Making the connection: Priests enjoy the bond with players, the school community

During most football games, Father Adam Ahern offers a presence to members of the team of Our Lady of Providence High School in Clarksville. (Submitted photo)

By John Shaughnessy

As he stands at the entrance to the chapel, greeting the high school football players, Father Rick Ginther always keeps one belief about teenagers close to his heart.

“As they’re coming in for Mass, I’m at the door, saying something to them. The ones I know, I tease them. I want them to know that I’m not just there to do sacrament—that it’s important that the person leading prayer engages with them, so they feel appreciated.

“High schoolers need that. They need to be seen as someone, because they’re still trying to figure that out.”

For the past five years, Father Ginther has welcomed the opportunity to celebrate Mass with the varsity football team of Father Thomas Scecina Memorial High School in Indianapolis on the day of their games. (Related story: What matters most in Catholic high school sports? Maybe the essence of this tradition)

For the first four years, he added that opportunity to his schedule as the pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Indianapolis. This season, during his first year of retirement, he has made it a point to continue that connection.

“Football players are such rough-and-tumble kind of guys, many of them. And they’re very athletic,” he says. “And often they can lose that sense of God because they’re constantly doing. I thought, ‘You ought to stick with this.’ Besides, I like the middle-school and high-school age group.”

And the players appreciate him.

“He’s absolutely incredible,” says Dan Harris, the team’s varsity head coach. “He just fits the bill as a team chaplain. Kids talk to him. Kids respect him. Kids love him.”

That connection shows in the way Father Ginther approaches the messages he shares in his homilies with the team.

“I try to think like a teenage boy. It’s a little difficult,” says the 75-year-old priest with a wry smile. “Sometimes it’s, ‘How does this relate to them being football players?’ Or sometimes it’s, ‘How does this relate to how you are as men of faith?’ And sometimes I’m never quite sure where’s it’s going because it’s rather spontaneous. But the players know they’re going to be put on the spot. So, they’re very attentive.”

Father Rick’s impact is noticeable on the team, says Eric Montgomery, a senior and a captain.

“He connects well with all of us,” says Eric, a member of St. Philip Neri Parish in Indianapolis. “His homilies are really great. We sit there in silence and think about how the homily reflects on us as a student, a person and a football player. Even after the Mass, we talk about what it means.

“He represents us, too. He’s at the game, talking to us.”

Father Ginther stresses themes of service, prayer and “a relationship with the Lord in some way” with the players.

“And loyalty to each other,” he says. “That they’re a team. I don’t have to do too much of that. For the most part, they’re there for each other.”

They’re also there for him, even occasionally offering him advice.

That was especially true during a moment last year when Father Ginther celebrated an all-school Mass shortly after dislocating one of his shoulders and tearing a rotator cuff—the result of falling in his bathroom.

“It was comical,” he recalls. “The players looked at me and said, ‘What did you do, Father?’ I told them. They said, ‘No, Father, you have to work that up! You have to have a much better story than that! Say you were defending someone in a bar fight! Jazz it up, Father!’ ”

He delights in that memory. Moments later, he turns serious about the importance of connection, for the players and him.

“Honestly, as a retired priest, it keeps me connected,” he says. “That’s one of the challenges of being retired. I no longer have those automatic connections.

“This year, I’ve been more on the sideline than ever before. It’s very different. I spend more time with the players than the coaches. I’m just there. But if one of them gets injured or has to sit out for a while, I’ll check on them and see how they’re doing. Encourage them. Just trying to be a presence.”

‘It’s a great gift and a blessing’

Father Adam Ahern strives to keep that same focus on presence and connection with the student-athletes on the football team of Our Lady of Providence High School in Clarksville.

“It’s so much fun interacting with them,” says Father Ahern, who celebrates Mass for the team before many of their games and later connects with players on the sidelines.

“Not every young man likes to go to school. Not every young man likes to go to Mass. So, getting to be with them while they’re doing something that they love, getting to show them that there’s a priest out there who enjoys something they enjoy, that ministry is such a blessing to me. I often fit my schedule around things like this because of how much life it gives to me.”

Consider how packed his schedule is. The 45-year-old priest is the pastor of the Jeffersonville parishes of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and St. Augustine, an associate director of vocations for the archdiocese and a Catholic chaplain for the Indiana Army National Guard.

He sees similarities between the football players and the soldiers he serves.

“They’re great young men,” says Father Ahern, now in his sixth season of focusing on the team. “For me, it’s just like I’m with soldiers when I’m doing chaplaincy with the National Guard. They hear. They respond.

“I enjoy being able to be very direct with them. I don’t have to soften the homily. I’m talking to a roomful of football players, so they’re used to being yelled at. They’re used to being spoken to very directly.”

The team’s head coach appreciates Father Ahern’s approach.

“Father Adam does a really good job,” says head coach Daniel McDonald. “He relates the homily to competition or to being a better person or striving through adversity. That really helps our kids.”

Lincoln Kruer, a senior and captain on the team, sees the difference Father Ahern makes.

“He just knows how to get in touch with all the football players,” says Luke, a member of St. John Paul II Parish in Sellersburg. “I know he has military experience, so he knows that football and the military are pretty similar with the rules of discipline. So, he knows what’s going to get in touch with us in our spiritual work with God. And he just knows how to relate it to us in a way we can understand.”

The priest has an impact on the players in other ways, too.

“Sometimes the players ask for confession,” Father Ahern says. “Other times, they just want to talk—’I’m struggling with this.’ It’s fascinating watching them grow up during their four years. The freshmen they were are not the seniors they will graduate as. Just seeing that growth and development is really cool.”

He’s been there for players during their successes, health issues and disappointments in life. He sees his efforts as a reflection of what the other priests in the New Albany Deanery have also brought to students at Providence.

“All of us are pretty engaged with Providence down here,” he says. “It’s a great gift and blessing to the priests. We get to have that continued engagement to our high school-aged students.”

Father Ahern revels in that deeper connection that has long marked the tight, family community of Providence.

“I love going to the games and being on the sidelines, walking around. What’s neat about it is it’s not just the football players. It’s also the coaches. It’s also the cheerleaders. It’s also the other students who are there at the game, and the parents who are there at the game.

“It’s more than just the group of young men. It’s the community around them. It’s neat getting to minister in that orbit.” †