John Hellige coaches the Holy Trinity Catholic High School-Fort Madison varsity boys basketball team during a game at Central Lee High School in Donnellson earlier this year.
(Editor’s note: This is the second in a series about the intersection of sports and faith.)
By Lindsay Steele
The Catholic Messenger
John Hellige’s voice catches with emotion as he recalls how close the boys basketball team he coaches at Holy Trinity Catholic in Fort Madison has come to making the state tournament in recent years. “We were one or two games away, but wins come and go,” he said. “What matters at the end of the day is our Catholic faith.”
The longtime coach and father of three all-state athletes knows the joy of winning, and the heartbreak of coming up short, but “the main thing is to keep things in perspective,” he said. “Sports are fun and important, but they never define who you are. Your faith does that.”
While play and sports are good and meant to be pursued with passion and enjoyed, “they are not the most important thing in life,” the Vatican states in its 2018 document on sports and faith, “Giving the Best of Yourself.” The Church, along with leaders of other religious traditions, can help to remind people to keep sport in perspective and emphasize it “as an arena of human activity where the virtues of temperance, humility, courage, patience can be fostered and encounters with beauty, goodness, truth and joy can be witnessed.”
Strengthening the heart
Sport, understood correctly, “is always a source of growth for human beings,” Santiago Perez de Camino said during the 2016 Conference on Sports Ministry in the U.S. During the speech, the former leader of the Vatican’s Church and Sport Office of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life offered examples of popes and saints who have embraced sport as a means of education, development, caring for the body and evangelization. Quoting Pope Pius XII, Perez de Camino said, “The goal common to every form of human activity (is) bringing man closer to God.”
At Holy Trinity, Hellige aims to form well-rounded individuals, not just athletes. “Coaching at a Catholic school isn’t necessarily all about teaching basketball skills but forming the young men and helping form their character,” he believes. He takes the team to Mass before the first practice of the year, and if he forgets to pray the Hail Mary before a game — as he’s done for years — the players are quick to remind him. “That’s how I know they’ve bought in,” he said.
With faith comes gratitude
Recent college graduate Maddy Hellwig views sport — and her ability to experience it — as a blessing from God. “Any time I am playing a sport and I’m having fun, I just think, ‘Wow, I’m so grateful that I can do this.’”
Sport can offer us a chance to take part in beautiful moments, or to see these take place, according to the 2018 Vatican document. “In this way, sport has the potential to remind us that beauty is one of the ways we can encounter God.”
For Hellwig, a staff member at Newman Catholic Student Center in Iowa City, heartbreak never came in the form of a loss, but in the inability to play the game. Running, in particular, cleared her mind and helped her form close bonds with others, but chronic injuries hampered her ability to compete in track and cross country events in high school. “When you can’t participate fully, you just have to try to trust that whatever it is you are doing is going to be beneficial to you and that you’re going to be ok. When there’s uncertainty in sports you can rely on what’s certain and that is that God cares about you and God has a plan for you. Sports aren’t necessarily the end all, be all.”
Hellwig began playing club ice hockey while studying at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, and found that it was a better fit for her body. It didn’t matter that the developing team lost all but one game her first year. “It feels good to win, but I’m just so happy to be out there that winning is just a perk,” she said.
‘Life is so much bigger than what I do on the court’
Athletics can provide opportunities to explore some of life’s biggest questions, like who we are and the role of God’s mercy in our lives, believes Lee DellaMonache, director of the Neumann University Institute for Sport, Spirituality and Character Development near Philadelphia. However, an overemphasis on sport results can negatively affect an athlete’s physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. This is a reality St. Ambrose University-Davenport student Brandon Staffney-Attical knows all too well.
Staffney-Attical played five sports at his high school in Georgia. His love for athletics turned to obsession once college basketball programs started showing interest. “I thought, maybe I am good at sports, and people haven’t just been hyping me up my whole childhood.” From then on, “I was never satisfied, and I was never humble.”
A series of knee and ankle injuries blocked Staffney-Attical’s path to D1 stardom and shattered his sense of self. “Being injured, I couldn’t just be Brandon the athlete. I had to figure out who Brandon is as a human being,” he said.
He began to find the answer after transferring to St. Ambrose last year. The nondenominational Christian rediscovered his faith and got involved in Peer Campus Ministry. “There were people I met who didn’t realize I played sports,” he said. “Being able to have conversations that weren’t just about sports, I realized life is so much bigger than what I do on the court.”
Staffney-Attical no longer identifies as “Brandon the athlete,” though he hopes to play for the Fighting Bees this year. He expresses his love for sport through accompanying and mentoring others through Fellowship of Christian Athletes on campus and at the organization’s youth summer camp in Pella. He hopes to use his experiences to become an effective coach and sports psychologist after graduation.
Further reading
“Experiencing Mercy through Sports” by Lee DelleMonache: https://tinyurl.com/3jy7nbut
“Giving the best of yourself,” a document on the Christian perspective on sport and the human person from the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life: https://tinyurl.com/p9du29uw
