For a lot of of Georgetown's almost 800 student-athletes, athletics is virtually a full-time job. When juggling a 40-hour sports activities schedule, teachers, and a social life, religious well-being can take a again seat. For some student-athletes, non secular traditions and sports activities complement one another, permitting for a holistic athletic expertise, additional religious progress, and a deepened sense of neighborhood.
Georgetown employed its first athletic chaplain, Tony Mazurkiewicz, to facilitate faith-based conversations and help for student-athletes in 2020, simply earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic pressured on-line lessons and shut down the sports activities season.
“My position is to attempt to join the student-athletes with Campus Ministry and the sources there,” Mazurkiewicz mentioned. He hosts month-to-month retreats for non secular and non-religious student-athletes to mirror on and reconcile their lives off campus. He additionally leads meditation classes and meets individually with college students to mentor them all year long. Mazurkiewicz's objective is to be a useful resource for college students, no matter whether or not they share his non secular background.
Different Campus Ministry workers additionally act as sources for student-athletes looking for religious steerage. Rabbi Daniel Schaefer, who describes himself on his weblog as a “washed-up massive man,” has written extensively in regards to the commonalities between Judaism and basketball.
“One of many fascinating parallels I see between faith, all religions, and particularly workforce sports activities, is that there's a component of sacrifice that's not about you,” Schaefer mentioned Voice. “With the ability to do one thing for the collective is a good worth in Judaism and in sports activities.”
For a lot of athletes, Campus Ministry sources have made a tangible influence throughout their time at Georgetown. Brittany Lew (COL '23), a senior second baseman on the ladies's softball workforce, is very grateful for Mazurkiewicz's help throughout a tough time in her life. “He helped me perceive all of the loss I felt, and for that I’ll at all times be grateful,” she mentioned.
Lew can be chair government for Georgetown Christian Athletes (GUCA), a membership that helps Christian varsity and membership athletes from Georgetown's 30 Division I sports activities groups join with one another.
“The neighborhood I discovered with GUCA is one the place athletes come collectively and share their struggles and successes. We maintain one another accountable in our religion and problem one another to be the most effective model of ourselves,” she mentioned. “It's my most important religion neighborhood on campus and I'm so grateful for it.”
Every week, GUCA college students collect and listen to from audio system who share their religion, supply phrases of encouragement, and share messages of knowledge. GUCA additionally hosts bonding actions all through the semester, together with a Thanksgiving potluck and Christmas social gathering.
You will need to notice that these help teams aren’t at all times accessible to Georgetown's busiest athletes. Mazurkiewicz cited time constraints as the most important barrier to student-athletes' participation in non secular actions. “It's a full-time job,” he mentioned. “It's greater than 40 hours relying on whether or not they're in season or off season.”
But many pupil athletes nonetheless select to commit their free time to non secular teams. For Georgetown males's soccer quarterback Dominic De Almeida (COL '24), it's about connecting after the pandemic. “Probably the most useful factor is to discover a sense of neighborhood personally. I haven't actually discovered a church right here that I can go to each week, so I resort to watching my residence church on-line,” mentioned De Almeida. “[On campus we have] believers who consider the identical stuff you do and likewise undergo the identical stuff you do.”
Senior offensive lineman Sam Telesa (COL '23) expressed related sentiments about faith performing as a neighborhood builder. His position because the soccer workforce's chapel chief allowed him to attach others on the soccer workforce with Georgetown's non secular sources. “[My faith has] he had an influence not solely alone life, but in addition on the lives of my teammates,” mentioned Telesa.
Telesa added that the wrestle non secular athletes face comes when his perceptions of Christians and athletes come into battle. “, as a Christian, you need to exemplify the traits and traits of Jesus Christ,” Telesa mentioned. “Jesus Christ was not somebody who was aggressive, somebody who foamed on the mouth with violence, as could be the stigma for footballers.”
Pupil athletes exterior of Judeo-Christian non secular traditions face distinctive pressures navigating a sociopolitical context the place non secular discrimination will not be unusual. Former Hoya males's basketball participant Ömer Yurtseven — now a middle for the Miami Warmth — transferred to Georgetown from NC State his senior 12 months, looking for each skilled growth and an environment that may be extra tolerant of him as a training Muslim. In 2018 Voice In an interview, Yurtseven cited “a number of occasions” — probably referring to a spate of Islamophobic occasions within the Raleigh space — as influencing his determination to maneuver. “Realizing that a spot respects my faith is unquestionably vital,” he informed us on the time. Georgetown's Muslim chaplain, Imam Yahya Hendi, couldn’t be instantly reached for touch upon the publication.
For some, staying dedicated to their faith might help them overcome critical accidents and address bodily trauma or isolation that comes from the video games or seasons.
“I've had quite a lot of accidents all through my profession, from damaged fingers to concussions,” Lew mentioned. “Wanting again, they enormously strengthen my religion by altering my mindset to see that there’s a plan for the whole lot – no matter failure.”
De Almeida additionally shared how for him faith and sport work in tandem quite than in opposition. “For me, the whole lot revolves round my religion,” he mentioned.
Legendary males's basketball coach John Thompson left his mark on the Hilltop by pushing his gamers to seek out objective and that means exterior of the athletic enviornment, telling them, “Don't let the sum of your existence be eight to 10 kilos of air.” A number of the student-athletes at For Georgetown, non secular follow and non secular traditions present that that means amid the ups and downs of taking part in for the Blue & Grey.