When Laura Wilkinson says she used to be a very quiet and shy person, it’s a little hard to believe. That’s because these days, the outgoing, personable world-class diver is one of sport’s most outspoken Christian athletes.

Wilkinson is also very articulate when it comes to matters of faith. She strives to live with integrity in an effort to maintain solid footing on the broad platform that worldwide notoriety as an Olympic gold medalist has afforded her.

“I’ve had to learn to speak up for God in my life,” Wilkinson says. “I’ve realized that if He has a presence in my heart, He needs to have a presence in everything. If He’s really the center of my life, He’s really going to be involved in everything.”

Hockey Chat: The current engraver, Louise St. Jacques is the engraver of the Stanley Cup every year.  During engraving, the Cup is disassembled from the top down. The band being engraved is clamped onto a homemade circular jig that creates a steel background for stamping. Special hammers with different head-weights are used to strike against a letter-punch to sink each letter into the silver.  When complete, it is another part of the awesome masterpiece.

Coach Scott was a great offensive line football coach. As a 10-year-old aspiring right guard, I learned from him the basics to being a great blocker: elbows up and out with hands tucked in. It was the “old school” way to block, which didn’t involve the use of hands—just stick your elbows way out so the defensive player couldn’t get by. For me, a good game required making sure no one ever got around me and never got a tackle. Not exactly a simple job. It took an incredible amount of work and effort to keep others from advancing toward the ball.

So much in sports is related to the eyes. A ball is dropped because a player takes her eyes off the ball at the last minute. A batter misses the pitch because he fails to keep his eye on the ball. As a coach you’ve likely cautioned your players, “Keep your head up,” so that an athlete will look at the right thing in order to avoid injury and be most effective.

Hockey Chat:  Having 5 guys on the ice makes a team.  Having 5 guys on the ice that are working together and covering each other makes a winning team.  When we say that our position is just on Offense or someone else is a Defenseman, we are cutting away that we are all a team.  Whichever color jerseys have the puck determines whether we are all on offense or defense. It’s when we complain or argue that “it’s not my position so it’s not my fault” we all fall down.

Hockey Chat:  You’ve seen hockey players try to argue there way out of penalties saying that it was just a little hook or they just slashed at the puck not the opponent.  They try to minimize the offense.  Fact is, when they are called for penalty, it’s a penalty.  If they say they just barely hit the guy with their stick, they still are called for slashing.  If plead that they just nudged the guy head first into the boards, they still get called for boarding just as if they slammed him.  When the ref sees a penalty, regardless of the degree, he calls it.

A recent study reports that only 6 percent of teens today believe that moral truth is absolute. I knew it wouldn’t be high, but that’s really low. Not good. Young people today are basically saying that life is a sliding scale. Truth has become relative because it all depends on the situation.

In the world of athletics, there are many truths that cannot be relative, such as wins and losses. Imagine if every athlete defined winning differently—one by score, one by hustle, one by the best fans, and so on. It would be chaos! Fortunately—or unfortunately—winning is defined by the scoreboard. Life without truths, absolutes and boundaries leads to chaos.

Recruiting at the collegiate level is not an exact science. As coaches travel around the country looking for athletes to fill their rosters, they look for players who are not only talented, but who are willing to dedicate and commit themselves to being the best they can possibly be. Likewise, as coaches, we are committing to players to help them become the best they can be. We are promising to equip them for success.

Do you ever find it hard to sleep at night because your mind is racing and dwelling on things that you have absolutely no control over? I think that we are all prone to struggle and deal with worry. It's probably why Jesus told us not to worry in Matthew 6:25-34. My daughter Amber and I recently led a small group seminar at an FCA summer camp in Kentucky. What really impacted me was how practical this was to the students who attended. We began by asking those who attended our seminar to "Write down one to three things that you worry about on an ongoing basis."

Hockey Chat:  A goal on a break away is a sweet play to watch. But even better is when the team works together and through a series of good moves and great passes they get a goal.  When all these elements fall into place it makes for a truly good play and tough puck for the goalie to stop.  A half-hearted toss at the net is no real challenge for the goaltender.