Glorifying God through Competition

Glorifying God through Competition

By Randi Hillaker, athletic director

ICS high school cross country team prays together before a meet.

This year in athletics we are working on achieving our department’s mission: “to create opportunities for student-athletes to glorify God through competitive excellence while honoring Christ and serving others.” In a culture where winning is everything, the ICS athletics program aims to teach our students how to glorify God, honor Christ, and serve others. Our student-athletes have lived out our mission this year in many ways.

After a volleyball game in early September, a player from the opposing team suffered an injury while leaving our school. After confirming she had help, members of the ICS team didn’t hesitate to begin praying for her. No teacher, coach or parent asked our athletes to pray. Rather, their hearts were evident in their immediate action to pray for an injured peer.

“In serving and loving each other well, ICS athletes are honoring God, giving him the glory for their wins, and learning through the losses.”

— Ms. Hillaker

Keaton O. (12th) pitches during his senior year season on the ‘23 ICS baseball team.

Our baseball team recently faced an opponent that was very inexperienced. The school had not had a baseball team in 15 years. When set to play ICS, they had never played baseball and had only practiced once. We quickly took the lead, but remained humble and encouraging toward the other team. A player was sent in to pitch that needed more pitching experience. ICS’ pitchers took the time to provide practice and pointers to the new pitcher. Other Lions offered tips to their catcher as well. This team’s coach was very grateful for our understanding and encouragement. He commented that he was sure they would not meet another opponent this season who would be more willing to help his team improve.

Within ICS’ teams, there is a noticeable effort to build one another up and solidify relationships. They regularly serve each other on and off the field. In serving and loving each other well, ICS athletes are honoring God, giving Him the glory for their wins, and learning through the losses.

Meet Athletic Director Ryan Behmer!

Meet ICS’ New Athletic Director Ryan Behmer

What's your new ICS title and position?  Athletic Director

Where are you from? If you're not originally from UT, how did you end up here? Growing up we often moved and never really settled in one location. I ended up living all over the US and enjoyed living in many places. Chicago is where I consider home when asked. God has led me to many places throughout life and brought my wife and I to UT in 2019 after living in Shanghai for a few years.

 Where do you go to Church? My wife and I are members of Gospel Hope Church in Riverton, UT.

Tell us about your family! God has blessed me with a beautiful wife who was born and raised in Hong Kong. She is a very talented musician and worked as a teacher in Shanghai.  Together we have two beautiful children. Our little girl Juliet is around 18 months old and her little brother Moses is around 3 months old.

What is something most people don't know about you? OR What are you most passionate about? I have a passion for leading others to grow in their talents God has given them. It really brings me joy to see and help others serve the Lord with their gifts.

What are you looking forward to most in your new role at ICS? It is very exciting to be back in Christian education where we have the opportunity to help students see the world from a biblical perspective. Sports gives us a great opportunity to grow in our Christian character and I look forward to helping create a culture of Christian excellence within ICS Athletics.

What else would you like the ICS community to know about you? My wife and I look forward to becoming a part of the ICS community and are thankful for the support we have experienced since I started here!

Welcome to ICS, Ryan! We are excited for you to be a part of the lion community!

Athletics is not just sport, it’s an experience...

Why should we consider athletics an experience, not just sport?   

"Athletics are really the foundation of how kids' attitudes are formed and shaped. And that has to work with the coach and the parents." -Herm Edwards (works with the Positive Coaching Alliance- PCA)

I’ve played competitive sports for 40 years - in high school, college, and men's leagues. Participating in sports is one of the greatest joys of my life. I’ve also coached competitive youth sports for seven years; mostly soccer but also basketball and flag football. When we play sports, we are satisfying a deep human need, which is part competition, part ego, part physical exertion, and part relationship.

As a player, a coach, and possibly more importantly, as a parent, I have come to highly value both wins and losses in athletics. It is essential that we teach our kids to compete at a high level and to win when possible, but teaching our kids how to lose is equally important. The best way to teach our kids how to lose, is to be a good example and model for them as parents and adults.

In athletics, winning and losing are both essential in developing the character of our boys and girls. When I coach, I teach all the kids that we are practicing and playing to win because winning is more fun and something we should strive to achieve, however, it is possible to win and not be satisfied and lose and be satisfied.  

It’s NOT possible to lose and be satisfied!

Au contraire mon Ami. I have participated in many losses as a player as well as a coach and parent where I felt satisfied with my team's effort. It is when we don't give up, show respect, and continue to be a good sport throughout the game, and it is when we’re up against a good or superior team, that I have, yes, felt bummed, but still felt satisfied.  A loss in athletics is an opportunity to use a methodology called ELM (effort, learning, and mistakes) found in my favorite resource on positive and successful coaching: Positive Coaching Alliance. Coaches use this framework during practice and games, and parents can use it during games and most importantly, on the ride home.

Parents, coaches and players should ask these 3 questions after each game

1. How was our effort?  

2. Did we learn anything?

3. Did we successfully move on from our own and our teammate's mistakes?

On the flip side, it is possible to win and be dissatisfied. Using ELM as a guide, if the effort was low and/or teammates were critical of each other or the opposite team during a game, one can certainly leave the game dissatisfied after a win. Winning is obviously easier, but teaching kids how to win and how to learn from winning is a real opportunity that is sometimes lost.

Winning and losing are both an important part of the sports experience. Some like to say that there are only “winners and learners.” Losing stinks, but as adults, we should know that it is ok sometimes, even when the loss is not deserved, or the team didn’t put in the effort, or the ever painful event where the referees were either subpar or showed signs of bias. During my years of playing sports whether at a high competitive level or just for fun, both the losing and winning provided me with a wealth of experience that have deeply influenced my life and the successes I have achieved.

We have lost and will loose again

Please join me in looking at athletics as an experience that is able to teach our kids in both winning and losing, and allow our kids the opportunity to lose with grace and respect. My hope is that during the next game, when your team is losing or your kid isn’t playing up to their potential, just celebrate for a moment the lesson being learned and the elevated character being developed. Just for a moment.

“As water reflects the face, so one's life reflects the heart.” Proverbs 27:19

Drew Little is a tech-founder, entrepreneur, coach, Dad at ICS, blogger and executive life coach.  

Hopes for a 1A state title for Intermountain Christian hinge upon two sharpshooting juniors, and the role players who benefit

By Alex Vejar of the Salt Lake Tribune

 · Published: January 5 
Updated: January 06, 2019

Cottonwood Heights • Earlier in the season, Brayden Stoddard had the night of his life.

It was early December during a slate of preseason basketball at Intermountain Christian High School, and the Lions were playing Draper APA. Stoddard, a junior guard with a streaky shooting stroke, found himself in an unusual situation after making his first three attempts from the 3-point line.

For a player who admits he usually gets off to slow starts, Stoddard, even in the moment, was a bit surprised.

“This never happens,” Stoddard thought.

His evening continued much like it started, and Stoddard ended up scoring 41 points and making 12 3-pointers in 28 attempts, a 43 percent clip that would make even some NBA players jealous. His 12 triples tied a state record, and his 28 tries broke another one. That same day, Stoddard also lit up the junior varsity game, scoring 53 points.

Stoddard is part of an offensive one-two punch at the 1A Intermountain Christian, which has a 7-3 overall record going into Tuesday’s matchup against Wendover, the top 1A school in the state. Stoddard and fellow junior Caleb Koski — a first-year transfer from Roy High School — each average 4.7 made 3-pointers per game, which is tied for first in the state and 12th in the country.

Stoddard — sitting in the team’s weight room while decked out in an all-black ensemble of a tank, shorts, tights, Nikes and a hairband — said he and Koski frequently check the statistics to see which player is ranked where. But the relationship between them has been more symbiotic than competitive.

“We want to make our team win no matter what,” Stoddard said. “And if that means that I have give him the ball every single time and he has 50 points, or if I have 41 points, then as long as we win it doesn’t matter.”

Case in point: Stoddard’s December wonder emporium of 3s. The Draper APA defense schemed to double-team Koski the entire game, leaving Stoddard wide open. And he kept making them pay.

Stoddard would have broken the state record that night had it not been for a pair of traveling violations called against the Lions that came directly before a made 3.

“He was mad about that,” said Koski, who is the team’s leading scorer averaging nearly 31 points per game.

Intermountain Christian’s offense is designed to get Stoddard and Koski the ball as often as possible, head coach Tim Drisdom said. Essentially, they have the green light. There is no shot they are not allowed to take when they want to take it.

But that kind of freedom comes with caveats.

“I rely on those guys a lot,” Drisdom said. “With that freedom comes a lot of responsibility.”

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