GRADY STUCKMAN
STAFF WRITER
Athletes and non-athletes gathered Sept. 2 to pray a rosary and launch the fall sports season at the first annual Rosary Rally for the Franciscan University athletic department.
Brother Nate Meckey presided over the prayer while representatives from the Student Athlete Advisory Committee led each decade. Following the rosary, Lou Judd, founder and president of SportsLeader, an organization that trains coaches around the nation, delivered a keynote address. Judd has coordinated 20 athletic rosary rallies around the United States.
Judd’s message was that athletes can use the game to bolster their spiritual lives.
Judd said that “defeat is a taste of hell, the eternal defeat” and that “victory is a taste of heaven, the eternal victory.”
With these analogies, Judd advised the crowd to use the times when God’s presence is felt in prayer as well as the times of desolation when the Lord seems silent to improve their own spiritual lives.
Athletic Director Chris Ledyard and Mary Raskob, athletic information director, both were present with the Rev. Shawn Roberson, TOR.
Men’s and women’s soccer and cross country as well as women’s tennis and volleyball began Friday, Sept. 4.