Cedarville Magazine, Spring 2018

Cedarville Magazine | 37 2018 Cedarville Athletic Hall of Fame Inductees Trials Are Team’s Opportunity to “Rise” Every Yellow Jacket team has a student-athlete blogger. In their posts, you catch the heart and soul of the team, and how their sport is helping them grow in their walk with Jesus. That comes through in this recent post by Abby Wolford ’19 from the Lady Jackets basketball team. Read Wolford and other athletes’ blogs at cedarville.edu/sportsblogs . During our game against Kentucky Wesleyan College on February 1, Regina Hochstetler ’19, one of our guards, went down with a knee injury. She re-tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) from sophomore year. She had surgery on the ACL and her meniscus February 14. This news hit our team hard. I write all the time about how close our team is and how much we all love each other. When one is hurting, we all hurt, and this injury was a prime example. “God is good and God’s ways are higher,” Regina wrote on my blog. “I’m excited to see what He has for me this time around. As upset as I am that I can’t finish this season on the court, I’m still feeling so privileged that I get the opportunity to sit on the sideline and cheer on a team, and be a part of a team, that’s going to do some pretty cool things yet this year!” T h e m o r n i n g a f t e r Regina’s injury, I was talking with Head Coach Kari (Flunker) Hoffman ’05 and her husband Jimmy. I asked them, “Why do these things keep happening to us?” Jimmy responded that, as Christians, we are called to endure and keep going. Sometimes really unfortunate things happen for us to show what it looks like to persevere through trials, trust in God, and be able to show who we represent and how we play for something bigger, something adversity, injury, and trials can’t take away from us. We play for a greater purpose. As I reflected on this trial, I was reminded of a quote: “More people have their eyes on you in the pit than when you come down the road in a multi-colored coat.” Coach Hoffman talked about how people are watching to see how we will respond to adversity. We have an opportunity to play inspired basketball. When thinking about how we needed to rise to the challenge presented to us and persevere through adversity, we came up with a new mantra: “Rise up.” It’s based on this verse: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright” (Ps. 20:7–8). Abby Wolford ’19 is a junior guard for the Lady Jackets basketball team. Erin (Nehus) Vergara ’03 Women’s Cross Country Jon Waldo ’04 Men’s Soccer Jay Fry ’51 Football and Men’s Basketball Amy (Gregory) Smith ’02 Women’s Tennis Eddie Nehus ’01 Men’s Track & Field To read more about these hall of fame athletes, visit cedarville.edu/ 2018HOF . Regina Hochstetler ’19 in action for the Lady Yellow Jackets prior to her season-ending injury