Prior to the 1999 Major League Draft, Josh Hamilton was considered a prospect with all the tools. A 6’4” southpaw who could both stun hitters from the mound with his 96-mph fastball and shame pitchers from the plate with his bat speed of 110 mph, Hamilton had incalculable potential in the game. He held the world of baseball at his fingertips.
 
 

In many cases, the University of Texas (and they wouldn’t mind us mentioning this) is larger than life. After all, isn’t everything bigger in Texas?

And really, it’s tough to disagree. The Greater Austin metro area has a population of 1.6 million people. UT’s 350-acre main campus employs 21,000 faculty and staff while serving as the educational grounds for nearly 50,000 students, many of whom are members of one or more of the 900 registered student organizations.
 
 

Impacting the campus and community for Christ sounds like a great vision, but where do you begin?

There comes a time in a man’s life when he must decide about spiritual matters—what to believe and who to follow. For Kyle Korver, that decision came in the shower.

While the scene wasn’t exactly Hitchcockian in nature, it did produce some dramatic results. There, in the bathroom of his Philadelphia apartment five years ago, Korver wrestled with deep, longstanding spiritual questions. He realized that his family’s strong heritage of faith did not pass on to him simply by bloodlines. He realized he had been treating Christianity  like a faucet, turning it on or off as needed.

It was a long shower.

I absolutely love the Christmas season! There’s nothing better than celebrating the birth of our Lord in the presence of family and friends.

For many of us, however, this time of year means we abandon our healthy routines, throw off our restraint, and overindulge in huge quantities of food. There is just something about a huge turkey dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls and green bean casserole. Finish that with a slice or two of pecan pie, and it’s time for an afternoon nap!

When Rick Comegy took over as the head football coach at Jackson State University in 2006, he had no idea the challenges that lay ahead. But, after more than 30 years in the coaching profession, this veteran of many sidelines did know one thing: It would take commitment and faith.

This month, as college football bowl games flood your television, let yourself get sucked in. Just make sure you have read below or your STV is close by. You’ll want to refer back to this article when you see a player score a touchdown and kneel in prayer. “Maybe he helps out with his FCA Huddle,” you’ll wonder.

If he’s found below or inside the magazine, the answer is yes.

We are profiling the athletes who are owning leadership roles both on and off the field. They are actively involved in their FCA Huddles and chapels and are setting positive examples for young fans to follow. We'll start with Heisman-hopeful Sam Bradford, and he is just the beginning of this tremendous list of athletes.

Each year, FCA recognizes servant-leaders who have faithfully served Christ through FCA by inducting a select few into the ministry's Hall of Champions. This year's class is as outstanding as ever.

Depression has been called an "elephant in the room" in the Christian church. The black sheep of all medical conditions. The one thing no one wants to acknowledge. Yet, it seems to be the one thing everyone is dealing with, either personally or through friends or family members. Everyone knows someone who is currently or has previously battled this disorder. And that's not just an assumption; it's a statistical fact.

In the United States alone, 18.8 million people (close to 10 percent of the adult population) are affected by a depressive disorder in a given year. That's almost one out of 10 people.

Alliesha Easley's story reads similarly to those that often appear in the pages of STV: An athlete grows up in a Christian home, excels at a specific sport, faces hardship, and then must rely on a relationship with Christ that began long ago — a relationship that has been fostered and cared for by FCA. In the end, the athlete comes out of the struggle a stronger person, Christian, teammate, friend and witness. Those, after all, are the stories from which we want our readers to draw inspiration and, ultimately, use to witness to others.

Luke Ridnour credits his father for providing the earliest lessons about teamwork. Rob Ridnour coached high school basketball (including his son's team) before taking over as the head coach of the International Basketball League's Bellingham Slam. It was the elder Ridnour who instilled in his son some of those fundamental concepts about teamwork, such as sharing the ball and looking out for one another.

Watch any highlight reel of Shalee Lehning — Kansas State's sparkplug point guard who currently leads the nation in assists and triple-doubles — and it's easy to see why she's been called "one of the best point guards in America" and "a stat-sheet stuffer" by college basketball analysts. She flies around the court, diving for loose balls, setting her teammates up for layups and snatching rebounds from opponents almost a foot taller than she is.

Her name is often stretched across the headlines of sports pages around the nation: Courtney Paris, University of Oklahoma All-American. Of course, it’s hard not to talk about an athlete who frequently adds to her growing list of NCAA records, which already stood at an astonishing 16 at the beginning of her senior year.

But unlike many egocentric players who drool at the mention of having their name in print, Paris remains unfazed. Yes, it comes with the territory, but to her it is “irrelevant.” She is too focused to get caught up in the hype surrounding achievements. She knows her most significant accomplishments won’t ever be listed in press clippings. Rather, they are humbly imprinted on the lives of those she influences.