Sports and Religion

Today's blog entry was written by Andrea McHugh, a senior co-captain of the Notre Dame Women's Volleyball team.  Andrea is a Film, Television and Theater major and a student in the Social Foundations of Coaching Course.  She is the President of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Do sports and religion go together? Should they go together?

For the past couple of years, I have been trying to figure out what it would look like to combine sports and religion. As a volleyball player and a follower of Jesus, I strive to encourage and inspire the people around me through my faith. I interned with Fellowship of Christian Athletes two summers ago where we tried to figure out what it would look like if we played WITH God instead of for Him?  Any athlete would ask questions like, does this work? Is it possible? Would that make sports less competitive? How does that play into sportsmanship? I can tell anyone that it does not make sports less competitive because Jesus was the type of guy that strove for competitive greatness and wants us to do great things through our sport in addition to the talents He has given us!  Sports and religion can go together, and in my opinion, they should.

One of my best friends plays volleyball at Biola, which is in the NAIA and located in Southern California. I am not able to attend her games in California, but I am able to watch from my bedroom through a computer screen. Recently, the match that I had happened to be watching was the NAIA match of the week. Biola and Concordia were the number 3 and 2 teams in the division and were both undefeated. Both teams played hard every point and competed to the best of their ability. Sadly, Biola ended up losing after in four sets (in volleyball it is best 3 out of 5), which gave them their first loss of the season giving them a record of 15-1.

However, the most striking (and exciting) event of the match happened right after the last point was scored. After both teams shook hands with one another they joined each other in the middle of the court and said a prayer together thanking the Lord for the match, the talents He has blessed each individual with, and His outpouring of continual love and grace on them. I was completely blown away by this, yet I think it’s the perfect example of what it means to express sportsmanship along with what it looks like to combine sports and religion.

Sportsmanship is certainly overlooked a lot during sporting events these days. But, if someone is not a good sport it will be talked about for days and days. Coming together and acknowledging your opponent after a win or loss shows a lot about your character. Its important to display good sportsmanship. Coming together to pray after a game is something that is almost unheard of today in most divisions, but I think it would change the face of sports as we know it.