Catholic Schools Week Supplement

A football coach shares his game plan of faith with his players, striving to lead them to a relationship with God

Coach Mark Bridges and one of his players, Gino Duncan, are all smiles for a photo. (Submitted photo)

By John Shaughnessy

Mark Bridges has this one great hope for the boys he coaches.

It goes beyond his desire as a U.S. Marine Corps veteran to teach them the values of respect and discipline.

It even goes beyond the challenge of taking youths from four parishes who don’t know each other and transforming them into a team that’s united and cares about each other.

His one great hope for his players is—well, here’s a story that will explain it.

It’s the story of one of his players during his 21 years of coaching football in the archdiocese’s Catholic Youth Organization.

In his two years of playing for Bridges, the boy learned that his coach strives to make sharing his faith with his players as his main focus, from having them lead prayers after every practice to his Saturday post-practice ritual of reading the Bible with them and telling them stories of biblical figures.

During his second season of playing for Bridges, the boy was going through a tough time in his life.

“Sometimes when he would get upset, we’d have these conversations,” Bridges says. “He told me he was going to buy a Bible so he can get closer to God. I asked his parents if I could have the honor of buying him his first Bible. They said I could. He would sit next to me when we did the readings on Saturdays.

“When the boys leave, what I want for them is to have a relationship with God that is going to last them a lot longer than their time playing football. I have had seven or eight players ask me to be their confirmation sponsor. To think a football coach can actually do this makes me feel so good. It’s all about God.”

Bridges has kept that focus on God in leading the Johnson County Knights, which draws together seventh- and eighth-grade boys from four parishes—Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Indianapolis, Our Lady of the Greenwood in Greenwood, SS. Francis and Clare of Assisi in Greenwood and St. Rose of Lima in Franklin.

Bringing the youths together as a team is one of Bridges’ gifts, says Marianne Duncan, whose son Gino played for the Knights the past two seasons.

“At the first practice, the coaches notice that the players are in their ‘own school’ group talking,” Duncan says. “As they train through the summer, players soon start to sweat, joke and laugh with one another. Coach emphasizes, ‘We are a team. We are family. Lean on each other. Take care of each other.’

“He’s a great coach, but he’s an even better role model for 13- and 14-year-old boys. He’s brought a moral and spiritual influence to these kids. He’s all about God and family. I’m just so blessed to have had him coach my son for two years. His mentorship is going to last forever with my son.”

Gino is just as enthusiastic about his coach, describing the Saturday morning Bible sessions as “one of my favorite times.”

“He instills faith in football, which I love,” says the eighth-grade student at Nativity School. “He taught me so much about the Bible in the past two years. He explains it in a way that kids can get. One of his favorite verses is Proverbs 14:23, ‘All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.’ It basically means you have to work hard for everything you get.

“A lot of people say he’s one of the biggest influences in their lives. He’s a really great guy, a really great coach.”

As a coach, Bridges and his assistants—Marty Sedgwick, Pat Soller and Ryan Benich—stress the importance of improving every day to their players.

“It’s always about team and teamwork,” says Bridges, a member of Our Lady of the Greenwood Parish who also coaches girls’ and boys’ volleyball there. “I tell them, ‘We don’t need heroes on our team. We need teammates doing heroic things.’ We do a lot of fundamental training. We focus on getting better in every aspect we can think of.”

That approach always centers on helping the boys grow in their faith.

“After every practice, we pray, and it’s always player-led,” says Bridges, who has been married for 32 years to his wife Mary and has two adult daughters, Alexis and Erika.

“We tell the boys that we say prayer as a conversation with God. They do a phenomenal job. We ask for special intentions. At the beginning of the year, it’s one or two intentions. By the end of the year, everybody has multiple intentions. I get goose bumps from it. I tell them, ‘I love you guys. I love your faith.’ ”

Bridges says his own faith has deepened because of coaching the boys and researching the Bible passages and biblical stories that he shares with them.

“It’s helped my faith explode. I’m so blessed to have this opportunity.” †

 

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