By Camryn Dysart, Shield Contributor
This year the North Raleigh Christian Academy family welcomed a new associate athletic director, George Hoyle. Hoyle was previously the athletic director at Kerr-Vance Academy and Thales Academy Rolesville. Since Hoyle has joined the athletic department this year, NRCA’s high school Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) has grown tremendously.
Hoyle was drawn to the NRCA team because of its Christian environment. Previously working at two secular schools, he was excited to get an opportunity to work at a Christian school.
“NRCA is a fantastic organization that is really invested in their students, and that was something that was really exciting for me to be around and a part of because there is a ton of opportunity to grow things and just to be in conversations in an athletic department that’s really going to pour into its students. That was exciting for me,” Hoyle said. “And the second piece was conversations with [NRCA’s athletic director] Coach [Josh] Diamond about wanting to look at what we do about discipleship in our athletics department, and the finding was to work towards growing that and building on that as we go forward.” Among Hoyle’s favorite parts of his job are these conversations.
He loves being around people, from the staff in the athletic department to the kindergarteners. He loves learning about the students and building relationships and has enjoyed the big school environment that NRCA brings to the table. Hoyle said, “[I am] very lucky and fortunate that I get to come to work every day, and I think I have more fun than anybody, so it’s a good time.”
In Hoyle’s past two jobs, FCA played a huge role. Since they were in a secular environment, he said, “Neither one of those organizations were Christian schools, and so [FCA] served as the one spot where I could really, openly and actively, share my faith and testimony. And so that was a big piece for me.”
For the past couple of years, NRCA’s high school FCA has met about once a month. This year, the number of meetings has doubled to twice a month. The meetings are always held during lunch and are usually held on Fridays, but that can differ based on the school schedule. At the beginning of the meetings, the students always have time for lunch, followed by a devotional. The leaders of the devotional are usually soccer coach Joe Severs, who is in his third year as club sponsor, or Hoyle. Recently, they have featured student-led devotionals and are working to bring in guest speakers.
Hoyle explained that after the devotional, “we’ll try to do a game, do something fun. Whether that’s dodgeball in the gym or we did a pickleball outing one day, or it could be a simple game—just different icebreakers to allow our club members to engage in that fellowship where they’re just having fun.”
Like many clubs at NRCA, high school FCA has also implemented student leadership roles. Three seniors—Sarah Vance, Zoe Richardson, and Mercer Gill—have stepped up to help the high school FCA this year. Vance approached Hoyle and Severs, wanting to see the high school FCA grow.
Hoyle said that the senior leadership has “led an effort and a nomination process to have an entire leadership team within our high school. So we’ve got a snacks team and a games team and a devotional team, and those groups are coming together to meet and to organize all of our meetings. It’s really cool how it’s student-led for our students [and they have] those opportunities to grow and fellowship together.”
High school FCA has grown to about 30 members attending regularly. The goal for the club within the next year is to become one of the biggest clubs on campus to bring more students into the FCA environment. They want to be able to meet more often and find ways to build community and have a great time.
The size of the club is always a great goal, but that is not the most important one. “I think just providing opportunities for our students to be around each other in a fun environment and to incorporate the gospel is always something that I think everybody on campus agrees is super important,” said Hoyle.
The international ministry of FCA reaches people from middle school to professional sports. The point of the organization is to use the widely known platform of sports to reach every coach and athlete with the news of the gospel. This program is not only for athletic participants but for everyone influenced by athletes and coaches.
