Religion: Athletes' Most Influential Intangible

By James Blennau

Religion is a complicated subject. It can spark destruction, create rifts within families or create conflict between nations. It can also deepen community bonds, bring friends closer together and provide grounding purpose within a changing world. Despite its polarization, religion resonates with athletes across the professional and amateur level.

Athletes at the highest level open interviews by praising God or sharing prayers on the field after games finish. At the youth level, children and families come together through their local religious organization to join in friendly sports leagues.

Religion can provide values to rely on, people to connect with and trust in a force larger than oneself. It reminds athletes of the larger community that has existed long before our organized sports infrastructure and will likely be present for centuries after. 

Whether it’s Fernando Mendoza opening an interview after winning Indiana’s first-ever football national championship, saying, “I want to give all glory to God,” or a simple sign of the cross before a high school baseball player goes up to bat, religion makes its presence known and its values clear for athletes. 

This humility can provide community, confidence and connection to everyone involved, deepening their relationship with both sports and faith. 

Community

Religion provides athletes a place to bond over more than just their team’s common goal. Athletes can deepen connections with teammates or coaches and, at higher levels, create communities of fans who celebrate emotions together. 

“Everybody wants to feel like they belong, and everyone wants to feel like they’re a part of something,” said Dr. Sonia Azevedo, a psychologist and mother of two former high school athletes from East Williston, New York. “It's a pillar of human existence, something that people are always looking for and searching for.”

Religion can deepen established relationships within a team environment, and it also provides a space for athletes to demonstrate the values they learn through faith and apply them to a larger goal. 

For Rabbi Micah Peltz, a Minnesota and University of Michigan Sports fan originally from Minneapolis,  these experiences are a core component of what faith teaches athletes. His teachings at Temple Beth Sholom in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, help put the experiences into perspective. 

“I think it gives them a sense of perspective on this kind of tension between the importance, infinite worth, and uniqueness, while at the same time there are things bigger than ourselves and who we are,” Peltz said. “I think that kind of sense broadens our connectedness.”

Ben Grindel, a former college volleyball player from Smithtown, New York, used his faith to create lasting community with his teammates. 

“I think the people and the friends and the relationships that I built through it are the best thing that I have gotten from it,” Grindel said. “I think, being a Catholic, like it's very much ‘love your neighbor,’ and some of those people that I never maybe thought at first I would become close to, allowing them to have a relationship with me.”

By building relationships guided by his faith throughout four seasons, Grindel has learned lasting lessons about community.

“Especially through sports, I think that you can rely on other people, and those people in those relationships kind of make your experience and your growth and any of that hard work a lot easier,” he said. “If you're trying to do the right thing and working toward the right goals, it's always gonna lead you toward the path that you're meant to, not always the path that you want but the one that kind of works out the best for you.”

Beyond teams and fanbases, congregations can bring communities together across their local area, shared beliefs or experiences.

Before every game at St. Aidan’s Parish CYO in Williston Park, New York, parents, spectators and athletes join in an athletes’ prayer.

“It really centers everybody participating and gives them the conviction that they're there for a reason,” said Peggy Baberick, a lifelong sports fan and Catholic mother of two young athletes from New Hyde Park, New York. “To know whatever happens that God is with them throughout these games, I think it's an important way to start off their games.”

Baberick understands that faith grounds young athletes in a sense of togetherness. Especially at the youth level, this sense creates an environment where the athletes can grow in their sport and as people. 

On top of this, event organizers especially realize the power they hold in bringing people from their congregation together to enjoy friendly competition. 

“Sports have that way of connecting people who otherwise may not have really met,” said Abdus Samad, a Muslim father, lifelong sports fan and member of the Islamic Center of Long Island Sports Committee in Westbury, New York. “The kids come to the Center, they connect, they build friendships, parents get to know each other and the volunteers come together to work for a common goal.”

Samad speaks to religion’s power in building their community, especially in sports programs. The desire to continue the tradition is a strong motivator for him.

“Once they [the participants] are connected to the community, then I personally believe that the world will always have people who would want to give back to the community and build this strength,” he said. “With me, as someone who has always enjoyed sports, when I saw that the opportunity came my way to help the sports committee, it felt like a natural fit.”

As the young athletes grow and continue participating, leaders like Samad aid their experience, guiding them in faith to continue connecting with teammates and coaches. 

Confidence

As events in an athlete’s career begin to spiral, religion can help them ground themselves in reality and give them confidence in their journey back to a higher confidence level. 

“People use religion to help them when something is out of their control,” said Dr. Azevedo. “People can do the same with sports at some point.”

For Andrew Golub, a former high school baseball player from East Williston, New York, his Catholic faith helped him recover from a highly invasive and intense surgery. 

A guided growth procedure for both of his knees, which had doctors placing screws inside his body, meant he was off the field and on rest for months.

“Recovery is tough, and always believing that there's someone else that has a purpose for all these things happening to you and a bigger reasoning behind helped me,” Golub said. “This is just a hiccup in a greater path that God has planned out for me.” 

Golub understood faith's power in his recovery and used it to his advantage in the arduous process that led to his eventual return to the diamond in time for his senior season at The Wheatley School in Old Westbury, New York. 

“If you do put the work in and do make the effort to try and recover as fast as possible, all that stuff is part of the greater mission that God or Jesus has planned out for you in the future,” he said. “It brought a lot more peace into these recovery periods.”

Few things can compare to the impact an injury has on an athlete’s career, but similar emotions can arise from a slump.

Between the internal pressure to perform better and at higher levels and the external pressure from fans and media to return to previous form, a slump snowball rapidly. 

While Erin Beatty, a former three-sport athlete and practicing Catholic from Williston Park, New York, didn’t face as much pressure as a professional would, her senior softball season at Mineola High School in Mineola, New York, caused her immense anxiety. 

When she faced opportunity after opportunity in the batter’s box without making contact, she turned to something more powerful than herself to seek help in her final moments of competitive sports. 

A simple prayer before heading to the plate in one of the season’s final games before playoffs changed doubt to certainty in an instant. 

“I was totally doubting myself, and said, ‘Please, God, let me just connect, please,’” Beatty said. “Taking that second before getting into the batter's box, having that little bit of faith, saying a little prayer, stepping up to the plate, helped me end up hitting a bases-clearing triple.”

Beatty doesn’t just remember the moment for its significance within the game or the season, but when measured to her nearly 14-year athletic career.

“Even that time seemed too short, looking back on it now,” she said. “I don't know if I thought about it in the moment, but now looking back at it,  it was probably one of the most exciting plays of my softball career, so having it be a moment that was so important that led us into the playoffs that year was like a very poignant moment in my life.”

Beatty recognized the power her faith held in her athletic career. A small belief in a higher power restored her love for the game she spent most of her life playing. 

For others, seeing professional athletes succeed in similar positions allowed them to use their faith to be proud of their experience and their background. 

“Nobody really thought of Jewish people as great athletes, or at least in professional sports back then [in the ‘60s and ‘70s],” said Andrew Silver, a Jewish former roller and ice hockey player from Westwood, New Jersey.

“I heard the stories about Sandy Koufax, back in the 60s; one of the best pitchers in the history of the game, who was a Jewish guy. He would not pitch during the Jewish holidays, and I thought that was a pretty good stand that he made on that.”

Silver found that despite the rarity, seeing people like him on the world’s largest stages helped him take pride in his faith and his abilities. 

“I also remember identifying with the Israeli Olympic teams, and I found a source of pride in that because they were underdogs,” he said. “Being proud of those players and my faith and having the players help me become more proud of my faith, I found a lot of inspiration in that.”

An athlete’s mentality is an immensely important piece of their performance. Finding confidence in performances, recoveries or the overall journey can bring them better mental control.

Connection

Religion teaches athletes to humble themselves and to value their time, connecting more deeply with their experiences.

For Dan Kmiechick, a Methodist former journeyman college baseball player from Southern New Jersey for Albertus Magnus College, Fairleigh Dickinson, and Ocean Community College, religion gave him clarity after a life-changing family and athletic experience. 

Kmiechick, during his collegiate career, saw his father die the morning of one of his scheduled pitching starts. 

“I threw 220-plus pitches and wound up winning the game,” Kmiechick said. “I think I almost fought the third base coach at one point leaving the field because I was an emotional time bomb there, going through the game and nobody knew my dad had passed away.”

While the experience left him emotionally volatile, it allowed him to deepen his connection to his faith and to those around him in the sport.

“I just remember ending that game, and as the game was going on, it started trickling in what had happened to my dad,” Kmiechick said. “More and more people started finding out eventually. The coach of the other team who hated me during the game found out as well, and after the game came over to congratulate me on a performance, and we hugged each other.”

The next day, he tattooed "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13) on his glove hand.

“You gotta sit back, and you gotta realize there's something bigger than you out there to really put yourself into a spot where you can kind of put your ego in the back seat,” Kmiechick said. “I looked up at the sky or at the backstop in the stadium I was playing in, and just reminded myself, ‘I'm small; no matter how big this moment feels, there's a lot bigger things out there, whether it's God, whether it's the world, whether it's whatever.’” 

For Nick Antoniadis, a Catholic former high school baseball player from Syosset, New York, his faith helped him form bonds with his teammates and with the professional athletes he admires. 

“It's really cool to see that you have people who are at the top of the game, some of the biggest names out there, who are expressing their beliefs and showing the younger audience that it's okay to feel these ways.”

For Ethan Mizrahi, a Jewish hockey fan and former youth-level player from Albertson, New York, one athlete holds a special place in his fandom despite not playing for his hometown New York Islanders. 

Edmonton Oilers Forward Zach Hyman deepens Mizrahi’s connection with his faith and his fandom, being an openly and proudly Jewish athlete. Hyman, who wears 18 for its significance in Judaism, meaning “chai,” or life, in Hebrew, helps him connect his sense of belief between both his team and his faith. 

“You have that sort of connection with them, even though like you might not even know them,” Mizrahi said. “It's important to carry the tradition.”

As athletes' voices become increasingly influential, their beliefs shape the support they receive from fans across the game. 

“I think it's great for athletes, particularly professional athletes; they have a lot of pressure on them,” said Andrew Silver. “If they find inspiration and comfort and joy and help with their faith and their god, then I'm all for that.”

Faith gives athletes a belief in something greater than themselves, giving them strength amid overwhelming pressure. This same faith can also serve as the foundation for service and shared values, both of which are important on and off the playing surface.

Father Richard Rock, Campus Minister for Athletics at St. John’s University, helps teach faith's values to every athlete across the campus. Rock understands how important humility is as an athlete and as a person, having served at a children’s homeless shelter in Philadelphia for three years. 

“We try to empower with the St. John's values of respect, confidence and dignity of every human being,” Rock said. “I think religion can bring that out when it's done just by small, ordinary things that we can do for other people.”

Rock’s influence has empowered athletes across campus, guiding the men’s basketball team to back-to-back Big East Tournament and Regular Season Championships, including a 2026 NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance; the baseball team to two of the last three Big East Tournament Championships; and the softball team to a 2025 NCAA Tournament appearance. 

”I think it's a very important role to make sure that they understand what the mission of St. John's being Catholic and Vincentian is all about,” he said. “When they leave, hopefully they've learned something about being a better person in life.”

Through their sports, Rock teaches athletes to connect with their faith, bringing not just short-term successes but lessons for life after sports. 

Religious faith, when combined with sports, can provide athletes with incredible benefits. Belief can bring community, connection and confidence at any level, in any sport and most importantly, in any faith. 

The humility that each value brings to athletes, deepening their athletic experience, is easily accessible and widely beneficial. 

Despite its polarizing nature in the wider world, religion on an individual level has found its place among athletes. From postgame interviews referencing glory to God or a prayer before a youth event, its simplicity is its superpower. 

Religion continues to cause conflict on both the personal and global scale. It can drive children away from their parents or fuel explosive conflict between nations. Still, in sports, it reveals what it can truly become: an intangible whose impact no box score can ever measure.