Varsity Catholic!

Earlier this summer, I emailed all of the GW athletic coaches I could. Basically, I introduced myself and offered any kind of help to them and their players. I had lunch with one of the coaches yesterday and hopefully will help his team out in some way next season. I began the email with:


“A few years ago, a Catholic chaplain to a struggling girls’ volleyball team in Nebraska started a Bible study with some of the young women. Not long after that, the whole team adopted a quote from Scripture as their theme: "I can do all things in Him who strengthens me" (Phil 4:13). Later that season the team won the state championship.”

The GW website has stated that about 4,000 students are involved in athletics here. Wow! Among so many other talents, GW students are athletic. I would very much like to be involved with our sports teams (huge sports fan here) and hope to attend many more games than I have in the past two years. It would be great to personally get to know the athletes, give talks to the teams, or lead Bible studies for athletes. But I have done the math and am guessing that I would need some help…! So, that has led me to look into another program that FOCUS offers: Varsity Catholic.

From what I understand, Varsity Catholic works the same way FOCUS does. If we wanted Varsity Catholic at GW, we would bring in more missionaries (in addition to the regular missionaries we have now) who would work mainly with athletes. They would establish relationships with GW athletes, lead Bible studies with them, and engage in mentoring them. Check out the VC website by clicking on today's title.  Here’s what their "What We Do" section states:

“In our hope to serve the formative needs of student-athletes, we seek to have a consistent presence, always wanting to be available for them. We offer them an opportunity to learn how to live as Christian athletes on the college campus. In Bible studies, they have a chance to encourage teammates and fellow athletes while being instructed in teachings consistent with the Catholic Church.

In one-on-one coaching/mentoring, we give them an opportunity to go deeper in their walk with Christ and help them become a leader among their peers (c.f. 2Tim 2:2).

Seeking to impact the local community, we host service events with the athletes at soup kitchens, homes for the elderly, hospitals and schools.

Seeking to impact the world, we host Mission Camps. These provide high caliber instruction in sport for impoverished youth, while also proclaiming our faith through our witness and instruction.”


Also on their site is this video about Cameron Meredith, a Nebraska football player who became Catholic in college and is part of Varsity Catholic. Cool stuff!