Pandora's Box is Wide Open

 In collegiate sport in the USA, a couple of relatively new situations are causing tremendous upheaval in the way competitors and coaches interact with their institutions. The NCAA Transfer Portal is a mechanism where players who presently attend a college or university and represent that institution in a sport, can make themselves available to other institutions to offer them an opportunity to join their team/institution, without penalty, once in their college sporting careers. Formerly, a player could leave his or her college and move down a level (e.g. Division I to Division II) and would be eligible to play immediately. However, if one moved up a level or made a lateral move, he or she would have to sit out a year before competing. This was ostensibly to keep the more powerful institutions from poaching players from those less fortunate. Now, all bets are off. Free agency, like in professional sport, has been handed to those in collegiate sport.

 The other factor reshaping the collegiate sporting landscape is Name Image, and Likeness (NIL) money. Formerly, collegiate players were forbidden to profit financially from their name, image, or likeness in product endorsement deals, or in any other way. Amateurism was strictly guarded, though it was generally acknowledged that many players or their families and handlers were paid “under the table” in the process of recruiting. Now NIL has been embraced, Pandora’s box has been opened, and no one knows the breadth of the unintended consequences that will now unfold. Amateurism has been kicked to the curb, and college sport is essentially a developmental level of professional sport.

 Both of these factors are stressing coaches and administrations in many ways. Most have no idea how to handle either, and many are choosing to leave their sport, throwing up their hands in frustration or disgust. Both of these factors have tremendous potential for good and for harm. They both present powerful challenges to matters like team cohesion, coach-player relationships, and relationships between coaches and players’ families. It also presents new challenges to character coaches and sports chaplains.

 Below is a set of questions I have crafted for character coaches and sports chaplains to use in discussing either of these matters with players considering entering the transfer portal or being offered NIL money. Outside the USA, these could also be applicable to players in developmental levels of sport in similar situations. I hope they are of value to you. Please reply with your suggestions for edits, deletions, or additional questions. Thank you.

 Have  you thought about how this decision will affect your development as a player?

• Have you considered how this will affect your academic progress toward a university degree?
• Let’s suppose you enter the transfer portal but no one signs you to join their team, what will you do then?
• Have you thought about how this decision will affect your teammates and coaches?
• What or who are the strongest factors in leading you to make this decision? Are you sure they are really in your best interest?

 

Ministry at the Final Four and Moldova / Ukraine

During the recent NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four and its accompanying NABC Convention in New Orleans, three sports ministries serving the basketball coaching community each had a booth in the exhibition hall and they collaborated to host several ministry events. Athletes in Action, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and Nations of Coaches worked together on the events which included a meeting for coaches’ wives on Thursday evening, a Coaches Edge event on Friday afternoon, a Sunday morning worship service, and then a Coaches and Spouses marriage luncheon on Sunday afternoon.

One of our colleagues, Coach Terry Murphy of FCA Ukraine, was hoping to be in attendance, but was in Moldova. His changes were all abruptly changed on Thursday 24 February when Russia began shelling Ukraine and then invaded the nation. Coach Terry sent me a message one day saying, “We’re headed to the bomb shelter right now. I’ll talk with you tomorrow.” I was just hoping there would be a tomorrow. In a couple of days he, his wife, and mother were on the way to the Ukraine/Moldova border. He sent me a message as they were into their 25th hour at the border, a process that eventually took 30 hours to complete.

As I have been sending Psalms to my Ukrainian friends daily by WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, Coach Terry and I were in touch daily. Along the way we discussed the possibility of his coming to New Orleans for the Final Four. This is the place to look for coaching jobs, and as he’s planning to return to the USA to find a job, it would be perfect timing. However…war.

Coach Terry said he had decided to stay in Moldova to help relief supplies get into Ukraine and to help Ukrainians get out. I was stunned by his selfless attitude, sacrificial love for these people, and his courage to stay and serve. He and others load up vans with relief materials, drive them hours to the Ukrainian border, meet Ukrainians with their vans, transfer the materials, then the Ukrainians drive double digit hours to embattled and largely destroyed Ukrainian cities. I am very proud to know Coach Terry Murphy.

During the Final Four weekend in New Orleans, I was pleased to have Coach Terry join us via Zoom. At the Coaches Edge (4:00 pm New Orleans time, 1:00 am Moldova time) Terry joined us to hear the speakers, and he participated in a discussion at my table with four young basketball coaches. On Sunday morning, Terry and his wife Ruth joined us for worship with my phone propped up against a hand sanitizer dispenser at the rear of the room. They persisted through my repeated and frequent loss of internet connection. I am very proud to know Coach Terry and Ruth Murphy. Ruth has been a part of this season’s Nations of Coaches Wives Bible Studies. She joined each meeting via Zoom from Kyiv, Ukraine.

The persistence through internet issues, the early morning Coaches Edge attendance, and the regular participation in Coaches’ Wives Bible studies speaks to their devotion to Christ, their hunger for fellowship, and their dedication to coaching as a life calling. I pray that Coach Terry and Ruth Murphy serve as a challenge to us, in our relative safety and security. May we each and all strive to serve as selflessly and to love as extravagantly as they do.

Register soon and Call for Papers - 3rd Global Congress on Sport and Christianity

Registration is open for the Third Global Congress on Sport and Christianity in Cambridge, England. It will be held 18-21 August. This will be an outstanding event as it is the only global intersection of the academic and practitioner communities of ministry in sport. Below is a link for registration (booking).

 Book now for The Third Global Congress on Sport and Christianity (3GCSC) at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, Thu 18 Aug 2022 6:00 PM - Sun 21 Aug 2022 1:30 PM (tickettailor.com)

 In addition, you may be someone who has a paper or presentation to offer at the congress. The event’s leadership is really keen for people to speak about their ministries - and especially the challenges of leadership from a practitioner viewpoint - and to find out how academics can better serve the needs of those on the ground. The link below opens to information on how to submit an abstract for submission of a paper or presentation.

 Call for papers: Global Congress on Sport and Christianity - Ridley Hall (cam.ac.uk)

 Thanks. I hope to see you in Cambridge. 

Excellent Ministry in a War Zone

Since the early days of the COVID-19 lockdown in early 2020, I have been serving with some Russian speaking sports chaplains in Eurasia in monthly Zoom discussions about various facets of this ministry. Many of those people are from Ukraine, and recent events have certainly strained their lives. I was both surprised and thrilled when my colleague from Kyiv, Pavel Tian (Pasha), sent me WhatsApp message asking to schedule a meeting in mid-March. My first thought was, “Your nation is at war and being invaded by its neighbor. You are a refugee in Germany at the moment. How can you even think about hosting a meeting?” After gathering myself, I replied, “Outstanding! What shall we have as our topic?” Pasha wrote, “Ministry in times of crisis, difficult circumstances, and the importance of serving.” I wrote, “Perfect.”

On 25 May I prepared a few discussion questions to guide our time together and after greeting our friends, we launched into our Zoom meeting. Joining Pasha and me that day was a collection of amazing people. Our interpreter (best ever) was in the FCA offices in Kansas City, Missouri, one chaplain was in Donetsk, Ukraine (a war zone since 2014), another was in the foothills of the Carpathian mountains in western Ukraine, Pasha (our host) was in Germany, Carl Dambman of Athletes in Action (pioneer of sports ministry in Eurasia for over 40 years) was in Seattle, Washington, and I was in my home office in Carbondale, Illinois.

Our discussion followed this series of questions:

1. How are you serving coaches and players in these trying days?
2. Who is serving you well in this season of life? How are they doing it?
3. What are some ways we can serve our friends, family, coaches, and players in the coming days?

To that final question, my friend and colleague, Andrew Chernenkov of Rivne, Ukraine listed these four simple and brilliant ways of service.

1. Empathize (feel what those you are serving feel).
2. Listen (not just waiting to respond, but intently listen).
3. Help them physically (do what needs to be done, with them).
4. Provide spiritual service (prayer, sharing the gospel, etc.).

Andrew is chaplain to a rugby club, and though displaced due to the war has been in touch with coaches and players of the club by phone. One of the players who had joined the Ukrainian Army was killed in the war. The rugby club coach called Andrew to inform him and to seek his guidance for what he should say at the funeral. Andrew’s love for the player, for the coach, and faithful service of the team made room for all four points of his ways to serve in this painful and grievous season of life.

Andrew’s concise list is most prescient in light of his nation being a war zone, but it also serves us for whom life is a little less perilous. Let’s all commit ourselves to this these imperatives: Empathize, Listen, Help them physically, and Provide spiritual service. These activities are always proper for sports chaplains or character coaches, in times of peace, and in time of war.