Soccer Chaplains United is pleased to announce the addition of Tiago Souza to the chaplaincy team. Tiago, a native of Brazil, will be assisting with chaplaincy in the Pacific Northwest, as well as adding to the communications and also assisting with Portuguese translations for the group, as a whole. A graduate of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, Tiago is currently the Communications Manager at GracePoint Church in Bremerton, WA. You can see Tiago's biography page (also in Portuguese) here. Tiago became familiar with Chaplain Jubal McDaniel (Tacoma Defiance, MLS Next Pro) and watched Jubal in his chaplaincy role. A passionate soccer fan, Tiago took great interest in Jubal's work with the team. One of Tiago's roommates, during his time at Liberty,

Since moving to Colorado in 2010 and turning on the television to watch the local soccer team in the MLS Cup final, Kevin Hasenack has been a fan — not just of football (soccer), but of the Colorado Rapids. But more than a fan, this local pastor to Calvary Wellspring (located in Aurora, CO) has been involved in the game at different points and in different ways. Pastoring and befriending a former Colorado Rapids 1st Team player and his family further piqued his interest in the "Beautiful Game," but also revealed some of the more difficult sides to being an elite pro. The challenges that I see is that athletes are asked of a lot: fans ask a lot of them,

This Friday, December 3, is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. With this in mind, we take a look at disability sport — it's origins, some of the challenges, and the story of someone who is firmly entrenched in serving the disability sporting world as a chaplain. Today, on the From the Touchline podcast, my friend and fellow sports chaplaincy colleague, Rev Steve Jones, joins us to share more on disability (sometimes called adaptive) sport. Steve is the UK Disability Lead for Sports Chaplaincy UK and we've had occasion to share a curry in England from one of my trips across the pond. I pray that today's podcast will help to open your eyes and my own toward those

Mental health is a rising concern amongst athletes in the beautiful game from professional, elite levels all the way down to the youth. With the various pressures (internal and external) how can athletes today cope with everything they see and feel, especially amidst a global pandemic that has been very isolating? Today, on the From the Touchline podcast, Dr Brad Miller, a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and one of four Founders of Soccer Resilience, is my guest and he shares about the work that his organization is undertaking with individual athletes and different clubs and teams around the US. We talk about the importance and value of mental health and hear a little bit of Brad's story of playing soccer as

Cristiano Ronaldo's return to Manchester United has started with a bang! Three goals in two games, a social and journalistic media frenzy, an all-time record for number of shirts bearing his name and number being sold and Untied fans around the world excited to see his return. Homecoming stories are some of the best stories aren't they? We see homecomings on social media and even read about them in the Bible — the return of the ark of God to the people of Israel under King David's reign brought about tremendous rejoicing. And Jesus tells us a parable (a story) of a lost son finding his way home to his father and his family after being a long way away.