This article appears in the Spring 2024 issue of the FCA Donor Publication. The FCA publication is a gift from our FCA staff to all donors giving $50 or more annually. For more information about giving, visit here.
With a long-standing passion for coaching, Joe Samuelson has experienced all aspects of FCA ministry and continues to use that insight to reach students as both principal and basketball coach at Upton High School in Wyoming.
He first got involved in FCA when he was in high school, and Black Hills Sports Camp in his hometown of Spearfish, South Dakota became a yearly tradition for him. Over the years, he’s also served as a Huddle leader and coach for the camp.
As a result of Joe’s involvement in the ministry, he has reached countless peers and students with the love of Jesus. One of those peers he reached while still in high school was a young woman named Darian.
“[Joe] invited me to an FCA chapel one night, and the speakers spoke some pretty hard truths into my life and kind of made me realize that I needed Jesus,” Darian said. “I always believed He was real; I just needed to accept Him into my life. ... I’ve been following Him ever since.”
Joe and Darian have now been married 10 years and have three children—Trey (7 years old), Asa (5) and JoJo (3). They are a coaching couple who is leaving a mark on the Upton community and beyond. Before the Samuelsons arrived in Upton, there wasn’t any FCA ministry in the town. Now, thanks to their efforts, there is a regular Huddle at the high school.
“Observing their example—not only their profession, but their practical example of living out the Gospel—is really inspiring,” said Stacy Frude, who is on staff with FCA Wyoming, along with her husband, Aaron.
When Joe was hired as Upton’s principal in February 2022, he stepped away from his role as a middle school football coach. But he still coaches Upton’s boys basketball team. Entering the 2023-24 season, Joe’s basketball program had won six conference championships, six regional championships and two state championships.
“I’ve been fortunate to coach some really good players and had the same assistant coach with me the whole time,” he said.
Joe has always had a passion for coaching. Even as a high school freshman, he began coaching various middle school and elementary teams, “just trying to be involved in it,” he said.
Meanwhile, it took a little more encouragement to ignite Darian’s passion for coaching. She ran track at the University of Northern Iowa, and she said she tried to take credit for her success in sports until her junior year when God showed her it wasn’t about her.
“That was a big, freeing moment for myself, realizing that I get to represent my God in the best way that I know how and with the abilities that I have, and it just skyrocketed from there,” Darian said. “I ended up going to NCAA nationals and the national championship, too.”
Darian always used to say she would never teach or coach. But when the Samuelsons moved to Upton, she began missing sports in her life. There was an opening for a middle school basketball coach, and Joe encouraged her to take on the challenge. She fell in love with the students quickly. Today, she teaches high school science while coaching middle school basketball and high school track.
“There’s a big passion in our hearts for helping kids, and we also have a big passion for sports,” Joe said. “Through those two things, FCA is just a great avenue to be able to show the community that they can go hand-in-hand.”
The Samuelsons’ children have become a part of their ministry, with the kids feeling as comfortable in the gym as in their home, knowing where equipment is located and being unfazed by the noise. Trey has even served as the Upton basketball team’s water boy and was announced in the starting lineup with the players as they ran through the tunnel.
The couple has attended or served at Black Hills Sports Camp or FCA Wyoming Sports Camp together at least 10 times, and their children have joined them some of those years and attended the corresponding vacation Bible school. Joe said he has seen firsthand how the encouragement students receive at camp benefits them.
“[The students] have a need and desire to find others that are in the same boat as them,” Joe said. “They want to do the right thing and they want to serve the Lord, but a lot of them don’t know how. ... A lot of them don’t come from families where that’s modeled for them. Getting in an atmosphere with other like-minded believers is something that they relish and look forward to.”
Yet the Samuelsons said it’s not just the students who receive encouragement from the fellowship at camp.
“I’m introverted, and I tend to lean toward being by myself, but being around other Christian people is just so refreshing to me,” Darian said. “It builds me up so much—and making those connections with other like-minded people.”
Joe echoed the importance of fellowship and accountability from FCA.
“There’s a lot of people that battle with the same things that you battle with,” Joe said. “As you get to know people and as you talk about issues and struggles in your life, you see there’s a lot of people that deal with those things as well. You feel like you’re not alone, and you feel like you have support there to help you.”
Joe said he wants others to see there is something different about him
and the way he coaches. He wants his love for the athletes and the Lord to shine through above his own ambitions or achievements.
“Do the athletes I coach at camp or on my team see that I love them with the love of Christ? That is my challenge every day,” Joe said.
Darian said serving the students continually reminds her that it’s not about her, but about God speaking through her into the lives of students.
“The kids never stop looking to you,” Darian said. “They never stop observing, and they never stop wanting to learn. Always being able to be there for them is a big motivator.”
Kelly Cork, a high school junior who enjoys playing basketball, has been impacted by the Samuelsons’ ministry. She said being a Huddle leader at FCA Camps has brought her closer to God through encouragement from other Christian athletes. It’s also given her the opportunity to be a role model.
“Mrs. Samuelson is a mentor I look up to at school and in youth group,” Cork said. “Because of her, I’ve figured out how to connect my life and sports to Jesus. She showed me how to build relationships, and I try to put God first in my life.”
Both Joe and Darian embody ideal kingdom-minded coaches who are full of integrity, said Aaron Frude, interim state director for FCA Wyoming. The Frudes have known the Samuelsons for many years and led them through premarital counseling. Aaron even married the couple.
"There's a big passion in our hearts for helping kids, and we also have a big passion for sports. Through those two things, FCA is just a great avenue to be able to show the community that they can go hand-in-hand." -Joe Samuelson“Their whole journey from students to becoming collegiate leaders to now being adult leaders and having their own family, that stands out to me seeing the cycle of FCA’s strategy to engage, equip and empower, and they have walked through that wholeheartedly,” Aaron said.
The longevity, strength and generosity of the Samuelsons’ ministry are notable, according to Stacy, and she has seen the number of students attending camp from their area grow. She also said the Samuelsons have a humble yet strong leadership style and are raising their family in the Lord.
For the Samuelsons, it’s all about serving the area that they have fallen in love with.
“We came into this community not expecting to stay here [or] expecting this to be a place where we would end up raising a family and laying down roots,” Joe said. “But once we got here, God placed it on our hearts that this is a place that we can impact, and we just feel a sense of purpose to serve the kids and people here.”
At the same time, they are modeling for their children what it looks like to live on a mission.
“Our kids get to watch us pour out into other people, and they get to be poured into by the people that we’re pouring into,” Darian said. “We’re so grateful for all that we do. Yes, we’re tired, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. I love that we get to be in this life together.”
-FCA-
Photos courtesy of Joe Samuelson