In just four short years, FCA Hockey has grown from a small, upstart sport-specific ministry to a flourishing international force.
Much of that can be credited to National Director Rick Randazzo, whose vision for the minis-try has spawned significant growth in summer camp participation, the addition of three staff members and multiple international mission trips, including a college team outreach to Turkey last year.
Randazzo also utilized his relationships within the hockey world to create the first FCA Hockey New Testament, which features stars like Mike Fisher, Matt Cullen and Dan Ellis. Also included are Olympic silver medalist Jinelle Siergiej and minor league hockey player Gary Steffes, both of whom are making a big difference in the youth hockey community.
Jinelle Siergiej, 2010 Winter Olympics Team USA
JINELLE SIERGIEJ
A year before the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, former Wisconsin women’s hockey star Jinelle Siergiej had shoulder surgery. With her arm in a sling, she told her mother she would never make Team USA unless God wanted her to be there.
“I was dead serious,” Siergiej says. “It was going to take a miracle for me to be healthy enough to make that team. So when I made it, I just laughed because it was clear as day that God wanted me on that team. I wasn’t there to be on the front of a magazine or to score all the goals. It wasn’t like at Wisconsin where I was the leader. On the Olympic team, God wanted me for a different reason. It was to be a light in that very dark world.”
Siergiej had come a long way since playing hockey with the boys at Northland Pines High School in her home state of Wisconsin. She was fortunate, however, that the women’s college game was established enough for her to embrace the opportunity to play for the Badgers. There, she won two national championships and was named to the 2007 Frozen Four All-Tournament Team.
It might be hard to believe, but before gaining notoriety on the ice, Siergiej had to deal with some significant issues with confidence and self-worth.
“Growing up, I never felt like I was good enough,” she explains. “I always had a competitive drive to work hard every day, but I was never confident in my hockey talent. And even when it came to being a high school girl, I didn’t have confidence in how I looked. I always looked to my teammates or girlfriends for something I felt like I didn’t have. I was jealous of the guys for their hockey talents, and jealous of the girls for their looks or boyfriends I didn’t have.”
Siergiej says, however, that her spiritual foundation at home ultimately allowed her to see herself through God’s eyes, and a divine confidence gave her the strength to achieve great things.
“Moving forward, I finally realized that God made me the way I am and that I am perfect just as I am,” she says. “I started to not focus so much on what I didn’t have but rather what I did have. I was a talented female athlete, and I succeeded in almost any sport I played. I went on to college and then to the Olympics realizing that I needed to focus on the gifts that God had given me and use them for Him. That was the turning point in my relationship with God and my playing career.”
These days, Siergiej is doing her part to grow girls hockey in Wisconsin and beyond. She co-founded Crazy Eights Hockey with her sister and a close friend more than eight years ago and conducts summer hockey camps across the state. Siergiej also works with beginners from ages four to 50 through “learn to play” clinics, and coaches both a youth boys team and a high school girls team.
Siergiej, a member of Team USA in the 2010 Winter Olympics
Self-described as a “rink rat,” Siergiej takes advantage of her platform to create relational evangelism opportunities.
“I’m not one who has used traditional witnessing techniques,” she says. “I just love on people and over time they get curious and ask questions about my faith. I want to help people learn hockey and develop a passion for hockey. Through that, I’m able to share bits and pieces of my story.”
In the future, Siergiej hopes to partner more closely with FCA Hockey. One of her long-term goals is to host a Christian girls' hockey camp in Wisconsin, but she realizes it will take “baby steps” to get to that point. Randazzo is excited to see how that develops in the coming months and years.
“Jinelle’s desire is to impact the hockey world by making hockey players better,” Randazzo says. “She’s blazing a new path in women’s hockey. She’s the only full-time missionary to that world that I know of. She has a heart to serve the hockey community and ultimately to share the love of Jesus Christ.”
When she has the chance to open up about her faith, there is a specific message that natu-rally enters the conversation.
“God gave me the talent to play hockey,” Siergiej says. “That’s a gift from Him. I have a choice of what I want to do with that gift. My choice was to use that to reflect God’s love to oth-ers. Through that choice, many doors have opened, and many doors have closed. Sacrifices have been made. But ultimately, He’s put me where He’s wanted me to be.”
Gary Steffes, Tulsa Oilers forward
GARY STEFFES
Four years ago, hockey was life to Gary Steffes. His self-worth was based on his performance on the ice and how others within the hockey world viewed him as a college player at Miami University of Ohio.
It was a miserable experience.
“My emotions would change on a daily basis,” Steffes says. “I would constantly be fighting for significance every time I touched the ice. If my career wasn’t going as planned, I would turn to everything around me to try to fill that void. I was always empty.”
During his sophomore year, Steffes received the jarring wake-up call he so desperately needed, getting scratched from the lineup even though he was healthy. Instantly, his identity was gone.
“I felt like an utter zero,” Steffes admits. “Before that, I didn’t think I needed God. But, for the first time in my life, I fell on my knees and wholeheartedly asked Him for help. That started my journey to discovering who in the world I was and what I was meant to be.”
As Steffes dove headlong into God’s Word, he began to discover his true identity in Christ. He learned about God’s love for Him in powerful passages such as Psalm 139:13-16 and be-gan to understand the importance of being authentic through Christ’s example in places like Matthew 22:16.
Most importantly, Steffes began to believe that God had a purpose for his life, a purpose that required getting real.
“There should be no shame in who God made you to be,” he says. “We should have confi-dence in that and not be swayed by men to be something we weren’t created to be. People will respect us even if they don’t agree with us when we are real and authentic.”
Steffes controlling the puck
That’s why, when Steffes was asked to share his testimony in the FCA Hockey New Testament, it was a no-brainer to discuss the topic of authenticity. Without it, he knows that he would never have a chance to effectively evangelize the hockey world.
“I highly value authenticity in my life,” he says. “I want to be the man that God created me to be. God doesn’t make mistakes with our personality or with the gifts and the abilities He gave us. I know that I can impact this world exactly the way I am. I’ve got to get to know who God made me to be by getting to know Him."
Part of impacting the world for Christ has included full-time work for FCA Hockey during the offseason and part-time work during the season. Steffes kicked off the 2012-13 Central Hockey League campaign as a third-year player with the Tulsa Oilers. He leads a hockey Huddle with area high school players and has worked with the team owner to institute team chapel services.
Last summer, he worked at eight summer camps and traveled to Turkey on an FCA Hockey mission trip. Steffes also mentors college athletes and coaches various FCA youth teams.
“He’s a tremendous blessing to FCA Hockey,” Randazzo says. “Gary is a huge component of who we are and how we’ve been able to grow so quickly. He’s been doing so many different pieces of the ministry. He’s totally sold out for Jesus and impacting the hockey world at all lev-els.”
Steffes’ passion for discipleship opens many doors to sharing his testimony with fellow play-ers and younger athletes alike. It’s a testimony that shows God’s love in action and under-scores the importance of being authentic in today’s world.
“God wants to bless people through us,” Steffes says. “When we don’t act like ourselves, we’re robbing people of blessings. We shouldn’t be ashamed of who God made us to be. No matter what man says, God the potter created the clay perfectly. We find true purpose in life when we walk the path that He has laid out before us.”
50 STATES/50 CITIES: FCA HOCKEY ACROSS AMERICA
Created in May 2008, FCA Hockey is one of FCA’s newest sport-specific ministries. So, in August 2011, Randazzo decided to take extreme measures in an effort to make up for lost time.
After studying Isaiah 6:8, where the Old Testament prophet famously said to the Lord, “Here I am. Send me,” Randazzo and his wife, Shannan, decided to launch the 50 States/50 Cities tour along with their five children. The five-year mission trip kicked off when the family traveled to Portland, Maine, and spent 30 days establishing FCA’s four ministry “C’s”— Campus, Camps, Coaches and Community.
Randazzo Family: Rick, Shannan, Alex, Aaron, Allie, Addison and Anderson
Each year, Randazzo plans to visit nine states while taking June and July off for summer camps and December off to enjoy much-deserved family time during the holidays. The family pulls a trailer behind their vehicle and arranges to stay in host homes.
Randazzo’s efforts include speaking at high schools and colleges (campus), organizing clinics for youth players (camps), organizing adult Bible studies (coaches) and facilitating adult hockey skates (community). Through these efforts, athletes and coaches are encouraged to connect with local FCA groups for further discipleship.
“We are modeling this approach after what the Apostle Paul did in the days of the early church, traveling from city to city sharing the gospel and serving his fellow brothers and sisters,” Randazzo says. “Our prayer is that we to can be a vessel that the Lord Jesus uses to reach families and hockey players across the entire country.”
To learn more or get involved with FCA Hockey visit www.fcahockey.com.
Originally Published: January 2013
Photos courtesy of Rick Randazzo, Jinelle Siergiej, and Gary Steffes