BELMONT — At the intersection of faith and sport is where you’ll find Belmont Abbey College’s president, Dr. Bill Thierfelder.
Thierfelder has accomplished many things during his 18-year tenure as president, but it was his vision for the Sport Virtue Institute that will leave an enduring legacy at the college.
Upon his arrival at the college in 2004, Thierfelder established his plan with a guiding belief that sports can develop virtuous characteristics as well as physical prowess. Thus, the Sport Virtue Institute was born.
It has grown today to serve as a model for 900 student-athletes competing in more than 30 sports at Belmont Abbey College.
“Since I got here, our mission has revolved around the development of sport and virtue,” Thierfelder said. “Some people think that there’s a choice to be made in that you have to be a really good athlete or a really good person and that the two are somehow mutually exclusive. Of course, they’re not.
“It’s the reality of how sport and virtue are intimately linked together. They are not two separate things.”
That is something that senior Lauren Hamilton came to know intimately after four years as a standout volleyball player for Belmont Abbey. Hamilton serves as a case study in the program’s success.
“Having a large community of Catholic athletes, who are also living out their faith while competing in sports has taught me so much about how sport and virtue are intertwined,” Hamilton said. “It’s something I’d never experienced before. Sports were just for fun in high school. You wanted to be the best, but you never brought faith into that. At Belmont Abbey, I really learned how important my faith is to sport and how I should apply it to every aspect of being an athlete.”
Hamilton, who has spent four years in FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) since coming to the college as a freshman, has distinguished herself both on and off the court. She served as a student missionary in the program and helped lead weekly Bible studies along with an athlete community night.
“That’s been a big blessing for me,” said Hamilton, who was also a recipient of the Hintemeyer Catholic Leadership Scholarship.
Hamilton recently accepted a full-time missionary role at FOCUS with training to start shortly after her graduation in May. Then, she is committed to serve a two-year term as a missionary at a college or university across the country.
Belmont Abbey College is a Division II school and a member of Conference Carolinas. It’s also the only Catholic institution among the conference’s 13 member schools. After a series of discussions and presentations, Thierfelder helped play a pivotal role in shaping how the conference was viewed nationally.
“The blessing and the miracle to me is that the conference changed its tagline,” he said. “The tagline of Conference Carolinas is champions of mind, body and soul.”
From its inception, the Sport Virtue Institute has also served as a blueprint for other colleges and universities. It was important for organizers to see the concept spread beyond the boundaries of Belmont Abbey College.
“The hope was we could go beyond just doing it here and help affect other institutions across the country,” he said.
To that end, Thierfelder noted that Franciscan University of Steubenville, Christendom College and Ave Maria are examples of schools who have also aligned with the mission.
The timing proved to be providential when it came to the alignment of sport and virtue. As Thierfelder was just starting at Belmont Abbey College, then-Pope John Paul II created a section under the Pontifical Council of the Laity for Church and Sports. That following year a group of 50 experts from 18 countries convened at a meeting to assess the role that sports played in the world.
It was there that Thierfelder met Ray McKenna, founder of the national organization called Catholic Athletes for Christ. He now serves on the board of directors for CAC.
The confluence of events helped shape a powerful perspective that remains in play today at the Sport Virtue Institute.
“From the beginning, I wanted to bring home the reality that we are body, mind and soul,” he said. “It’s the whole person. It’s important that we operate that way and think that way. We perform very well on the fields and on the court, but it goes much deeper than that.”
— Kris Johnson, Correspondent