It’s Tuesday night at the Mizzou Athletic Training Complex. All practices for the day are done, and there are no teams competing. Yet the Onofrio Room is packed with Missouri athletes.
Such is the case every Tuesday night, as each of the university’s 18 athletic teams are represented in attendance at the school’s chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
FCA serves Missouri athletes and provides them with a place to practice their religion away from home while also growing as an athlete.
“FCA helps us with the challenges we go through,” redshirt sophomore running back Jared Culver said. “Everything is rush-rush-rush, and (FCA) lets us think about the real reason why we’re here. We have all this athletic ability because God put us here and blessed us with that ability, so it’s a chance to reflect on that while having a good time with people facing similar challenges.”
Culver transferred to Missouri after spending a semester at Heartland Community College and credits FCA with assisting him assimilate to his new surroundings.
“I made a lot of friends through FCA,” Culver said. “Being a walk-on on the football team, I wasn’t accepted by all of the guys right away, but through FCA I met a lot of people and they started to embrace me and saw the kind of person I was.”
The average turnout for FCA normally ranges from 30 to 50 athletes, and for many of them, it is the only time to practice their faith in a group setting.
Notable Tigers involved with the program in the past include former basketball standout J.T. Tiller and quarterback Brad Smith, who currently plays for the NFL’s New York Jets.
Staff member and graduate student Dustin Shryock, in his third year with FCA at Missouri, directs the group.
Shryock points to scripture as a pivotal tool in fulfilling the mission of the group.
“We have Jesus’ life as a template for how to live our loves, and as athletes, we believe that applies to their performance on the field as well,” Shryock said. “(Jesus) lived his life with a lot of dedication, commitment and intensity, all of which are the kinds of things we talk to the athletes about applying directly to their performance on the field.”
For many athletes, FCA has helped many athletes off the field just as much as it has on the field, if not more.
Take current junior Tara Foster, a former Tiger gymnast who is no longer able to compete due to injury.
“Last semester was rough, especially since we had another girl go through the issues I did,” Foster said. “But going through everything I’ve been through, FCA’s taught me how to be there for other people by sharing with them my own experiences to help them out.”
It is in cases such as Tara’s that Shryock takes the most pride in providing spiritual support for student-athletes, as he tries to instill in them the notion that “student-athlete” shouldn’t be their defining characteristic.
“We’re helping them (student-athletes) see that their identity doesn’t have to be found in their sport,” Shryock said. “They won’t be able to play these sports forever, so if they can learn to place their identities in Christ instead of in their abilities, they will lead much better lives.”