Catholic Bowl IV coaches share game plan for teaching faith through football

Sacred Heart players and coaches pray following their game against John Paul II High School in the third annual Catholic Bowl at the Ford Center in Frisco on Saturday, September 9, 2023. The Sacred Heart Tigers from Muenster defeated the Cardinals from Plano 27-21. (NTC/Kevin Bartram)

FRISCO — Football may be just a game, but to the coaches in Catholic Bowl IV, it’s a means of teaching the eternal lessons of salvation to young men. On Saturday, September 14, six Catholic high schools — two each from the Fort Worth and Dallas Dioceses, two from out of state — will gather for a weekend centered around “Faith, Freedom, and Football” in commemoration of the fallen heroes of 9/11.

The Catholic Bowl, hosted and founded by Patrick Steenberge’s Global Football Foundation, takes place at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, the training grounds of the Dallas Cowboys. The gathering begins the previous Friday evening with Mass, Rosary, and dinner.

Apart from playing at The Star and gathering with fellow Catholic schools, the coaches look forward most to seeing their athletes live out on the field the virtues they work to instill in them all season long.

First, faith

Coach Dale Schilling of Sacred Heart Catholic School in Muenster emphasizes the need for his athletes to learn leadership, fortitude, and “doing the right thing when no one is watching.” They also designate a team chaplain, who can either pray or pick a teammate to lead them in prayer before practice.

“You can ask any one of my players — the most important thing in their lives — and they’re going to say their salvation,” Schilling said. “We talk about it in the locker room constantly. We talk about the building of character all the time and that ‘at sometime, there’s a good chance you’re going to be a father.’ I want them to be that role model, that good father — to have that Catholic identity. We’re going to make sure that we attend Mass. We talk about apologetics and how important it’s going to be to be able to defend your faith.”

“Do I want to win football games? Absolutely,” Schilling stated. “I hope we go 10-0 every year. But to lose a child — for him to lose his faith — I’d take 0-10 every year to not let that happen. Their faith is number one: faith, family, school, football.”

Honor in everything

From picking up trash on the field to assisting at Mass, the coaches have found their athletes following suit and learning how to take care in both the little things and the greatest priorities.

Coach Aaron Mattox of Nolan Catholic High School teaches what he calls “uncommon commitment”: “We try to be honorable in everything we do and return with honor to the locker room every time we go out,” he said. “If we want our student athletes to be good and faithful servants, then we must model good and faithful servants. The most important things we’re trying to give to our kids and model for them are respecting others, getting into the Bible — not just going to Mass and thinking that we’re good Christians — but actually trying to be living sacrifices for Jesus Christ. The best way we can do that as men to teach these boys is how to do that as young men.”

“We’ve really been stressing lifting one another up, which then would be joy,” Mattox said, noting that his team doesn’t want to end a practice or begin a game without prayer. “We have found joy and enthusiasm as the fruit of the Spirit. Even though we are competing on the field, we are a community of goodness and at the end we all have one goal, which is to represent the Catholic faith, Christianity, as student athletes.”

Bigger than football

Catholic Bowl IV will feature a rematch between Sacred Heart School and John Paul II Catholic High School in Plano.

“It’s just a celebration of the community,” John Paul II Coach Nick Schiele said. “It’s so much fun. The boys get such a kick out of it. They feel like pros up there at the Cowboys’ facility. The whole school shows up ... I really enjoy the Mass that we have and the dinner, the fellowship, on Friday. You get to meet some of these other coaches, some of these other teams, and hear a little bit about their story and how their season’s going. It’s relationships — it’s bigger than football.”

Coach Schiele emphasizes accountability, hard work, and servant leadership. Everything they do, he teaches, has a consequence. “We break it down each week with ‘Am I? I am,’ which is a reference to Cain and Abel — ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ — I am,” he said. “We walk the field before every game and link arms and take a moment to feel the guy beside you and know that we’re in it together — know that you’ve got guys relying on you. We teach that holding each other accountable is an act of love, of service. The more we are looking out for each other and the more we are calling out things that are a detriment to our program, to ourselves, then the better we are able to take the next step and start to realize our goals.”

“What’s our ultimate goal? End up in heaven,” Schiele stated. “We want to create men of positive influence. The time we spend here with each other, taking care of each other, building families — it’s all in preparation for the bigger goal, which is to end up in the right place. There’s a lot of connections we draw between the game we play and life itself.”

Practice for life

Coach Ryan Stringer of Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School in Oklahoma City uses coaching as an opportunity to teach his athletes to trust God and His plan in both their lives and on the field. “On the football field and your faith life, you start to work your hardest. We try to relate those things — do you make sure that that faith life isn’t going away when things are difficult?”

The athletes participate in a team leadership council and a weekly school Bible study that Stringer has seen make a difference in the spiritual confidence of his athletes.

“Our guys are going to play hard, but they understand that the other guys are trying do the same thing, too,” Stringer said, who is excited to be the first team to represent Oklahoma. “We’re going to get out there and play to the best of our ability and get after it, but that’s one big thing we always talk about: we’re going to respect everybody we play. Working at a school like McGuinness, you can openly talk about your faith life compared to working in the public school system. That’s something I really, really enjoy about being a coach here.”

Honorary Chairman for Catholic Bowl IV will be former United States Navy four-star Admiral Patrick Walsh, a Jesuit College Preparatory alumnus. Catholic Bowl IV kicks off its first of three games, Nolan Catholic vs. Little Rock Catholic High School at 1 p.m.; and Sacred Heart plays John Paul II at 8 p.m.

The games will be livestreamed free of charge on REELZEALiTV.