A Crowd Draws a Crowd: Growing Athletes InterVarsity at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls

"I gathered people — ministry partners, pastors — and we just prayed through the facilities,” Jason Hull, the Athletes InterVarsity Regional Coordinator in the Lakes & Plains region, said. “We prayed at every place that an athlete would be: track, the football field, soccer fields, the softball fields." 

Jason began praying for athletes at the University of Wisconsin–River Falls back in 2018. Now, in 2025, over 140 student athletes are involved in InterVarsity Bible studies at UWRF. That’s one-fifth of all athletes on campus. 

Sports dictate 70-80% of a student athlete’s schedule. Because this schedule often overlaps with faith activities, many student athletes can miss out on opportunities to grow their faith.

How do I integrate my faith when I don’t have time to go to church? Student athletes might be asking themselves. Do I choose my sport over my faith?

Planting Athletes InterVarsity

When Jason first became an InterVarsity staff minister at UWRF in 1999, he had no intention of leading ministry to athletes.

Yet all of Jason’s students that first year happened to be athletes. Jason was also an athlete growing up and is a father to a soon-to-be college athlete.

“There's a part of my story where I feel like I could never get away from athletes. God just continued to present them to me,” Jason said. 

As Jason continued to lead athletes at UWRF, he learned about their unique needs. Students have so much access to information about faith and religion that it can be paralyzing to know where to begin. Additionally, while faith and religion are sensitive topics in the campus setting, it can be even harder to bring up these topics in an athletic context. Many student athletes aren’t able to regularly attend church because of their demanding schedules, so the tendency to avoid conversations around religion is even higher. 

“If I get a college athlete that I sit down with, I already know some of the choices that they’ve made. A lot of them are really interested in faith, but they don't know where to start or who to trust,” Jason said. 

Jason wanted to give athletes a starting point. He also knew that because athletes spend so much time with each other, there was great opportunity to build strong, Christ-centered community within different sports teams.

“What I found pretty quickly is that if there is one athlete of faith on a particular team, there is almost always another one that they could invite,” Jason said.

So, Jason began asking these students to invite their athlete friends to learn about Jesus, and the group naturally grew from there. Now, over 140 students are involved in what Athletes InterVarsity calls a Team Outreach Bible Study (TOBS). 40 of them are Core Leaders that Jason meets with every single week.

Jason has also built trust amongst coaches on campus. Coaches learned quickly that spiritually healthy athletes were also more mentally and emotionally healthy. Even non-religious coaches could appreciate the impact of Athletes InterVarsity and began referring student athletes to Jason. 

A Wounded Healer in Women’s Basketball

One student athlete, Jaya, experienced major transformation in her spiritual and emotional health because of Athletes InterVarsity. 

“Growing up, my faith was a consistent and strong part of my life, and I felt like I had everything I needed to be whole,” Jaya said. 

Before college, Jaya was heavily involved in her church and another sports ministry. Faith and sports seemed to co-exist seamlessly for her. When she graduated high school, she felt that her faith was strong, she was thriving in basketball, and she had a close-knit community.

However, during her freshman year at UWRF, Jaya tore her ACL and her father passed away after a long battle with cancer. Suddenly, the strong foundation that her identity and faith were built on began to crumble beneath her. 

“I didn’t want to pray, I didn't want to go to church. I became deeply frustrated with the concept of answered and unanswered prayers,” Jaya said. 

At the same time, a teammate named Julia began bringing up Bible study (TOBS) in the locker room. Jaya initially brushed Julia off, deciding it would be too painful to return to a faith space again. 

But one day, something shifted, and Jaya decided to take a risk and go to Bible study with Julia. 

“I was so anxious at this point that I knew the missing piece of faith in my life was making me go crazy,” Jaya said. “At 20 years old, I was lost and confused, feeling unprepared to handle the weight of grief on my own.”

When she attended the women’s basketball TOBS, the group was going through a Discipleship Essentials book. The question, “Why do difficult things happen?” came up. In that moment, Jaya felt confirmation from God that she was supposed to be there. 

She kept returning to TOBS week after week, and each time she did, she walked away with a renewed sense of hope. 

As a Core Leader on the women’s basketball team, Julia continued investing in Jaya, becoming a close friend in the process. When Jaya stepped into leadership herself (also becoming a Core Leader), she felt God inviting her to be a “wounded healer” — someone who, even in her brokenness, could offer hope and understanding to others. 

“She’s the rock on her team,” Jason said. “She brings a kind of stability emotionally and spiritually.”

Now, over half of the women's basketball team attends TOBS, and they pray before and during games. Jaya has also shown her teammates that being a basketball player isn’t their entire identity. In addition to being athletes, they are sisters, friends, and daughters of Christ. 

Bold and Patient Invitations in Men’s Hockey

When Jason planted a TOBS on the men's hockey team years ago, God moved in some unexpected ways. 

First, the assistant hockey coach approached him one day and asked him if he did “religious work.” When Jason said yes, the coach connected him to a hockey player named Noah. 

Then, Jason asked Noah if he had any teammates who were interested in faith. Noah invited Alex, a freshman, to meet with Jason. 

Alex, who was already following Jesus and who had experienced God’s healing in the past, wasn’t sure how he would continue to grow in his faith at UWRF. But through Athletes InterVarsity, Jason began meeting with Alex, Noah, and another hockey player named Jack regularly. Jason then challenged Alex to step out of his comfort zone by becoming a Core Leader and making invitations to others on his team. 

Despite his teammates initially declining his invitations to TOBS, Alex kept faithfully inviting them and planting seeds. 

“My invitations changed from, ‘Hey, we're doing this Bible study, do you want to come?’ to ‘Hey, we have this Bible study. It's Tuesdays at 5:00. If you're interested, just drop by whenever you want,’” Alex said. 

Alex learned that he wasn’t responsible for someone’s yes or no, and he stopped seeing invitations as pass/fail situations. Instead, he began trusting God that something would come to fruition eventually. As he re-framed his understanding of invitations, he felt a huge weight come off him. 

God was clearly at work when one teammate named Johnny said yes to attending Bible study even though he wasn’t a Christian. 

“I'm not a follower of God, but I love showing up in these environments because I love these guys and I love the conversations,” Johnny said.

 Alex hopes that even more teammates can see that TOBS is a fun community where they can get together, relax, and take a break from their sport. 

Just like Jaya, Athletes InterVarsity helped Alex realize that his identity is in Christ above all other things. His small group went through a guide called “Creating a Lifestyle of Healthy Performance,” which Jason and another campus minister wrote for athletes. The intent of the guide isn’t to remove performance from sport but to keep it in its proper place.

Alex still gives his best when he competes, but he also knows that his performance on the rink doesn’t define him. He approaches competition with a different mindset now, and he finds that he performs even better when his joy comes from the Lord.

Whenever things go wrong or whenever something bad happens, let me settle back into the fact that it doesn't matter — this is Alex’s prayer before each game. He tells God, In the end, you're the one that matters.

Last year, six men started regularly attending the men’s hockey TOBS. And through the prayers of Alex and his teammates, God has raised up a whole new generation of freshmen hockey players who are actively involved in the group. 

Curiosity is spreading amongst non-believers on the team as well, and Alex can’t wait to see what the future holds for his teammates. 

“We're just scratching the surface on how much we can impact the men's hockey team,” he said. 

Key Partnerships and Leadership Development

None of this would have been possible without the partnerships Jason has on campus. 

Because all the athletes at UWRF train in the same facility, Jason’s presence in the athletic facility over the past few years has made him a familiar face to all coaches. He’s built so much trust with both Christian and non-Christian coaches that he knows he can ask any of them for students who are struggling spiritually or mentally, and coaches will happily give him a list of names. 

Jake Anderson (Coach A) and Luke Pavlat (Coach Pav), the strength and conditioning coaches, are an example of this partnership. Through their roles, both coaches have had a positive influence on every athlete on campus. They also provide a connection point for athletes curious about faith. 

Coach A has supported student athletes struggling with the pressures of their sport, and Coach Pav helps to lead “Overtime,” a monthly, all-athlete gathering.

One student, a basketball player named Karleigh, felt supported by Coach A after not doing well in a game. 

Karliegh was feeling anxious as she was getting ready to review her performance with her basketball coach. When Coach A prayed for her and encouraged her to remember who she was outside of her sport, Karleigh experienced more peace. 

“I don’t know how I would have gone in that environment without Coach Anderson giving me perspective beforehand,” she said. 

The Christian coaches Jason has partnered with even sit in on Core Leader Meetings to get a feel for what’s going on in their athletes’ lives and connect with them more deeply. 

“There are multiple places where athletes can go and they have multiple touch points of faith,” Jason said. “One of my jobs is just to be a platform to let ministry happen.”

Along with coach partnerships, leadership development has also contributed to the growth of Athletes InterVarsity at UWRF. 

As Jason invests in Core Leaders, he hopes to prepare them for more than just their Christian community in college, but for the years beyond as well. 

Jordan, the track coach, had this to say about the way Athletes InterVarsity develops leaders:

“[Athletes] are donating their time and their resources and everything to help the spiritual lives of those around them. And I think that that is a huge deal. That just produces a different type of Christian and a different type of leader going into the world. InterVarsity, specifically, develops a lot of leadership skills in a lot of disciples who are teaching others how to be disciples.”

A Crowd Draws a Crowd

When Christian athletes don’t know that there are other Christians on campus, they might isolate themselves and miss out on the chance to grow their faith. But because there is such a large Athletes InterVarsity presence at UWRF, Christians are coming out of the woodwork. Even more than that, non-believing athletes are seeing the impact the ministry is having on their teammates and curiosity is growing. 

And although doing ministry in an athletic context has its challenges, the reality is that athletes already have a built-in community on their teams. This lends itself well to spreading the gospel on every sports team. 

“They can do life together with faith at the core. Then they can grow the faith of the entire athletic department,” Jason said.

Until recently, the men’s soccer team was the only team without a Bible study at UW-River Falls. When two soccer players, Oliver and Keegan, approached Jason at Overtime after Coach A and Coach Pav invited them there, Jason began meeting with them to develop them as Core Leaders and start something on their team.

This past Monday night, Oliver, Keegan, and another Core Leader hosted their first men’s soccer TOBS. Seven of their teammates showed up! 

“These teammates show up because they have trust with one another and are invited,” Jason said. 

Will you pray for Athletes InterVarsity as they continue to build partnerships with coaches and faculty, develop Core Leaders, and work to reach every team and teammate?