Establishing a habit to help young women ‘turn the world upside down’
By Tory Wooley
A series of occasional posts by one of Dean’s friends
telling us how they pursue the challenge of daily obedience to Jesus.
Sharing my faith in the workplace is one of the most rewarding things I get to do in my profession. Coaching young people and in particular young ladies from all over the world, I’m constantly looking for ways to bring us together as a unified group. Being able to share our faith in Christ Jesus allows us to connect and communicate on an authentic level, which helps level the playing field with players and coaches with whom I have the pleasure to coach.
So, on this year’s roster, we have members of our team from all over the United States and the world. They consist of younger players, transfers, and even graduate students. So, becoming “one” is something we had to really work on first semester. Anytime you have a group or a team, conflict is something that will have to be worked through. Even in the Bible, there was conflict among the 12 disciples. Anytime there are people, problems will arise, because we are all imperfect beings, sometimes working through unresolved issues or dealing with unexpected circumstances, that show themselves in the form of conflict.
An approach for unity
Our team faced some of this. Our record was under 500 shortly after the Thanksgiving break. Injuries had plagued our team, and we still had a three-game road trip ahead of us. The Lord placed on my heart an approach to help unite our team and bring us closer. With my assistant coaches, we established prayer groups among players before the warm-ups preceding the games. We tried this the first time before playing at Tennessee Wesleyan.
This was our process. The assistants paired the players with those who were not their roommates, to encourage them to get out of their comfort zones. Upon entering the locker room before our pregame speech, the coaches would play worship music at an ultimate volume from a laptop, giving players the chance to first connect with their prayer group partner simply to see how they’re doing. The coaches would leave the room so the players would feel comfortable connecting and praying for each other. After four or five minutes, one player would volunteer to pray for the entire team before the coaches entered the room to begin our pregame speech/meeting.
The presence of God
The first game we did this, upon entering the locker room, I felt the presence of God in the room filled with so much peace from the Prince of peace. Since then my players have expressed how connecting and praying for each other has helped our team’s unity tremendously. For the next road games, we played fantastic basketball, but I believe it started when we prioritized putting God first and praying for others.
Our team’s four core values are love God, love people, do your best, and choose joy. Our players decided to keep this prayer partner tradition not only for road games but before every game. We later continued this exercise and went on a five-game winning streak before the Christmas holiday. I’m not sure what the second half of our season will look like, but I’m certain the Lord will be pleased by our players’ intention to choose to seek him and pray for the
A lifetime impact
I’ve learned to meet students where they are spiritually, but also by simply listening, and hearing their stories. My players have taught me so much, and often I walk away learning something from them and how they persevered through the challenges they have overcome.
Being able to share my faith in the workplace and starting something such as prayer groups with our team before games is a small gesture that hopefully establishes a lifelong practice and sets an example that prayer truly does change things. We have some strong women on this team, and one day they will make a mark on this world that will never be erased. We’ll be able to say, “These are the ones who are turning this world upside down in Jesus’ name.”
Tory Wooley is head women’s basketball coach at Point University. Born and raised in Stone Mountain, Georgia, he graduated from Point in 2012 with a degree in child and youth development. He was a captain on the men’s basketball team and Campus Life Minister (CLM) as a student and earned the Hathcock award, Point’s highest honor that recognizes outstanding students who have excelled in academics, leadership and community service while at Point He is married to Nicci Wooley assistant professor of communication at Point. They have two sons, TJ (3) and Joshua (1).
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