Many Cougar athletes find their identity in Christ, not athletic performance

By Lainee Mack

And then you hear it. The words no athlete wants to hear.

“It’s torn.” 

Suddenly your biggest fear comes to life.

Your one escape, the one thing you always run to, the one thing you can always rely on… is gone. 

For College of Charleston volleyball player Lauren Dow, this fear became reality after tearing her achilles this past spring during practice.

"Suddenly everything I had ever know was gone," she said. "And it was taken away in the blink of an eye."

Unable to return to volleyball until October, Dow was forced to reevaluate the role volleyball plays in her life. 

Although not all athletes face a season-ending injury like Dow, they do face the reality that their sport can play a much larger role in their lives than they realize.  

Dow in her first game back since the injury.

A role that is not only heavily linked to their performance on the court or field, but one that can also begin to define their worth and who they are as a person off of it. 

When an athlete’s worth is tied to their performance, there is always another game, statistic, or player to worry about.

And at some point there is always an end to the performance.

A lot of athletes learn at some point in their careers that their worth in something that ends will never be enough.  

Research from Premier Sport Psychology shows just how common this struggle can be. 

In a study involving more than 1,500 athletes, only 26% of professional athletes and 10% of high school athletes said they were always able to separate their self-worth from the outcome of practice or competition.  

At the College of Charleston, many coaches and athletes have recognized this issue and are working to remind their student-athletes that their worth extends beyond what happens on the court or field. 

For athletes like Dow, realizing that their sport cannot define their worth raises a bigger question.

If my sport is not where my worth comes from, where does it come from? 

For many, that answer is found in something greater than themselves.

For Christians, it is found in their religious identity and relationship with Jesus Christ. 

Justin Bass, assistant volleyball coach at the College of Charleston, found that faith has shaped the way he understands his own identity and the identity of the athletes he coaches. 

He believes the struggle to find where our worth comes from is part of a larger identity crisis many people are facing. 

“During this day, age, and time, we as a society are in an identity crisis,” he says. “We don’t know who we are and are always comparing ourselves.”

Bass believes that understanding where our identity comes from is the first step toward breaking away from that comparison. 

And that identity can only be found in Christ for Christian athletes.

Rather than finding their worth in accomplishments or success, Christians believe their identity is rooted in God’s grace and what Jesus did through His death and resurrection.  

Bass, an outspoken Christian himself, wants Christian athletes to understand that in a field that glorifies success, performance, and skill, their sport is still something they do and not who they are.

Although many Christian athletes come to this realization throughout their careers, this journey can look different for everyone. 

For athletes like Dow, this lesson can become especially clear when their sport is suddenly taken away.

Dow, who has been out since March, has used this time away from volleyball to rethink the way she approaches her sport. 

“My approach to volleyball has changed,” she says. “I’ve realized God has given me this amazing capability and I can glorify Him through it. I don’t have to separate being a Christian and being an athlete.” 

For Dow, volleyball is no longer a measure of her worth, but rather an opportunity to find joy and use the sport she loves to share her faith with those around her. 

Her experience is not completely unique. 

A 2022 study from Baylor University found that student-athletes reported having stronger religious beliefs, behaviors, and identities than non-athletes at the university, supporting the idea that athletics can play an important role in an athlete’s religious identity. 

As demonstrated through Baylor University’s research, sports can be an incredible opportunity for Christians to share their faith with others, turning the court or field into more than just a place to compete. 

For many athletes at the College of Charleston, Fellowship of Christian Athletes provides an opportunity to do just that. 

The faith-based organization meets two times a week, providing student athletes with a space to combine their love of sports with their love for Jesus Christ. 

Through FCA, student-athletes have the opportunity to connect with other Christians and grow in their relationship with Jesus.

For Mackenzie Hasler, an FCA student leader and member of the College of Charleston club soccer team, that faith extends beyond FCA meetings and into the way she approaches her sport. 

Hasler sees her sport as an opportunity to show her teammates what it means to live out her beliefs on and off the field. 

Rather than focusing on her personal success, she chooses to focus on how she can best help her team. 

“It’s not about me playing as good as I can play,” she says. “It’s about playing for something bigger than myself.”

Like Bass and Dow, Hasler too believes sports represents the bigger picture of what it means to be a Christian. 

More specifically, she believes being a member of a team mirrors the way Christians are called to walk alongside one another in their faith. 

“A team is about friendship and striving towards something together,” she says. “Like how Christians are called to walk together in faith.” 

By viewing her team as more than just a group of athletes, Hasler began to see them as a community where she can provide support and invite others to experience a relationship with Jesus too. 

“I began seeing sports and having a team as an opportunity to show love for others, rather than as an opportunity to glorify myself," she said.

Much like Hasler, Bass too believes the lessons athletes learn through sports extend beyond the playbook or scoreboard. 

He believes the challenges athletes face can become opportunities to rely on something greater than themselves. 

“There are trials and tribulations in life and in sports,” he says. “God puts these trials and tribulations in our path so we can rely on Him and His strength and not our own.”

For Christian athletes, the goal is not to prove they are good enough through their performance on the court or field. 

The starting lineup may change. 

The season-ending injury may happen. 

The trials and tribulations are inevitable. 

But for athletes like Hasler and Dow, their identity is rooted in something that does not change with every win, loss, or setback. 

Because when the sport they have always relied on eventually ends, they know their identity does not have to end with it.

“My injury taught me that volleyball is not forever,” Dow says. “There is something more than volleyball that I need to put my worth into and that is the Lord.”