Bobby Reiss grew up playing soccer in Southern California. He competed at a university in Indiana for a year before transferring to Cal State Fullerton. After graduation, he was invited to try out for the Atlanta Silverbacks, a professional team in the North American Soccer League. They offered a contract, Reiss signed and his professional career began as every other rookie- lots of work at practice and making the most of opportunities on field when he got them. But something gnawed at him, an unidentifiable source that plagued him after practices and games.
Reiss remembers one day it was particularly relentless. “We had a preseason game and I got the opportunity to play. I played really poorly. I woke up the next morning and went for a walk outside my apartment to get the game off my mind. I ended up at this park and just sat on the bench and started to pray.
Reiss while a Titan at Cal Sate Fullerton
“I always claimed I was a Christian, I was humbled by [the game], but I never really allowed Christ into my athletic ability,” he admitted. “I never played for Him or thought of glorifying Him through the game. I prayed and said to Him, ‘I’m just missing something here.’”
When Reiss saw team chaplain and FCA staff member Jorge Vallejo at the next practice, he asked for reading material. Vallejo complied, and asked if he attended church. After admitting he didn’t, Vallejo invited him to Gwinnett Church, and the atmosphere immediately felt right to Reiss.
“I slowly began to realize through Jorge and the church why exactly God has blessed me with this soccer talent, not for personal gain but to glorify Him,” acknowledged Reiss. “Now, what God’s done in my heart- if I know I put the effort in, I can just rely on Him and the rest of it will fall into place.”
Since his prayer at the park, Reiss’ outlook on soccer and his position in the athletic world has shifted. “Maybe I was one of those guys who was a little more out there when I first came in, maybe I wasn’t too comfortable with myself on the team,” he confessed. “But over time, I’ve really been able to become my own, and from there, God speaks through me to other people on this team and I can go and have confidence in Christ as I take it into soccer.”
I prayed and said to Him, ‘I’m just missing something here.’
Reiss was able to put his faith into practice last season when the Silverbacks made the Spring League Championship. Three weeks prior to the event, Reiss suffered a deep ankle sprain that should have hindered the remainder of the season. After undergoing rehab for a few weeks, it occurred to both Reiss and his trainer that he might be able to compete. “I was thinking I’d keep working and maybe be I’ll get lucky enough to dress.”
The day before the finals, his coach called him and ten other guys into the locker room and announced them as starters. Reiss prayed all night on whether or not he was truly ready to play. “The next morning I said, ‘God, if there is one time where I need to fully rely on You, this is it. This is not me, this is Your body right now, this is Your ankle. I can’t control this- there’s pain; if You’re going to take this pain away, it’s going to be all You.’
“For those 90 minutes of that game I felt nothing,” Reiss revealed. “The ankle felt as good as new. We lost 1-0, but at the end of the game I couldn’t even be upset because I felt Him, I felt His fingerprint. That was one of the most profound moments with Him, just working a miracle in my life.”
He could barely walk on the ankle the next day, and continued to have trouble with it in the months that followed. “That just exemplifies the blessing He gave me that night,” confirmed Reiss. “I remember having those hard prayers like, ‘God, I felt You take this pain away from me- why can’t You do that right now?’ But for me it’s just persistence in prayer. That whole experience was a very powerful learning of prayer, being open to what His will is for me.”
"Now, what God’s done in my heart- if I know I put the effort in, I can just rely on Him and the rest of it will fall into place."
-Bobby Reiss
Equally intrigued with FCA, Reiss partners with Vallejo, who is also the FCA Area and Soccer Ministries Director of FCA Gwinnett. “I shadow Jorge around with what he does for FCA and have shared my story with some teams,” he explained. “I tell them my story, but I want to hear their stories because I wish at that age I would have had that courage and boldness to speak about my faith like that.”
Ultimately, Reiss is ready to display the power that transformed him. “Really, I hope to be able to change people’s lives like Jorge did for me. I like to think that I’ve been in the same shoes as a lot of athletes, in that transition of going from high school to college and being lost and on their own. I want to help them in any way to bring them closer to God.”
Originally published July 2014
Photos courtesy of Christine Reiss and NASL