At 7 a.m. on Friday mornings, you will find a group of student-athletes gathered in room 129 with Coach Dre Carnegie. They are part of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). In this group, they talk about God and how He impacts their lives and their sports. A big part of this program is how you can embody God in your sports platform. Most times, Coach Dre will lead the lessons, but other times he has other coaches that run the lessons. For example, SMN para and F.L. Schlagle High School girls basketball coach Julius Dunn or SMN teacher and cross country coach Aaron Davidson lead the lessons.

Freshman varsity basketball player Kylie Dunn said she wanted to start going because the discussions focus on athletics and God together.

“I think it’s very important to be able to show God through your athletics,” Dunn said. “I feel like we do get turnouts in the morning and and it’s usually the same kids so we can build that sense of family or community.”

Coach Dre said that he wanted to bring FCA to North so the athletes here would know that the coaches love them outside of the wins and loss columns.

“Really and truly my family wasn’t religious, it was more of a relationship with Jesus Christ,” Carnegie said. “FCA gives kids who are involved in sports a safe opportunity to talk about Christ and competing for Christ. I just know how important it is to not just coach these folks on the wins and losses, but really the 3 dimensionals of being an athlete which is a spiritual, physical and mental aspect. The kids that are there, we’re gonna give them all we got and hopefully leave them encouraged and acted.”

Julius Dunn said that he is very happy with all of the kids and teachers that are at FCA in the mornings.

“I wanted to be apart of something special at North and I knew FCA was going to be, and is, that,” Dunn said. “I was raised in a religious, better yet, a faithful family. My dad being a pastor meant we did not miss church on Sundays. Me leading lessons in FCA is just me sharing my testimony of how God has blessed me throughout my life and hoping that it will help others in some way.”