Every Monday, at the beginning of lunch, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) gather together in the girl’s division gym.
Addison Dar, one of the senior leaders of the club, states how FCA, “fosters a community of all different grades.” In the beginning of each meeting, the diverse range of students are allowed to play games and eat their lunch before the real meeting starts.
When the meeting starts, a student or a guest speaker will talk in front of the club. The topic about what they discuss can include simple things like prayers, to speeches about how to over come some difficulties student athletes face. A lot of times students describe these difficulties as fear. This is why FCA has the saying of Faith > Fear.
We asked Addison Dar to talk about what this saying means, “In sports, I think there is a lot of fear of failure associated with being on a team or doing an individual sport. And instead of having that fear, just surrender it to God.” Addison Dar talks about how athletes have to remember to do that sport for yourself and “the audience of one, which is God,” instead of the audience of fear. This fear includes disappointing your team, not placing, and overall the feeling of failing yourself. The ability to remind students that what happens while playing a sport is God’s plan, is one of the reasons why FCA is a club.
This club offers more than just serving as reassurance in yourself, but it also serves as a community where people can come together to be vulnerable. Participants of FCA encourage new students to join the club because of what it has done for them.
Future co leader of FCA, Jack Manthey, says, “It’s a great experience just learning about my faith in sports and kind of relating them all together and bringing back sports to God. So, I am very thankful for that.”
All in all, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes is an amazing opportunity for students to have a space to learn and find strength in each other from their hardships as student athletes.
