Dedicated to providing students a safe and fun environment to express themselves, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes has been a part of Central since history teacher Mr. Brian Adam established it in 2004. As exclusive as this club may sound, the members are accepting of anyone who wishes to come to their meetings.
“You don’t have to be Christian and you don’t have to be an athlete, but it helps,” Adam said.
Senior Nicole Bunte, who has been a member for four years, explains that being Christian and involved in a sport is helpful but is not required because of what the students discuss during their meetings.
“We try to apply our beliefs to our school and sports,” Bunte said. “We try to show our religion and learn values that we can use in our lives.”
Junior Tim Whyman said that the FCA is similar to a youth group: every other week the students meet at a member’s home to eat and talk, often discussing a particular lesson each week.
“It’s supposed to be including religion into your sports,” Whyman said. “You’re representing your faith with your athletic ability. We often talk about how our talents are a gift from God.”
Freshman Caitlin Magruder said that she is consistently able to connect the lessons to her school and social life, as well. According to her the club is a great way to help freshmen integrate into the high school community.
“The upperclassmen have really good high school survival tips,” Magruder said. “It’s a good place to talk about your feelings because you know that kind and thoughtful people are listening.”
While the religious and sport factors play a very large role in this group, the people and the atmosphere are big reasons that people enjoy the group. Junior Katie Rembold’s favorite part about the meetings is being able to see her friends and meet new people with similar interests.
“It’s such a good group of people, a very trusting community,” Rembold said. “I’m able to talk to people I recognize when I’m playing a sport, and it gives us something to talk about.”
Bunte agreed that people can really express themselves at meetings and speak their mind without a high chance of offending someone, which can happen in a school so big. Even with the school’s size, members said club participation has dropped.
“More people used to come to the meetings, so recently we’ve been trying to get more people involved,” Bunte said.
Rembold said this year the group is going to do more activities outside of their meetings. She says that hopefully this year they will attend school sports events and they will be able to volunteer and give back to the school.
“We’re planning on going to games that our friends play in and starting a whole cheering section,” Rembold said.
The group hopes that the extended reach into the school’s community will make more students want to join them.
“Last year we were quiet,” Whyman said. “Hopefully this year we’ll be able to bring a lot more people in and do a lot more things.”
