Following the Faithful Path
Mosley High School pairs sports with spirituality

By Ashley Cisneros

Every Friday morning, a diverse group of students gather in the A. Crawford Mosley High School gymnasium to start off the weekend with a warm-up. Swimmers stretch their arms over members of the football team and all bow their heads to think about the “game” ahead and the defenses they’ll use. Strategies for an upcoming match, perhaps? Not quite.

These students belong to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and for them, it’s all about humble prayer on Fridays. After the prayer, one student athlete shares a Bible-based presentation with the group over doughnuts and cold orange juice provided by advisors Debbie Funkhouser and Bill Graff. The students meet until the bell rings for first period.

FCA began nationally in 1954 and seeks to “present to athletes and coaches, and all whom they influence, the challenge and adventure of receiving Jesus Christ.” What makes FCA a little different from other service organizations is that God is put first in every decision, says Jeremy Mace, a sophomore football player. “It brings me closer to the Lord, and helps me do more things His way, and has taught how to live a better life,” he says.

For Ellen Whitton, a senior swimmer, joining FCA was natural because she had always attended parochial schools. “Since I knew that public high school might be different from religious private schools, I decided that I needed to be involved with a club that would benefit my religious fellowship,” she says. Joining FCA has taught her that she’s not alone in her Christian faith. FCA has given her confidence to serve as a leader for others and helps her share her faith by just being herself.

“We’re the only club that doesn't pay dues because we realize that not everyone has the money to spend on dues for a club, and we don't want to alienate people,” Whitton says.

For senior golfer Sam Shivers, FCA offered answers to her questions about God. Growing up, playing sports was what kept her grounded. “It helped me learn self-discipline and how to work with others in a team,” she says. When she arrived at Mosley, the idea of a club that spread a religious message with an athletic twist was appealing. When she began attending the weekly meetings, questions filled her head about heaven and prayer. “But FCA helped me to see that the self-discipline I’ve learned from athletics could be equally beneficial in my walk with the Lord,” she says.

As 2003-2004 FCA vice president, Shivers says that a good leader must be able to present a position and successfully campaign for his or her organization. Her favorite project has been the afternoon canned food drive that the club holds each year around the holiday season. The canned food drive is unique because the group meets one afternoon, gets about an hour and a half to go into the community and collect as many cans as possible, and then brings them back to the school for counting. Students raid their friends’ houses all in the name of charity. “There's just something about going to your friends’ houses and raiding their pantry that I just can't get enough of,” she says. “The best thing, though, is I'm having tons of fun and helping people in need in my community.”

Along with weekly spiritual presentations and services, the group holds fun nights at the school to offer a break from classes and participates in regional FCA activities. According to Whitton, nothing beats the FCA Olympics held for all the FCA chapters in their region. “We have chariot races and it's open to all FCAs, and all the students get together and play games,” she says. “For a night, there are no cliques and school separation, but a team in Christ.”

Drew Robbins’ baseball teammates were in FCA, and as an athlete and Christian, he felt that FCA would be a perfect fit. “It has had a very influential impact on my life,” says the spring 2004 graduate. “I love getting together with my friends and glorifying God at the same time.” He says that by being in a position of leadership, there always are other people watching, and this makes leaders accountable for their actions. FCA leadership has taught him that good leaders lead by example more than anything else and also guide and help others in need. “FCA has helped me grow more spiritually than any other time period of my life,” he says.

Junior Tiffany Harmon got interested in FCA after hearing about it from her teammates on the softball and volleyball teams. Becoming a member of the club led her to make changes in her life. “It’s made me realize that I wasn't living as much like a Christian as I should be,” she says. “I love the people in FCA because we help each other so much through everything, like one big family.”

Debbie Funkhouser has been one of the leaders of the FCA family since she started teaching at Mosley six years ago. Since serving as a teacher sponsor, Funkhouser says she has watched the group grow from mornings of five or six students to a membership of 60 students. “My own spiritual relationship with God is what motivates me to serve as the FCA advisor,” she says.

FCA seeks to keep teens on the right path by regularly meeting on Friday mornings to start the weekend positively, in hopes that the students remember the spiritual message when they go out with their friends. Hearing students talk about their faith in their own words has impacted Funkhouser in a great way. “There have been many times where a student has moved me,” she says “It’s a great thing when kids teach teachers.”

Contact Funkhouser at Funkhdc@mail.bay.k12.fl.us, or visit www.fca.org.

Copyright © 2006 Oxendine Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved