Not many people have the courage to stand out from the norm. When sports are concerned, athletes having a relationship with Christ, or even a strong faith, is not typically pronounced outside the locker room. Even if faith is a part of the team’s culture, it is not portrayed in the media nor is it well-known knowledge to people outside the intimate circle of the team itself.
I went searching for a team, or even an athlete, who really lives a life that is not ashamed of their beliefs or their faith. Tim Tebow, the quarterback for the Jets, lives a life without the fear of what others think of his faith. He is blunt: writes scripture on his face, gives interviews about his faith, and defends what he believes in without fearing criticism. During an interview with USA Today Sept. 23, 2011, Tebow made the following remark regarding his faith:
“If you’re married, and you have a wife, and you really love your wife, is it good enough to only say to your wife ‘I love her’ the day you get married? Or should you tell her every single day when you wake up and every opportunity?
“And that’s how I feel about my relationship with Jesus Christ is that it is the most important thing in my life. So any time I get an opportunity to tell him that I love him or given an opportunity to shout him out on national TV, I’m gonna take that opportunity. And so I look at it as a relationship that I have with him that I want to give him the honor and glory anytime I have the opportunity. And then right after I give him the honor and glory, I always try to give my teammates the honor and glory.
“And that’s how it works because Christ comes first in my life, and then my family, and then my teammates.”
After hearing this, I wanted to dig deeper. Do athletes at Pepperdine play their sports with the same excitement about their faith as Tim Tebow portrays? Or the bigger question: is faith even a part of athletics at Pepperdine?
I went to interview the women’s basketball Head Coach Julie Rousseau and found my answer. Rousseau’s relationship with Christ filters into every aspect of her life — including how she coaches basketball. She said that as a coach, she wants to “Lead by example of my faith, but I am going to use scripture to help inspire and nurture our young women.” Her philosophy is “This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it,” and she uses this joyful outlook on life to “Shower [her players] with praise and positivity.” As a coach, she still gives constructive criticism to her players to make them better, but “[she wants] to say to [her] kids what they need to hear to help build them up… in truth,” instead of in negativity.
Even the players I had the chance to speak with confirmed the team’s culture that Rousseau had described to me. Freshman Kelsey Brockway said “we pray before games, before practice, after practice,” and that faith was the backbone of the team. Amanda Lovely said, “you play, obviously for your team, your teammates, your coach, but I play to glorify God. At the end of the day He is the one I am trying to make happy.” These girls have faith, even through the business of their lives as student athletes. Having a relationship with God can easily be overlooked as an athlete — they are practicing, going to school, finding time for homework, and traveling to play against other teams. Yet, the women I spoke with from Pepperdine’s basketball team considered faith a very important part of the game. When asked if faith plays a role on the court, Grace Baughn responded, “Who you are off the court is who you are on the court. When I am strong in the Lord I am giving more to my teammates, I am a better person, I am a better version of me, and have a better attitude on the court. When days are hard I am able to push through; so it’s hard to separate the two.”
Faith matters to Tim Tebow and he is famous for it. Here at Pepperdine, faith matters to the girls on the women’s basketball team. Faith is an instrumental part of who they are as women and who they are as teammates.
