out of college, out of wrestling, and into construction work—an industry in which he continues to work today. Burroughs says now that he’s always enjoyed construction and been able to keep his “nose to the grindstone during the week,” but in his younger years that led to trouble.

“As the weekend neared, the natives got restless, and I was definitely one of the natives,” he recalled with a laugh. “With all of that came a very wild lifestyle—lots of partying, drugs, drinking, chasing women and the bar life.”

After more than a decade of working hard and living harder, Burroughs knew he had to make changes. He married, started a family and slowly began to explore what God meant to him.

“Through all of that, I always had my core beliefs and would never lie, cheat or steal,” he said. “I began praying more, and one day I caught a sermon on TV.”

Burroughs began to read more Scripture. For the next 12 years, those weekly broadcasts became his source of worship. Despite thinking TV church was “enough,” he continued to feel empty inside.

“I was a very good person with a great heart,” he said. “I always tried to help others, and I’d helped to raise a lot of money for different causes. The problem was, I just never had Jesus in this good ol' heart of mine.”

After staying out of wrestling for more than 20 years, Burroughs began to feel the sport’s renewed pull on him in 2000. Along with his 4-year-old son, Jake, he attended a tournament held at his old high school to watch wrestlers coached by a longtime friend, Scott Stout.

“I was hooked, and I didn't miss a practice the rest of season,” he said. “When Scott left, he gave me a 12-foot roll of wrestling mat, which I set up in the basement of the home I was building at the time.”

Burroughs’ basement had no heat, air conditioning, drywall or insulation, but it formed the foundation of what eventually became No-Ox—a club that drew the best wrestlers from four to five area high schools. Sometimes, Burroughs had to run heaters for an hour just to make the mats soft enough. He was still working eight to 10 hours a day in construction, and his wrestlers trained three days per week and competed in weekend tournaments.

“It was fun; being the only club in the area, we were able to get the top kids from each school and have them train as one group,” he said. “That sort of thing never happens.”

No-Ox continued to grow, and Burroughs tried to soak up as much wrestling knowledge as he could. In December 2012, Burroughs and Jake traveled to the Big Invitational Tournament to hear from (current Central Kentucky FCA Area Representative) Rusty Parks, a former head coach and one of the nation’s most accomplished amateur wrestling experts.

“Rusty’s a legend,” Burroughs said. “His teams won a bunch of state championships, but on that day I was really impacted by how he talked about Jesus.

“It wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before, but this time it was different. Not only was I hearing it, but for the first time I was feeling it.”

On that day, the power of Parks’ words transcended above and beyond the mat.

“When I first met Joe, I could see that something really connected with him during the talk,” Parks said. “We became friends that day, and I really noticed how much he cared for his wrestlers and the love they show for him as their coach.”

Over the next couple years, Burroughs and Parks kept in touch through phone calls and at other area wrestling events. Parks told Burroughs about the FCA Wrestling Team Camp held annually in North Georgia because “he knew it would be life-changing for me,” Burroughs said.

The annual camp allows wrestlers to learn from Olympians and NCAA Division I head coaches while competing against top-tier wrestlers from other states. All campers attend FCA chapel events each night.

“During my 30 years of coaching, I took my wrestlers to a lot of summer camps, but none compare to this one,” Parks said. “It’s definitely the highlight of my FCA year.”

As the 2014 camp approached, Burroughs’ work and coaching schedule was packed. The “I don’t have time for this” excuse was creeping up in his mind, but Parks’ frequent invitations changed his mind. Burroughs raised enough money for four kids to attend, and Parks picked up the cost for Burroughs and Jake to attend with them.

Although the wrestling portion of camp was amazing from the first minute, Burroughs said he felt a bit awkward during the camp chapel services.

“At first, I wasn’t used to worshiping God like that, because it was really different from my old days going to church with my parents,” he said. “But the more chapel sessions we had, the more fun they became, and it didn’t take long to jump right in and enjoy them.”

The very first night, God used UT- Chattanooga wrestling coach Heath Eslinger to speak His truth to Burroughs in a way that finally broke through.

“Heath lit it up for Jesus Christ like I had never felt or heard before,” Burroughs said. “It was like I was being smashed by Jesus in one of the most amazing wrestling holds that’d ever been put on me, and He wouldn’t release the grip.”

The next evening, Eslinger followed his sermon with an altar call. Finally, Burroughs realized exactly what was missing in his life: a deep, meaningful relationship with Christ.

“Heath was back to finish me off, and finish me off he did,” Burroughs said. “I was completely broken that night, and it was great to finally find what I’d been missing out on for so long.

“For years, I thought I was a pretty good person, and I’d always tried to lead my wrestlers to a better place, but I could only get them within 100 feet of the door. I couldn’t take them all the way to Christ, because I had never been there myself.”

Burroughs and one No-Ox wrestler accepted Christ into their lives for the first time, while three others rededicated their lives to Him.

“If you’re on the fence like I was, camp is such an easy place to step out in faith, because you’re in a chapel filled full of people just like you,” Burroughs said. “I got saved, and instantly I had these world-class wrestlers and coaches coming up, showing me love and hugging me like they’d known me forever.”

• • •

Georgia FCA Wrestling Camps served more than 400 wrestlers and 50 coaches last year, while another 50 fathers and sons attended a separate summer retreat. Once camp ended, Burroughs, an assistant coach and a dozen of their wrestlers began looking for a church they could all attend together—a crucial step in making God a regular part of their wrestling-focused fellowship.

The team quickly found a home at First Christian Church in nearby Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

“Joe’s passions are God, his family and wrestling,” FCC youth minister Chris Kiger said. “It says a lot about his faithfulness to God to give up something he loves—coaching at North Hardin—to make sure his wrestlers are engaged and connected to Jesus.”

Sunday morning breakfasts and church as a team have become as big a part of No-Ox tradition as the club’s regular practices and tournaments.

“We’ve had as many as 23 wrestlers together at one service,” Burroughs said. “My entire family attends, too. It’s unbelievable.”

This summer, Burroughs brought more than 20 No-Ox wrestlers and three coaches back to FCA Wrestling's Team Camp in Georgia. Back home, the thriving No-Ox Wrestling Club has a new home—a sprawling, 7,500-square-foot building that had been sitting empty.

“God’s constantly working in my life in ways I can’t imagine,” Burroughs said. “This building was $5,000 a month, and the man who owns it just couldn’t keep it rented. When I told him what I was trying to do with the club, and how we want to bring these kids closer to Jesus, he told me to use it. The only thing we pay for is water and electric.”

And, although the way things worked out seems unbelievable, it’s all a part of God’s plan, Burroughs said.

“My mission is to share His goodness with anyone who will listen and to help get as many of these kids in heaven as I possibly can,” he said. “Some of these kids are pretty poor, and a lot of them don’t have much family interaction. Some have no moms and some have no dads, and I'm the best man in a lot of their lives. But they have me and Jesus Christ, and together we’re all going to do amazing things.”

-FCA-

–This article appears in the July/August 2015 issue of FCA Magazine. To view the issue digitally, click here: July/August 2015 FCA Mag Digital 

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Photos courtesy of Joe Buroughs