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so many trials in athletics that kind of fall in with religion. Things like working hard, staying com-mitted and teamwork,” Geis said.

The impact of religion is often only half the reason members at-tend. FCA has created a comfort-able, interactive environment for those who have a strong or bur-geoning faith in God. They are able to share their feelings without be-ing criticized by other teens.

“I always look forward to hanging out with people from our school that not only have fun with athletics but believe in God like I do,” Greenhaw said. “Whenever you go to church, you always hear people say ‘Your schools are all bad. You have to save the world.’ But that’s not true. When you go to an FCA meeting, you see that there are people just like you. You’re with people you see every day, and you know you have a deeper connec-tion than just going to school.”

Now, as seniors, some mem-bers of the leadership team are worried about the FCA huddle los-ing its strength and possibly dying out. According to Rose, FCA had

a strong following at Northwest from the mid-70s until about 2000, when the leadership fell apart.

“I’m worried about the future of FCA, because when you go to the meetings, probably 60 percent of the people there are seniors. The parents that help us have already said that they’re willing to keep going, but it’s up to the kids in the younger grades,” Petrie said. “It’s been such a good experience for everybody, and I think we’ve im-pacted a lot of people. I think there are a lot of people that could be impacted if it kept on going.”

With a growing number of un-derclassmen at the last few meet-ings, the seniors are trying to keep the faith alive. The biggest chal-lenge appears to be convincing un-derclassmen to step into important roles on the leadership team.

“The whole goal of our last meeting was to reach out to the underclassmen and let them step up to [the leadership team]. We’re trying not to let the club die after we’re gone,” Mansker said.

Sophomore Stephanie Smith agrees that it is imperative to

expand the group through new members.

“I think it will be harder [to keep people interested] just be-cause a lot of the members are se-niors. But we’ve been trying really hard lately to get younger people involved in it,” Smith said.

Either way, Rose remains op-timistic about the future of FCA

because of the tremendous impact it has on those who are involved in it.

“When I went to my first con-ference out in Estes Park (Co.), the first thing I noticed was that the people who were leading were great coaches, great athletes and all seemed to be happy. Not silly happy, but genuinely happy,” Rose said. “I wondered, ‘what’s the deal?

Why are they so happy?’ I found out that they had merged a great Christian environment with ath-letics, and I didn’t know you could do that.”

Rose’s college roommate and teammate became involved in the FCA organization, and the man that introduced him to his wife also worked with FCA.

“FCA just puts me around good people. It’s hard to go wrong when you’re around good people,” Rose said. “You’re going to make good decisions, because they won’t let you make anything else.”n David Catt Photos by Kevin Buie

“When you go to an FCA meeting, you see that there are people just like you. You’re with people you see every day, and you know you have a deeper connection than just going to school.”—senior Will Greenhaw

Junior Ashley Houser plays guitar during the FCA meeting while FCA members sing along.

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