Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) is a club that mainly connects religious beliefs with activities. They meet every Friday morning at 7:50 for a bible study in the study hall rooms. Then, once a month they have a huddle where they play games, give a message, and sometimes bring in a speaker.

FCA brings a huge opportunity to grow for all athletes. Students realize the positive impact FCA has had on them, but the adults in their lives also notice the impact.

“The senior class, they have been coming since their freshman year,” science and teacher academy teacher Kristen Campbell-Blumhagen (CB) said. “To see them grow in their faith is important to Mrs. [Kelly] Andrews [guidance] and I. It’s awesome to see how these young kids in the past four years have grown, and [how FCA] impacted their lives. It’s great to see them live out what they believe in.

FCA has a fun environment with many different aspects and the one that sticks out the most is community.

“I stuck around for the community,” senior Will Careo said. [Full of athletes that are] “trying to incorporate [sports] into their faith. They are also trying to spread the word to other athletes.”

Communities do not just happen, it is the people that make them.

“It’s such a great place,” senior Alli Macke said. “ You are surrounded by like-minded people who want to grow in their faith and are similar to you. Everyone is there for a good reason. Everyone is fun and you just have a good time.”

FCA has done its job over the years of connecting faith with athletics. This helps student athletes grow both athletically and spiritually.

“I started coming to FCA my freshman year because a bunch of my friends told me about it,” Macke said. “We ended up getting more people to come. We have such a great class and group that all shows up and that itself has helped me so much in my faith.”

Along with weekly bible studies, FCA holds a huddle once a month. These huddles are a fun time to spend time with each other and god at the same time.

“A normal huddle looks like 50 to 100 kids and everyone comes to play games,” Macke said. “We start with a message and dive into the word a little bit. Then we break into different groups, either we discuss [the message] or begin playing the main activity that was planned for the huddle. We normally close the huddles by praying out.”

There is a lot more to a huddle than just the games. Sometimes FCA has speakers to talk about the connection between faith and sports.

“Sometimes we bring in a speaker, some former FCA athletes, who are now playing collegiate level, talk about their experiences. We’ve also brought in other people who are coaches in some other way,” CB said. “These speakers are sometimes very impactful in our lives. Dave Carr, when he came to talk, had the biggest impact. We have students who still talk about him.”

FCA was popular within the school when there was only one Ankeny high school.

“When we split, the Ankeny kids traveled up to Centennial in the morning. Eventually, that core group graduated so many kids didn’t know about it here at the high school,” CB said.

She continued to describe how the youth leader at her church approached her confirming that she worked at Ankeny High School. He wanted to know if student athletes were interested in starting an FCA branch at AHS and if CB was interested in helping.She agreed.

“I’d been involved in [FCA] at previous schools I’ve worked in, but I didn’t know how to start one. Mrs. Andrews had been in an FCA since she was in high school and knew how to start one,” CB said. “It was awesome because it was her first year in the building. We always said it was God’s timing.”

FCA provides an opportunity for like-minded athletes to come together and discuss their faith as well as share it with others.

“I look forward to coming to FCA and sharing it with other people,” Macke said. “Getting others to come along with the fact that it is awesome to be able to talk about god and do so in a public school.”