FCA Meetings

By: Elizabeth Schmidt

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a nonprofit sports ministry that seeks to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ through coaches and athletes. FCA takes place at 7:00 PM in the lower level of the Mears Library most Monday nights. Student athletes gather to play games, hear a message, and participate in small groups. FCA is a way for student-athletes to connect by participating in weekly fellowship, asking questions about their faith, seeking to glorify God in all they do, and talking about their identity in Christ. A typical FCA meeting is one hour long. Students arrive and grab snacks, socialize, and then gather together to play a large group game. After the game, there is a 30–40-minute message led by a few student-athletes about Jesus and the Bible. To end the night, students meet in small groups and talk about how they can further apply the message to their own lives and reflect on what they learned. Every year, FCA picks an overall theme to focus on with a word or phrase; this year’s theme is “Proven”. This theme challenges athletes to stop proving their worth through performance and instead live as already proven, accepted, and loved by God. Paige Padilla is a sophomore FCA leader at USF and never experienced an FCA huddle before attending college. “Growing up, I didn’t have an FCA group or club around me, and being in college and having the opportunity to attend FCA has made a huge impact in my life.” She became a leader in the fall of 2025, when one of her senior soccer teammates graduated, and a spot had opened on the leadership team. She explained she has developed friendships with people from many different sports teams. “I have people around me to not only push me in my faith, but also in my everyday life.” FCA is a unique opportunity for student-athletes to grow their relationship with Christ. “FCA pro vides more realistic ways for college students to live out their faith. It challenges me to live the life I say I want to live, by glorifying God in all that I do,” Padilla said. For any students looking to get involved in FCA, they should follow the Insta gram @usfcougarfca to stay up to date on future events.