“On A Mission” showcases leaders who are going the extra mile each and every day. Each of the people we interview is on a mission to serve, inspire and educate. Our hosts highlight their impact and explore what motivates, engages and fulfills individuals and teams to be more productive, more effective, better at what they do, and happier to do it. Today our hosts, Greg Chapman and James Fenimore spoke with Derek Reeves.
Derek Reeves
Area Director at FCA
Website Address: nefloridafca.org
Short company description:
FCA exists to lead every coach and athlete into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and His church.
What is the most important lesson you’ve learned over your career?
Quality moments > Quantity Moments. It’s incredibly important to work and serve in a way that captures every moment. Make it special. Or else they will all seem ordinary. Remember them just as extraordinary as they happened.
What’s your favorite way to get involved in the community?
Serving local college athletes & collegiate sports teams and helping them grow their faith in Christ.
If you could be remembered for one thing, what would it be?
The most joyful person to walk in any room no matter the circumstances.
What is a tip for success that you would provide someone in your same industry?
You will only be as successful as you are intentional in your relationships and investing into the people a part of your programs and events.
What volunteer experience has impacted you the most?
Serving as a Character Coach for the Jacksonville University Men’s Basketball program has allowed me to see the inside of a Division 1 men’s basketball program, how they operate, how they pursue excellence while navigating a heavily volatile atmosphere in college athletics.
What’s one cause you’re passionate about?
I am passionate about sports and using the platform to make disciples.
How do you encourage your team to make a difference?
I remind my team frequently that we are often the only ones offering light, joy and peace to the young student-athletes we are interacting with. It is important that we are present with our best attitude and excitement to see God move, daily.
Transcript:
James:
Welcome back to Making a Difference. I’m James Fenimore and here we highlight people that are making a real impact. Joining me always my co-host Greg Chapman. Greg, how are you?
Greg:
I’m well James, thanks for having me again. It’s my pleasure to introduce to you guys a friend of mine, a partner in ministry, and a guy I just love. My family lives in my town, so they probably love more than I do. But Derek, tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you do? Where do you do it?
Derek:
Well, one, thanks for having me on the show. My name is Derek Reeves, and I’ve been in Jacksonville for eight years, and I’ve loved to know Greg and the story that we’ve got to work together and all that. But I direct our college ministry with Fellowship of Christian Athletes here in Northeast Florida.
And so I’ve been directing that for about the last five years, getting a chance to work with every college in our area. UNF, FGCU, FSCJ, Edward Waters, Flagler and Trinity. So it’s a joy to partner with coaches, athletes, athletic administrations, to continue to serve them and bring good news to them.
Greg:
Yeah, good job not leaving any schools out.
Derek:
It’s a handful. You should take a look at the schedule, how hard it is to keep track of all of them.
Greg:
Derek, one thing I love about your story is that you have a background in athletics as well. Tell us a little bit about that all the way through collegiate and some of the experiences you’ve had with coaches through the journey.
Derek:
Yeah, I love sports. It captured my attention. I think professional sports on TV was the thing that first influenced me, not necessarily just playing them. And so through that developed a real love and played everything in high school, even from powerlifting to football, baseball, basketball, track and field, cross country. I was a big guy running cross country. I mean, I did it all.
But I really fell in love with football and basketball in particular. I was actually trying to get recruited for basketball in college, but doors closed and God opened the door for me to play college football at the University of Central Oklahoma and played four years there. Had an awesome, awesome time that really shaped me and developed me and was very connected as a person there. Got my degree and really enjoyed the brotherhood and the teamwork that happened on our team. It was a really surreal experience. So I loved it.
Greg:
Knowing some of your story and defining it as an awesome time in college, coaches sometimes I think they forget where they come from. They forget what it’s like to be coached. So share some of the challenges that you faced with different coaches.
Derek:
Because I was pursuing basketball and all those doors closed and football was the only thing left open, it happened late, which means I had to walk on my first year of college football. I think I had a lot of really good influences. I grew up in a smaller town right outside Tulsa, Oklahoma, and it was a small community. Everybody knew each other. There wasn’t a lot to prove necessarily.
When I got to college it was a very different scene. The moment I stepped in and you’re a redshirt freshman, I wasn’t competing that year, and just an environment that I’d never been in before. These guys were tough. These coaches were hard. They worked hard and they worked all the time as well.
I think one of the experiences that was very tough for me was going through that redshirt freshman experience where you don’t get to play, you don’t get to experience any of the glam. You just have to work hard consistently every day.
To be honest, my coaches were rough people. They’re good people on the outside, but once you got to the inside of the sport, they had their own situations and things that they struggled with and they took it out on us a lot. I spent a lot of time as the punching bag. I’m optimistic, able to take the punches, so I got a lot of those from my coaches. Made fun of a lot, kind of took the end of jokes for no reason.
I really questioned, is this really what I’m here for? But I continued to persevere through that experience, knowing this thing is going to be good for me. It’s going to build me up. It’s going to help me endure and be successful in life one day. I’ll be able to impact my teammates despite the way that they see the coaches treating me daily.
The coaches knew I could take it, so I just kind of let it happen. I wouldn’t say my college experience was perfect, but because I continued to stay optimistic and persevere through tough times and have thick skin, I was able to see God really transform me in a lot of ways just through that experience.
Greg:
Knowing you the way I know you, I know you’re a Christian. I know you dealt with that through the power of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes that’s all we have on certain days.
What you do, you get to know coaches. You get to hang out and spend time with coaches all over Northeast Florida. From your time as a college athlete to what you see now, how are you encouraging coaches to leverage their influence for the gospel?
Derek:
College athletics is crazy right now. All athletics are changing and evolving. Commitment and loyalty are not high on the totem pole. They’re pretty low.
I think with college coaches, they need to take a step back and realize what has God gifted them with to coach, as well as what is the world trying to teach them and tell them how to coach. Coaches should take a step back and say, this is how the world is trying to have me coach and perform in my sport. How does God want me to coach? How does God want me to use my gifts and my talents in order to encourage and help others grow?
The scene is not going to change. People are going to transfer all over the place. They’re going to be chasing money. We live in a world in athletics right now that’s completely transactional. It’s setting student athletes up for transaction.
What we can do is encourage them to take back the transformational, go impact lives one at a time. It’s not going to be the way that the world is telling you to coach. It’s going to be by taking a step back and doing inward reflection. How do I want to coach? How does God want me to glorify Him through coaching? That’s how you’re going to see transformation happen in those spaces again.
So I encourage every college coach, take a step back and realize what gifts God has given you, the heart He’s given you for people, and take that back. Don’t let the world define the way you are going to coach. Let God define how you’re going to coach.
James:
It sounds like a good lesson anybody could take from this is whatever opportunity you have to make an impact, use it. It might not be for years. It might only be one coffee with somebody or one meeting. But if you can imprint on them in that time, use it.
Derek, it’s awesome meeting you, man. You have some story. I’d love to hear more of it. Thank you so much for joining us today. Everybody will have your information below the show so when they reach out to you it’ll be there. Thank you so much for joining us.
Derek:
Thank you guys. It’s great to be on and thankful for Greg leading this out. Appreciate your time.
James:
Thank you so much for joining us today. This has been Making a Difference. This has been Greg Chapman. I’m James Fenimore and we can’t wait to see you next time.
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