Football Chaplains for Trinidad & Tobago Training Hosted By Trinity
Gerard Deonarine, Founder and CEO of Trinity Sports Group and also the COO of Sports Chaplaincy Carribean, recently invited me (Brad Kenney) to participate in a multi-session training course for new football chaplains to serve the professional soccer teams of Trinidad and Tobago. Those teams are soon to begin play for the 2026-2027 season. There are 12 teams that play in the professional league. The training was with three new chaplains getting ready to serve different teams across the island.
Gerard, formerly with Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), was introduced to me and Soccer Chaplains United (SCU) by good friend and long-time sports chaplaincy educator and trainer, Roger Lipe. Roger, a former FCA character coach and chaplain, who is now training and consulting on sports chaplaincy in the US and beyond — helped make the introduction between Gerard and myself. After we had a few phone calls, Gerard asked if I might be interested in helping with some of the training for new chaplains. I shared with him some of the SCU training videos and we planned to do three, three-hour training sessions across a variety of sports and soccer (football) chaplaincy concepts. A big need was to make sure that the training was contextualized to the T&T conditions.
You were open with your stories and struggles…and it helps to understand what the sports chaplaincy all entails. We appreciate you joining and helping to teach the sessions, that you did. It was a good time of connecting and contextualizing, as best as you could.
Gerard’s feedback on the teaching sessions
Held over the span of two weeks, I enjoyed creating and teaching three, three-hour training sessions. Which never really finished on time because the time was so rich and enjoyable, Each session was unique to understanding sports chaplaincy and soccer chaplaincy and introducing biblical and theological concepts as well as some practical outworking – things like how do you assess your standing as a chaplain?. The hope was for each chaplain to take away some key lessons to learn and consider as they prepare to step into a volunteer chaplain role with their respective teams.
I was honored to be able to pray a commissioning prayer and blessing over the chaplain candidates on the final night as they learned their team assignments and were given the next steps for being introduced to the teams and beginning their work.
The work of Soccer Chaplains United is not just limited to a locker room full of athletes, it’s a global game with global implications as we care for people from around the world. Some of my favorite moments were simply recalling some of the Trinidadian players that have been part of the Colorado Rapids throughout the years — whether my early years as a press officer or in my many years as a chaplain. I will be looking forward to seeing these chaplains begin their own ministry with their own teams this year and seeing what God can do!
