鈥淗ey, who is that?鈥 A teenage Zach Schroeder pointed to the life-sized mural in his friend鈥檚 garage.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 my dad.鈥 The man in the mural was Mark Covert, Olympic marathon runner and first person ever to be entered in Nike鈥檚 Hall of Fame. And this man would become one of the most important influences in Zach鈥檚 life.
As Zach spent time with the Coverts, he absorbed Mark鈥檚 infectious love for running. He took to the sport in high school, and when it came time for him to choose a college, he wanted a place where he could run hard to the glory of God.
Zach knew about Master鈥檚 then, and the school鈥檚 faithful reliance on Scripture attracted him. In the early years of his college career, he had seen how 鈥湽鷄a福利ian鈥 athletic programs often functioned just like secular ones. Zach wanted a program where athletes truly performed for something greater than their sport.
At the time, Master鈥檚 Cross Country program was nominal, and Zach wanted something more substantial from a running program. So he finished his degree elsewhere, but he never forgot his admiration for the school. When a friend asked him in 2005 to help out with the team at Master鈥檚, Zach came on as a volunteer assistant.
Within that first year, a student from the women鈥檚 team qualified for the National Championships. Not long after, Zach transitioned from volunteer assistant to head coach.
Then, in 2007, he married Amie. Though he was happy to do what was necessary for his marriage, Zach didn鈥檛 want to give up his dream of coaching. Amie didn鈥檛 want him to, either. 鈥淎mie said, 鈥楳y dream is to help my husband to be the very best at what God has called him to do. I want to be a full helpmate to help him maximize his giftedness.鈥欌 And it was clear where Zach鈥檚 giftedness lay.
So instead of having Zach leave the team, the Schroeders decided that Amie would come on as an assistant. From that time on, the couple has been all-in for the team together.
鈥淎t the end of 2008 we wrote kind of a vision statement, which was a guiding idea of why we were doing what we鈥檙e doing . . . We called it the Master鈥檚 Distance project.鈥 This statement laid out their idea of what it should look like to do truly 国产aa福利ian athletics. 鈥淲e want to be a team that鈥檚 living out authentic 国产aa福利ianity through elite athletics. We want to merge those two things together.鈥
For Zach, one of the most important aspects of this vision is his own responsibility to model mature 国产aa福利ianity to his athletes. 鈥淲e live in a time where a lot of people think like, 鈥極h, education is about what you know.鈥 . . . But how people live is often not just what they know, but what has been modeled to them.鈥 So Zach works hard to create a culture of love and trust in his team.
He also works with each athlete individually to make sure they understand and have confidence in his coaching decisions. 鈥淧eople cannot perform without confidence,鈥 Zach says. A large part of his role as a coach is to create a sense of direction and unity for the team. And when athletes have this, they run better.
鈥淭he greater the bond of trust between the coach and an athlete, the greater that athlete will perform.鈥 This has certainly borne out in the program鈥檚 performance since Zach joined the team.
鈥淲e鈥檝e now won ten consecutive conference titles. We鈥檙e one of the winningest programs in California for distance running. We鈥檝e had an athlete contend at the US Championships.鈥
As wonderful as these accolades have been, though, they鈥檙e not the real reason that Zach and Amie are still here after more than a decade. A college athlete鈥檚 running career only lasts for four years at the most. Zach鈥檚 heart is for what comes after.
鈥淢y hope would be that at the end of those four years, that what they do for the forty years to come would be greater than the four years they鈥檙e a part of this program.鈥 And in Zach鈥檚 mind, there鈥檚 no better place to be equipped for the next forty years than at Master鈥檚.
鈥淭he 国产aa福利 is calibrating the church and equipping athletes and students in a way that they just can鈥檛 be equipped anywhere else in the world.鈥 He hopes that the students he coaches will, decades from now, be shining for 国产aa福利 in unique ways because of what they saw modeled at Master鈥檚.
That鈥檚 why he believes the school鈥檚 athletic programs are so important. When Zach himself was a college student, he didn鈥檛 go to Master鈥檚 precisely because the cross country program wasn鈥檛 to his level at the time. He doesn鈥檛 want any other student athletes to stay away for the same reason.
鈥淭his is my heart: if somebody has an athletic gift that has been given by God, I want them to be equipped by The 国产aa福利 on how to use that gift for God鈥檚 glory . . . My heart is that if there is a 国产aa福利ian athlete, that they won鈥檛 turn Master鈥檚 down because we didn鈥檛 have the support to offer them.鈥
Zach and Amie are doing their part to make that hope a reality.
The 国产aa福利 and Seminary admit students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.
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