About

Our Mission

Identity Sports is an Arizona Non-Profit Corporation. We are a Christian Outreach Ministry dedicated to impacting lives by sharing inspirational stories from professional athletes who have found their true identities in Christ. Our mission is to attract people who love sports and connect them to the good news of Jesus Christ through compelling digital content and engaging live events.

Our history

Identity Sports started in 2006 as Tales From The Tour. The organization started by using the game of golf as a platform for outreach. Each year since 2006 we have produced an outreach event on the Monday night of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, with professional golfers (PGA Tour, Web.com Tour, PGA Tour Champions, LPGA Tour, and professional Tour caddies have all been on stage) sharing their stories of life on tour and how their faith impacts every aspect of their lives. As far as we know, our Tales From The Tour event is the largest Christian outreach event on the PGA Tour. Over the years, these free events have attracted more than 20,000 people.

Because God blessed us with success with our flagship golf event, we felt the call to expand to baseball, thus beginning our Dugout event during Spring Training in 2013 with the Cactus League.

Hosted by former MLB stars Tim Salmon and Aaron Boone, our first event featured inspirational stories from superstars of Major League Baseball, Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton, and Barry Zito. Almost 4,000 people attended the inaugural Tales From the Dugout at Grand Canyon University Arena.

WHERE WE ARE GOING

As God has continued to bless this ministry, He has also given us a renewed vision to continue expanding and providing a digital platform for professional athletes of all sports to share their faith. Through this calling, we have rebranded to Identity Sports and have expanded to conduct more events per year including events throughout the country. We have also felt the call to expand our digital footprint through consistently highlighting these incredible faith stories year round through our digital channels. Since answering this call in October 2023, we have already reached over 1 MILLION people with the Gospel through sport!

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Thank you and God bless you.

Hugh Illsley

Founder/Chairman

Zach Vogel

Executive Director

Jason Zilveti

Board Member

Lewis Greer

Secretary

Doug Ideker

Board Member

Phil Myers

Board Member

Frank Capan

Board Member

Aaron Slegers

Board Member

Nelson Rood

Board Member

Sam Jenson

Board Member