Fellowship for Christian Athletes (FCA) is a tightly knit community for students, connecting people whose faith plays a part in their academic and athletic lives. They hope to do so by creating love and joy for those involved.
“Not everyone’s an athlete, not everyone’s necessarily a Christian,” senior co-president Gabriela Hafley said. “They’re just there because they like the people, and they like the community.”
The FCA meets on Friday mornings, so that kids who play sports and partake in clubs can join a club meant for them, even with a packed schedule.
“As a kid who has a lot of after-school things, it was kind of the only thing I could go to,” Hafley said. “It was one of the only organizations that I felt rallied around me and didn’t care that I wasn’t there all the time or couldn’t be physically present.”
The club brings people together and creates a heartfelt connection across Colorado. The FCA has a strong bond with seven high schools, like Arapahoe and Eaglecrest.
“We all come together from seven different high schools, and there’s no ‘our high school versus your high school.’ There’s no rivalry there,” Hafley said. “It’s just like a bunch of kids getting together.”
The club is all about establishing bonds that will lead them to make somebody’s day brighter.
“[We’ve become] one of the shining lights at Cherry Creek High School, saying hi to the kid that might seem lonely, or picking up the trash, or setting the example through our actions,” club sponsor and history teacher Joe Smith said.
Hafley says members of FCA will always be found doing a variety of compassionate acts of service.
“I’ve seen so many FCA kids in the hallways who I can pick out right away and recognize their faces because they’re the kids I see doing things, making actionable things,” Hafley said.
The club has been active for almost 20 years, and over the years, the club has continued to grow in members.
“My first year, we were averaging right around like 25 to 35 [members], and we’ve slowly seen a steady climb to those 40s and 50s, ” Smith said. “This year we’re averaging around that 80 mark, 80 to 90 kids.”
The club’s goal is to have enough people so they are able to move to a room where they have no limits in space.
“We want to have enough kids at Cherry Creek who are committed to being kind, loving, generous, and humble individuals that we need the Fine Arts theater to [be able to] hold everyone,” Hafley said.
Another goal is to spread their faith and their beliefs of God.
“Our goal for the club is to make sure that people understand you have never looked into the eyes of someone that Jesus didn’t care about,” Hafley said. “Every single person is loved so much, and that is our goal is to make sure every single person knows how much they are loved.”
In FCA’s meetings they preach the message of the Bible. They hope to help inspire and inform and guide people to the teachings of God.
“We end our club meeting for the sermon and talk about our faith. So it is a very, very large part of what we do,” Hafley said.
The club does volunteer events and fun events like kickball, group activities and trivia which helps create a tight knit community and a connection between the members.
“We had a Monday coaches’ appreciation burrito, where we made burritos for the Fall coaches and they went and picked them up in activities in the West office,” Hafley said.
FCA wants to emulate their faith as much as possible and they want to help other people follow their faith so they invite anyone to join just by showing up.
“We talk about how it can feel kind of hard to start, and we didn’t want to make it any harder to emulate God and emulate Jesus and be loving and be kind,” Hafley said. “We didn’t want to make it harder. So literally, show up.”
