It’s a Sunday evening and PLHS is dark and empty. Except for one room. A group of student athletes gathered together on the evening of Nov. 15th for the FCA’s, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Night of Champions event.

For this event, FCA groups, referred to as huddles, from all over Nebraska joined a Zoom meeting that centered around the learning and growing of their religious faith.

After starting the night with music, viewers got to hear a message from former football coach Ron Brown, and testimonies from two Husker athletes: volleyball player Lexi Sun, and track and cross country runner Bailey Timmons.

“We heard a great story about how a guy named Jim Elliot had such a conviction to do good in the world that he traveled to a dangerous place to share the good fortune in the word of God to people he thought needed it,” FCA representative Mr. Scott Curry said. “We all can do amazing things, but we stop ourselves. We get in the way of our own greatness. Trust yourself more and believe in yourself more and good things will happen.”

Following the message, students broke up into groups and shared their thoughts about what was said with each other.

“I loved our breakout session when we got to talk about what we had listened to in the last 30 minutes of the video that we watched,” junior Sara Carlson said. “It was nice to talk with our friends about important subjects that you don’t normally get to talk about.”

Additionally, the night included a few praying sessions. There was prayer through the Zoom and Curry also prayed for the PLHS group in person.

“I think the best part was our prayer time at the beginning and the end,” Curry said. “I believe we need to pray more for each other. The sharing of kind words can go far.”

Due to the coronavirus, FCA at PLHS looks different this year. Last year, Curry was able to hold huddles after a few sporting events. All students were invited to join.

“After [games] we recited a prayer all together. The last fall FCA huddle was after our varsity softball game versus Millard South,” Curry said. “We met out in center field with the softball team and about 50 students that stormed the field after the win. The really cool thing was that Millard South softball players came over and joined us.”

Moments like the one with Millard South are the type of unity that Curry is hoping to inspire through FCA huddles. Curry also encouraged teams to host huddles of their own after practices.

“I believe the best thing we can all do is start devotionals at the end of practice once a week with our teams,” Curry said. “I can speak for our wrestling team in that we meet voluntarily with our wrestling FCA huddle on Mondays after practice.”

Despite the challenges with organizing huddles this year, Curry hopes that the students that attended the Night of Champions were moved in a spiritual way and can help spread love and positivity throughout their teams and the school, and maybe even start huddles of their own with their team.