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The 2003-04 college football season has ended. So who is the best team in the country? USC and LSU both ended the season with only one loss and ranked No. 1 in the AP and coaches polls, respectively. Should there be a playoff system for Division I college football? Because these two teams will not get a shot to decide the national championship on the field, these debates will go on for a long, long time.
A Christian athlete speaks throughout the community about his faith and then gets arrested for drug use. A Christian coach prays with his team before every game and then it is discovered that he has been illegally recruiting players for years. A pastor builds a church from 200 to 2,000 members and then leaves his wife and children to run off with the church secretary.
One of the first things Kylie Miraldi learned as a student at San Jose State University was the meaning of dehydration. Miraldi the nutrition major had studied it in class. Miraldi the athlete had experienced the physical symptoms. But it was Miraldi the Christian who faced it in a spiritual showdown.
Coming off her third consecutive season of All-Pac-10 honors, Washington’s Kristi Kingma was set to have a stellar senior season in 2011 when a knee injury in exhibition action ended her year before it began. Now, with a new appreciation for the game, Kingma sees her redshirt season as a blessing from her Lord—one she plans to enjoy from start to finish, embracing every struggle and triumph along the way.
For this activity, you need ten non-permanent, washable ink pens. Have five guys each remove one shoe and one sock. They have three minutes to collect as many female signatures as possible on the soles of their feet. You might want to limit each girl to signing the foot of only three guys.
Marquette’s football team was 10–0 heading into the final game of the season, facing the possibility of the program’s first championship. But a few days before the game, the coach received a call: sixteen of his starters had been arrested for underage drinking! Team rules dictated alcohol use as punishable by suspension. The next week the coach watched his team’s hopes evaporate into a 63–0 loss while sixteen regular starters stood on the sidelines.
There’s a scene in the Disney movie “Aladdin” in which Jasmine is out on the balcony of her palace and Aladdin is on his magic carpet trying to get her to come with him and go explore “A Whole New World.” The key line in the scene is when Aladdin says to Jasmine, “Do you trust me?” Jasmine agrees to trust Aladdin and is taken on the ride of her life!
That same type of trust is required from us as Christians when we decide to follow God. With God, belief alone is not enough; we must trust Him with our lives. Just believing in God is no good to us. We need to have faith in Him, and trust is the next step from faith.
Every Saturday in the fall, young men don their helmets and pads and suit up for their days of glory on the gridiron. They play with unyielding determination, heart and passion. They are RELENTLESS!
This fall, we interviewed college football players around the country who are passionately pursuing more than just worldly trophies and treasures. Beginning with Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd, each answered the question, “Considering your relationship with Christ, what does it mean to relentlessly pursue Him?”
“But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me.” – Psalm 13:5-6 (NLT)
In her first experience as an FCA Camp Huddle Leader, Seattle Pacific University junior Emily Oslie experienced a transformation of faith as she learned how to bring Christ into her game. The lessons she learned that summer quickly spilled over into the rest of her life as well. Now the Salem, Ore., native is taking her Christ-centered perspective and allowing it to guide her in the role of upperclassman on the court and Christian leader in the locker room.
Each contest we’re involved in as coaches is filled with missed opportunities, errors, and mistakes. In some games, like volleyball, basketball, softball, and baseball, we have only a few seconds to respond to shortcomings or errors. In other sports like football, golf, and track and field, response time may be longer. Regardless of the seconds or minutes that tick away, our reactions to our players’ mistakes are critical, not only for their confidence but often for the outcome of the game.
Every time I hear about a coach who has been fired after a year or two at a school, it breaks my heart. I once told an athletic director that it would take four years to turn a program around to contend for a league championship. That was not what he wanted to hear, so I did not get the job.
In our society we want everything right now. Actually, we wanted it yesterday. A great example is in the fact that we actually drive through places to get our food. At most fast food places they don’t even hold the cup to fill your drink anymore; they put it on a belt, it goes under a fountain, they push a button, and the drink comes out. I suppose it’s faster. I’m not sure it’s better, but it’s faster.
Katelin Peterson wanted so badly to play field hockey for a Christian coach that she left her home in sunny Escondido, Calif., and moved across the country to Richmond, Va., where the winters are hardly California-like. But for Peterson it was a choice that she knows was best. Now a senior forward at the University of Richmond, she can look back on her college career as being one of both athletic achievement and spiritual growth thanks largely to the influence of her coach, her teammates and FCA.
In sports, you hear a lot about two very different kinds of athlete. One is labeled an “underachiever”—an athlete who has a ton of talent but gets by putting out the minimal effort. The other is referred to as an “overachiever”— someone who makes up for a lack of physical giftedness and athletic prowess with an abundance of hard work, determination, and drive.
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While my family was close knit group, Christianity wasn’t part of our upbringing. During my junior year of high school, though, I was introduced to the Lord. Learning about Jesus Christ was empowering, and it transformed my life.
It’s that time again—time for me to dig in and start the countdown to my next competition as a bodybuilder with multiple sclerosis. At 53 years old, I’m a few years older than when I last competed, and it certainly is not getting any easier. But, as He always does, the Lord has stood by me and has allowed me to keep pushing on by encouraging me to battle this disease and win.
It was a week before the big game. Coach knew how to prepare his team. Every day he broke down the opponent’s offense and defense so his team knew them almost better than they knew themselves. For that week, he added one task to the end of every practice, firmly believing it would make a difference.
A game plan is vital for every contest. Throughout Scripture, God’s game plan was instituted among His coaches. Jesus provided the greatest example of preparing for battle. He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. Satan thought he had the perfect plan, but Jesus was so prepared that every time Satan tempted Him, He came back with an impenetrable defense: God’s Word.
On a brisk Saturday morning a while ago, I hit the running trail with my FCA Endurance teammates for an 18-mile training run. The trail was desolate, and over time my fatigued mind began to drift back to my warm car waiting in the parking lot. We were more than 15 miles into the run, and the thought of less than a 5K left begged me to push harder and finish strong, but still I just didn’t feel like giving it my all.
It was about that time that I heard a sound—one that meant more to me than it did to my running buddies. It was the sound of an approaching train, and its noise drowned out the heavy breathing of our tiring pack.
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