God on the gridiron

When head coach Roger Hughes is asked how the football team improved from 2-8 in 2003 to 9-1 and an Ivy League championship in 2006, he invariably discusses the Tigers' hard work, discipline and chemistry. This year's squad was "very close and very hungry," he told goprincetontigers.com in April.

Ask Hughes' players, and they too use words like chemistry, closeness and hard work. Many also mention another word to explain the team's success: faith.

Senior Luke Steckel, co-captain of the 2006 team, is one of those players. As a starter at linebacker in 2006, he intercepted a pair of passes, made 18 total tackles — and helped organize post-game prayer circles that included some of the foes he slammed to the turf.

"I used to wonder how there could be faith based on love in a violent game like football," Steckel said. "Christian values and football seem to be opposites, but really, as football players, we use the gifts that God has blessed us with on the football field."

Senior linebacker Brig Walker explained that the "outward manifestation" of the Christian faith on Princeton's football team has expanded since his freshman year through an increasing number of participants in pre-game prayer and team Bible study and the initiation of post-game prayer.

"We have always had team prayer over my four years," senior defensive lineman Mike Meehan said. "But where, say, a quarter of the team participated in pre-game prayer my freshman year, I'd say 80 to 90 percent did so in my senior year."

As Steckel explained, "It got to the point where more people were praying than there were getting ready in the locker room — and that was pretty cool."

Steckel and fellow co-captain Jeff Terrell — a senior quarterback — co-led a team Bible study, and they found that attendance increased as the season progressed. The study, initiated by Terrell and Steckel during their sophomore season with the help of an Athletes in Action (AIA) intern, started with three consistent participants: Terrell, Steckel and junior wide receiver Brendan Circle.

"But this season, our numbers started increasing," Steckel explained. "We used to pass out packets to the guys and each week, I would glance around the room and jot down in the corner how many guys had shown up. It was impressive to see that number increase from week to week."

Steckel said that throughout the fall, the study steadily had anywhere from 15 to 20 participants, with 25 or 26 team members attending at the peak of the season.

Christian members of the team believe that the increased role of Christianity is a fairly visible one, even to nonbelievers.

"[The team has a] wide range of what people believe," Steckel said, but added, "it is hard to imagine that someone would not realize [the] presence [of Christianity]."

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Steckel believes the team is a safe environment, however, where no one feels threatened, regardless of his beliefs.

"The subject certainly raises curiosity at the dinner table," Circle added. "But I wouldn't say that anyone is against the rise of Christianity on the team."

"I've never heard a complaint about praying before or after a game," Methvin agreed. "If people don't want to participate, then they just don't participate."

Walker, who prefers individual prayer, says that no one has ever looked down on him for not participating in the team prayer. He doesn't recall other players doing anything other than offering a simple invitation to join in team prayer.

"I imagine that someone of a religious minority might feel alienated by simply seeing a large group bonding over a majority faith — regardless of the good intentions of those involved," Walker said.

Several players refused to comment on the role of faith on the team, perhaps suggesting some validity to Walker's ideas and some kind of underlying tension.

The increasing influence of Christianity on the team has come as a surprise to many of its members, including Circle, who has been elected co-captain of the 2007 team and who has helped take over leadership of the Bible study from Terrell and Steckel.

"If Jeff and Luke had told me when study first started that we would have 25 guys coming out only two years later, I never would have believed them," he said. "That's all God."

Both Terrell and Steckel said that they think the increased role of Christianity on the football team impacted the team's performance this past season.

"The Lord has really influenced this team in the mental aspect of the game — guys have the freedom and confidence to perform," Terrell explained. "I see a group of guys who are eager to pray and join in with study — there are a number of guys whose faith has grown."

Steckel agreed. "It's a tough feeling to put into words, but I could really feel the difference in the locker room," he said. "There were more guys genuinely trying to make an effort to pursue their faith."

Steckel and Terrell also helped coordinate post-game prayers with their opponents toward the end of the 2006 Ivy season. Terrell explains that the suggestion for post-game prayer came from a member of Penn's Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) following the Penn game. He describes the experience as "unbelievable."

"Praying with our opponents really helped me to remember that this was about something larger than a football game," Terrell said.

Terrell and Steckel later organized post-game prayers at Yale and Dartmouth. In addition to increased participation in prayer and Bible study, Meehan noted increasing attendance at fellowship sessions before pre-game breakfasts for home and away games. Hughes and Director of Football Operations Mike Fassel usually arranged for speakers, often from the FCA, to speak to team members who choose to attend.

For Terrell, who recently signed with the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs, the connection between faith and sport turned his football career around. After attending an AIA summer camp, Terrell went from being a benchwarmer to starting quarterback and Ivy League Player of the Year — an improvement in play he attributes to increased freedom in Christ and confidence in himself.

Steckel grew up in the "Bible belt" of Tennessee, where prayer was part of the everyday football routine. His father, Les Steckel, serves as the president of the FCA national ministry.

While Terrell called the increased presence of Christianity on the team "the work of the Lord," and Steckel said that it is a product of "God honoring those who honor Him," others acknowledge the role the two leaders played in the increasing outward manifestation of faith on the team.

"When you have captains who are serious about their faith, you're going to get more guys on the team who are committed and open with their faith," former football player and AIA leader Rob Curry '03 said.

Players on the current team agree, praising Terrell and Steckel for their courage to be open with their faith, leadership on the field and willingness to stick with the team Bible study, even when it seemed as though no one cared.

Circle explained that the captains' leadership allowed team members who were raised with some form of Christianity to reconnect with their faith.

"When these players saw the change in Jeff's playing from his sophomore year to junior year — the increased poise and confidence he displayed on the field," Circle said, "they realized that maybe it was possible to make the connection between faith and sport."

Other players say that the increased presence of Christianity on the team influenced the team's play in other ways, namely through improved team chemistry and closer relationships.

"Christianity stresses the importance of sportsmanship and cohesiveness," said sophomore defensive end Tom Methvin, who is currently helping Circle lead the team Bible study.

"When we pray as a team before the game, no one thinks that God will somehow side in our favor because of a pre-game 'Our Father,' " Meehan explained. "What it brings is a sense of unity."

Circle added that faith keeps players "grounded."

"In football, it's necessary to hold each other accountable, rather than having an 'all about me' attitude," Circle said. "Faith helps you realize it's not about your ability to do something, but rather your God-given ability to do something."

Terrell and Steckel hope that the role of Christianity will continue to grow on the team in the future, particularly through its younger members.

Methvin and Circle, along with junior wide receiver Adam Berry, the third leader of the team's Bible study, hope that the study's welcoming environment and application to everyday life will encourage more team members to give it a try.

"It's always hard with graduation," Circle said. "But you hope that the freshmen will come into it with an open perspective, and then the whole effort will start snowballing."