What We've Achieved

1996 

Sports Outreach Is Born 

CEDE SPORTS, previously known as Carolina Sports Outreach (CSO), was born in Charlotte, NC in response to a need to equip churches and chaplains to minister through the language of sports. These two areas were selected as a result of the experience of the founder of CEDE SPORTS, Bob Dyar. 

1999

Expansion Into Other States 

Opportunities arose to assist beyond the Carolina borders into Georgia, Florida and Virginia. As a result of the ministry’s growth, Carolina Sports Outreach changed it’s name to Sports Outreach Group (SOG) and created a new churches centric division called Church Sports Outreach (CSO).

2003

Staff Growth 

CSO invited Bob Schindler, former pastor and sports minister from Tennessee, to join the team to keep up with the demand to build resources and educational materials for churches and chaplains.

2007 

We Went International 

This year marked the first international emphasis of the ministry. Bob Dyar and Bob Schindler took trips to Africa – Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe – and Asia – Vietnam, China, Thailand – where they trained hundreds of leaders that continue to train churches using sports to impact their countries.

2010 

Chaplain Outreach Growth 

The chaplain centric ministry, also known as The Sports Chaplains Network (SCN) continued to expand at Joe Gibbs Racing where Bob Dyar was also serving as a chaplain. SCN grew to five sports chaplains working with as many as 600 families and over 20 small groups each week at the…

2016 

Why We Changed The Name 

As result of the continued growth of the ministries amongst churches and chaplains worldwide, it was determined that a new name be put in place to represent the meaning of the group’s mission. The word cede was selected which means to yield or submit. SOG is now known as CEDE SPORTS.