Calling on a higher Coach

Student-athletes often seek a close, caring community within their teams. The 30 or so Penn athletes involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Action are looking for something more - they are on a quest toward a more enlightened path.

Lacrosse player and College junior Jill Taylor and several other members of varsity sports teams at Penn founded the Fellowship at the end of last year in order to give student-athletes a place to celebrate their shared faith alongside their shared passion on the playing field.

"We started up . as a small collection of people getting together to pray for ourselves, for our sports teams and for each other's teams" Taylor said. "We wanted to see where God was leading us."

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Action merged two separate religiously-related athletic organizations - the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which mentored the football team and provided them with a chaplain, and Athletes in Action, which mentored other sports teams on campus, Taylor explains.

According to Taylor, the group meets every Sunday night in Houston Hall. The Fellowship brings in speakers to these weekly meetings and holds two Bible studies - one for female athletes and one for males - each week. Every other Friday, the group holds an Agape feast at the baseball house.

"We come together and try to plan fun events," Taylor said. "Everyone comes together to bring something to eat, play ping pong and Mortal Kombat, and just have a good time."

To Taylor and the other athletes involved, the Fellowship is more than just a few meetings and a good time. Combining the divinity of a Bible study group with the merrymaking of a typical team, it brings together the best of both worlds.

While these religious athletes find solidarity and a sense of place with their teammates, they can relate to each another in an entirely different way.

"I think it's important because we all have something so deeply in common with our teammates, but our spiritual lives are even more important and an even bigger thing in common," Taylor said.

"It's important to relate to athletes about our spiritual lives, and we're able to encourage each other about our faiths and about our sports."

Varsity baseball player Todd Roth, a junior in the College, shared that the group borrowed its motto from 1 Timothy 4:8, which says:"For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."

"It just summarizes what our group is about," Roth said of the choice in motto, "and how we're striving to be great to bring God glory on our athletic fields and in every other aspect of our lives."

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