January GTR Student Athlete of the Month
Joshua Bentley of Tulsa Memorial High School is the January 2010 Student Athlete of the Month honoree.
Bentley is a varsity swimmer for the Chargers. He holds a 3.31 .
Over the past seven years, Bentley has actively served both his local community through church and school sponsored mission outreach opportunities, outreach opportunities across the , and international outreach opportunities in Trinidad and Tobago.
For Bentley, joining the Varsity Swim Team as sophomore novice swimmer was a way to complete the required PE credit for graduation. Three years of hard work and learned dedication to the sport has earned him the spot of co-captain of the team as well as the position of anchor on the relay teams.
What he has gained from the three years in friendships, self-respect, self-esteem, physical fitness and life skills in the water will be attributes that will carry him far into his success-bound future.
Bentley is more than just a competitor on the swim team. He has taken the role of working one on one with a freshman on the team. The direct affect has been the young man’s ability to swim has risen from “could not” to looking like a contender in the next two years.
Bentley’s outreach through school was with Victory Christian School, where he went to Mexico to work with preschool children over his spring break in the 9th grade.
In the 8th grade he went to Nashville where he worked with the homeless with Redeemer Covenant Church. They worked in food kitchens and helped sort and distribute clothing to the needy.
He was also involved in the Habitat for Humanity house that Redeemer Covenant Church built.
Bentley’s most recent trip was to Trinidad & Tobago during his sophomore year at Memorial. He travelled this time with the Men’s Ministry team from Redeemer Covenant Church. There he learned to cut concrete blocks to help build an activity/dorm center.
Additionally, during his sophomore summer, Bentley worked for a week at Camp Barnabas in Purdy MO. He was considered a Barn Helper, but he was involved in many activities for severly physically challenged kids. Considering the large population of physically challenged students at Memorial HS, he said he discovered a new level of respect and communication that he did not know before.
Memorial swim team head coach Joanna Bentley says, “He is the kind of young man I wish all my swimmers would aspire to be.”
Updated 02-09-2010
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