Every Friday night at 6 p.m. the Waynesburg University football team goes to chapel together. Reverend Donald Wilson, moderator of the Hewitt Presbyterian Church at Rices Landing, and has been running the program for the past 4-5 years according to Wilson. For last week’s home game against Geneva, the message was themed “Do Your Job.”
“I try to make it personal, I try to adapt to the needs of the situations at the time, whether disappointment, trials,” said Wilson. “I try to be encouraging, uplifting. The team is so attentive it’s intense and they are very respectful. As soon as they go in they are quiet, hats off and show respect.”
For Chris Smithley, head football coach, he remembers going to chapel with the football team back when he was on the Waynesburg team in the mid 2000s. Friday’s practice is a light one, the walk through as most call it, followed by a team dinner and then chapel.
“I think that it’s important just from the aspect of wanting our guys to have a relationship with God, that’s a big part of our values not only as a university, but as a football program and it’s a good comradery and team bonding that we do,” said Smithley.
Rev. Wilson is always trying to be with the football team every chance he can listen and close relationships with each player.
“I try to be at the field on game days on the sidelines,” said Wilson. “With the team, I talk to them about homework, exams, family life, or injuries. We go to the dining hall, sometimes my farm and just walk and talk. Most of it is just listening.”
The chapel service consists of a 25 to 30 minute message from Rev. Wilson, with songs of worship and readings from the Old and New Testaments. The football team captains then give a message of their own for the team.
“Our coaching staff is out recruiting on Friday nights at football games, so this is a team function and is led by our captains, our seniors, and Revered Wilson is someone very special to myself as well as to the program,” said Smithley. “He’s a guy that has a great relationship with our players. He comes to most of our practices, he’s around the locker-room, he runs the chapel for us, it’s something that’s very important to us just across the board with how we live our lives and our relationship that we have with Christ being in our lives and being together as a team the night before a football game.”
The biggest thing for Rev. Wilson is seeing how much focus there is from the football team.
“I have appreciated the intensity of the guys when they attend and their willingness to participate and their overall sense of seeking the Lord and listening and desiring to grow in their faith,” said Wilson. “I am impressed in how they show their appreciation for Waynesburg University and how their faith has grown. We enjoy laughter and fun. There are so many traditions among the men, but they blend together in the service. They just come to sing, praise, learn and grow.”
Smithley also said that the football team has groups of 8 to 12 guys that will go to chapel together every Tuesday for the service at 11 a.m.
“Each guy’s individual faith has grown and it continues to grow and we not only do that Fridays, we also go to chapel on Tuesdays,” said Smithley. “A group of 8 to 12 of us go every Tuesday to chapel, those guys understand being part of the football program carries some extra responsibilities and they buy into it, they are fully bought into what this university is and what it has to offer and we do a lot of things together.”