This article first appeared in Our Sunday Visitor magazine. Subscribe to receive the monthly magazine here.
A group of teenage boys crouch in a line down a narrow school hallway, their backs against the wall and feet shoulder-width apart.
One of them, clutching a 45-pound weight with both hands while maintaining his seated position against the wall, slowly passes the weight to the classmate on his right, but not before announcing his intentions to the group.
“I’m working out for my best friend’s mom,” he manages. “He passed away this fall, and I know she’s struggling, and I just want to give it up for her.”
“I’m working out for my dad,” the next boy shares as he holds the weight before passing it on. “He’s been there for me through my darkest times, and I love him for it.”
“I’m working out for my mom,” says the third. “She had surgery today.”
These aren’t ordinary wall sits, and as the day at Newark Catholic High School in Ohio had shown me, these aren’t ordinary young men. They are participants in the You’re Amazing Catholic Sports Outreach program through Hard as Nails Ministries, and this is part of an after-school prayer workout — an exercise in which the pain and discomfort of the workout is offered up for someone else. Prayer workouts are just one component of the program’s missionary effort to build personal relationships with student athletes and point them heavenward.
Executive Director Justin Fatica tells me that while this purpose has remained unchanged since he founded the ministry in 2002, the stakes have never been higher.
“Right now, more than ever, we need to connect athletics with Catholicism,” explains Fatica. “Gen Z and Gen Alpha are intrinsically desiring mentoring and coaching more than any other generation. That’s why what we’re doing with athletics is working.
“People are looking for something more than a feeling or an emotion of faith — they’re looking for the virtue of it. What greater avenue than sports for you to find virtue? Athletes specifically understand the concepts of hard work, dedication and commitment — they already have the virtues we’re working on, so it fits perfectly.”
Everyone is amazing
I arrive at Newark Catholic on a cold winter morning. As I enter the front doors, I am welcomed by the warmth not only of the building, but also of Alex Ruston’s greeting. I immediately see the positive disposition and approachable posture that help countless teens gravitate to him.
Not far removed from being a student athlete himself, Ruston now serves as Catholic Sports Outreach coordinator for Hard as Nails. He tells me he learned more about God and his own identity on the football field than he did in a classroom setting and wants to pass it on.
“Sports have been a huge part of my story, and I felt called to make that bridge for athletes to come into the fullness of their faith,” Ruston tells me. “The goal of Catholic Sports Outreach is to build that bridge. The game ends for everyone, whether you play in high school, college or professionally. Who you are is something eternal. That’s the message we want to leave with these young athletes: that purpose and identity have an eternal end when we do them for God.”
As Ruston leads me through the crowded hallways at Newark Catholic, it isn’t difficult to hear two words shouted out by students and missionaries alike: “You’re amazing!”
It’s not just a fun catch phrase or an organizational rallying cry. To the Hard as Nails missionaries and to the youth they serve, it’s a way of life.
“The You’re Amazing message is one that young people identify with because we’re making a world where no one suffers alone,” Doreen Duffy, Hard as Nails’ director of missionary life, tells me. “The young people who come here may have been going through something else, and they want to be voices of hope to other young people.”
Fatica first began the ministry in an effort to reach the lonely, depressed and hopeless and turn their hearts to Christ. After sharing the You’re Amazing message at a school in 2008, a football player approached Fatica and told him that not everybody is amazing because his father had left him.
“I told him, ‘Your dad is amazing; he just didn’t realize it,'” recalls Fatica. “The only way you can hurt someone is if you don’t know how amazing you are. That day, I decided to prove to the world that every person is amazing.”
By expanding the organization in 2010 to include a young adult program of 18- to 25-year-old missionaries, Fatica aimed to bring the message specifically to young people through personal encounters and carry out the Hard as Nails mission to “awaken the world to the power of God’s love.”
“Forgiving and loving someone no matter what, having compassion and empathy — that’s Hard as Nails,” says Duffy. “Looking at sin and suffering and not running away from them, but running towards them — that’s Hard as Nails; that’s what Jesus did. What happened over time, as Jesus did his ministry, is the You’re Amazing message. It really goes to the very core of our identity and who we are.”
A theology of fitness
Fatica’s message has particularly resonated within the realm of athletics. But why the connection between faith and exercise, and where did it originate? I pose this question to Fatica as I speak to him over the phone. He nearly jumps through my earpiece in his excitement to respond.
“That’s St. Dominic 101!” Fatica shouts in his raspy twang, a mixture of his Pennsylvania roots and his Jersey ties. “St. Dominic would be so frustrated right now. He wanted to make everyday moments heavenly, like working out, like your job. That’s how you make the natural world supernatural. Freedom is wanting to make Christ part of everything. That’s what St. Dominic asked us to do.”
A revolution would occur, Fatica tells me, if more Catholics recognized the connection between exercise and the Eucharist — something I had never considered before.
“If you love the Eucharist, you love working out,” Fatica says. “Because the Eucharist is the soul, the body, the mind, the whole mystical Body of Christ. If we’re Catholic and we care about the Eucharist, the Body of Christ, then how much more do we have to care about our bodies — what we eat, what we drink, how we speak, how we work out? Working out is a Eucharistic thing; it’s not just a physical thing.”
That’s why Fatica’s “dream on my heart from the beginning” is still so relevant: to start gyms as settings for pre-evangelization. After pursuing this dream for over 20 years, Fatica now has business leaders in two different cities working on it. You’re Amazing Fitness gyms will be places where people can encounter Jesus and prepare their hearts to receive him.
“I don’t want to just build a gym — I want it to be the basilica of gyms,” Fatica fantasizes aloud. “When you walk into a cathedral, you experience the awe and wonder and beauty of God’s love. I want the same thing to happen when you walk into a You’re Amazing Fitness.
“It’s beautiful that God allowed me to wait all these years, because it is in waiting that you really know you’re called to something. I’m more excited now than I’ve ever been.”
Mission territory
As I sit in Tom Pickering’s office at Newark Catholic, he can’t help but smile as he relates his introduction to Hard as Nails, when Fatica spoke at the school in 2009. Fatica’s message “set the community on fire,” and students invited him to attend their football game that night, where he continued to pump them up with his antics in the stands.
“I just remember being on the sidelines and looking up, and I asked another assistant coach, ‘Who is this Jesus guy over here doing all these push-ups?'” Pickering recalls with a laugh. “It was something that resonated with me.”
Fast forward to 2022, when Pickering was named principal and discussed with his administration the desire to bring missionaries into the school on a regular basis. After exploring different options, Pickering witnessed “divine intervention” as Bishop Earl Fernandes of the Diocese of Columbus announced a partnership with Hard as Nails — proving to be “exactly what we were looking for.”
For the last year and a half, the You’re Amazing program has taken root at Newark Catholic. The missionaries took the first semester to meet the students where they were and build relationships. Eventually, as Pickering tells me, “the kids were seeking them out, as opposed to them seeking out the kids, and that’s when we knew we were really cooking with something here. We had some who had no faith life who became huge leaders in our building, and a lot of that is a testament to what Hard as Nails has been able to provide to them.”
Living the word
Lunch hour has arrived at Newark Catholic. A steady stream of student athletes flows into a small classroom with desks arranged in a circle, some chatting in small groups and others bantering with Ruston. They have all eschewed the cafeteria and instead come for a huddle — a Bible study led by student athletes and facilitated by Hard as Nails missionaries.
“Today’s theme is ‘It’s all on the line,'” announces Ruston as the students take their seats. “What does that mean to life as a student athlete?”
As the huddle begins, I am reminded of my previous conversation with Ruston. While relationship building is unquestionably what brings the You’re Amazing program to life, it’s able to walk thanks to its four legs: retreats, huddle groups, team messages and prayer workouts.
First, overnight retreats are designed to transform student athletes into leaders in the classroom and on the field. Last year, 130 student athletes from across the Diocese of Columbus attended one of three retreats, learning that their identity is not in what they do, but in who they are.
Next, huddles are held weekly in schools during lunch hour. Each huddle has a theme, featuring questions for small group discussions and challenges that call the students to reflect on how they are using their time as an athlete for impact and how they will implement the word of God in their lives.
Team messages are equally essential to connect student athletes and coaches with the word. Hard as Nails missionaries go into practices and meet with teams before games to share a message and a Scripture passage that encourage and prepare them to pursue Christ in their athletic endeavors.
Finally, prayer workouts after school are offered up for those in need of prayers. As they lead student athletes through a series of exercises, Hard as Nails missionaries call out Bible verses or words of encouragement to build each other up — making the entire workout an intercessory prayer.
These four components have left a mark on many at Newark Catholic. Layla Jones, a freshman who plays volleyball, basketball and track, tells me she began inviting her teammates to the huddle groups after only a few weeks, because she knew growing closer in faith would strengthen their friendships.
“When I started going to the huddle, I was just going through a really rough time,” shares Jones. “It has helped me grow as a leader in my faith and helped me realize that, even when I feel alone, God is always with me.”
Those student athletes involved in planning the huddles — the Core Team — have the freedom to customize the entire content, which helps keep them accountable.
“It’s a lot of responsibility at times,” admits Chris Geiger, a senior Core Team member who runs cross-country and track. “But we’re athletes, so we know what other athletes need to hear. We’re able to build that into the huddles and Scripture passages.”
Personal transformation
After a year and a half at Newark Catholic, the You’re Amazing team has seen some of the seeds they initially planted begin to blossom. One such example is Miller Hutchison, a senior and three-year starting quarterback for the football team.
Hutchison steps out of a weightlifting session to speak with me. Music blares from across the hall, but inside our room, the mood is quiet and reflective — apropos for Hutchison’s journey to disconnect from outside distractions. It’s clear he hasn’t been working just on his physical core, but his spiritual core as well.
“Earlier in my high school experience, I hadn’t had the greatest relationship with God or been in touch with my faith at all,” Hutchison admits to me. “But starting last year with the missionaries and then my (Core Team), I would say it’s changed a lot. I go to church every weekend now; I pray daily. I give a lot of credit to them, for sure.”
Hutchison and other team leaders began to share a Bible verse of the day at practices or take a knee after practice to pray with a teammate. The openness of these upperclassmen helped younger classes catch a “fever for their faith” and even challenged head coach Josh Hendershot to be more vocal about Jesus with his team.
“Miller, in particular, has taken hold of a lot of the Hard as Nails traits and tactics like the huddles and he’s brought those on with his classmates and his teammates,” Hendershot tells me. “He’s becoming a man, and I think Hard as Nails has a huge part in that for him.”
Hutchison even shared at a community prayer breakfast how he’s come alive in his faith and become a senior leader at school, to the point of asking Pickering for permission to lead an all-school huddle. Hendershot personally thanked the You’re Amazing team for their work and began inviting them to more team events, which Ruston calls “a breakthrough moment.”
This transformation was tested this past fall when Hutchison suffered a broken wrist. In the midst of a trying season, Hendershot was amazed by the reaction of his team captain. “It was this encouraging, still positive, faith-filled young man that was able to help his teammates, even though he was suffering.”
While not every Catholic experiences such a dramatic conversion, Fatica believes prayer workouts carry transformative potential on both a personal and universal level. He points to Romans 12:1, in which St. Paul urges early Christians to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
“That’s the Catholicism genius behind it, and the theologians would agree,” Fatica explains. “The workout becomes more because it becomes other-focused, but also becomes prayer, becomes heavenly, becomes a sacrificial gift to God. If every single parish had a prayer workout group, the whole Church would be transformed!”
‘Invitation Catholicism’
As the school day winds down, Ruston invites me to join him and Hard as Nails missionary Nicholas Ganis as they finish their daily Rosary. They’ve already prayed the first four decades while walking the halls, lifting up students and faculty as they pass each classroom. We step into the empty and dimly lit school chapel, a silent haven among the busyness and noise of the day, and kneel together in prayer.
This is the beauty of the Hard as Nails missionary life. Two days a week, they are present in the schools to facilitate huddles, share testimonies in class, lead prayer workouts and attend practices or games. The other three, their workdays are sprinkled with holy hours, Mass and communal prayer.
I stand in the hallway with Cassidy Buscher, one of 13 missionaries who live in community at a retreat center, as she tells me the role another missionary played in her own discernment to join Hard as Nails.
“One of the missionaries in particular really invested in me — didn’t try to convince me to come, but more so just listened to me, listened to the trials I was going through in my life at the time,” Buscher recalls. “That’s what drew me to the mission: the sensitivity to sin and suffering. It changed my life forever.”
Buscher experienced firsthand what makes the You’re Amazing program so effective: meeting individuals where they are, walking with them through their struggles and ministering to their spiritual needs. Hard as Nails missionaries are uniquely equipped to accomplish this. For one, they do not carry the same classroom responsibility or authority of teachers and campus ministers. There’s also the youth of the missionaries, who are easy for students to connect with and relate to.
“I see myself in some of these kids, their challenges, what they’re going through,” Ruston tells me. “I was in their shoes not that long ago. When we have missionaries there relating to kids’ stories, there’s hope; you’re not stuck, because these missionaries have been through the same challenges.”
Finally, all of the You’re Amazing activities are voluntary, meaning student athletes are choosing to participate, much like the missionaries serving them. This is a particular point of emphasis for Fatica.
“We need to find ways to help kids freely choose Christ, not have to choose Christ,” Fatica stresses to me. “That’s the difference between management Catholicism and invitation Catholicism. We have to get back to people wanting to do things.”
Looking to the future
Walking into the weight room at Newark Catholic is an exercise in nostalgia, as the smell of rubber mats and the sound of iron weight plates clanking together evoke memories of my own days as a student athlete. Even as uplifting music blasts through the room, I can still hear Ruston and Ganis shouting out encouragement to the young men, who respond with affirmative grunts as they push themselves to their physical limits.
Had I brought workout clothes, I’d be more than motivated to jump right in.
Instead, I watch and reflect on what the future holds for the You’re Amazing program. Its immediate goal is to deepen its relationship in the Diocese of Columbus high schools, but the Lord has recently opened the door at the collegiate level as well. You’re Amazing is forming a partnership with Ave Maria University in Florida, while Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio has also invited Ruston’s team to hold monthly huddles with its student athletes for the remainder of the school year. Their first huddle saw roughly 80 student athletes attend, which Ruston calls “a powerful event.”
Personally, I can’t come up with a better description of my day at Newark Catholic.
As the workout wraps up, everyone gathers in a circle, drenched in sweat with arms around each other.
“Don’t underestimate the power of a group of men who come together for something other than themselves,” Ruston tells them. “That’s what this is all about. Every day you show up here, you give it your all. Everyday you show up here, you give it everything you’ve got. That’s the victory right there. The results, the numbers, they come later. Right here, you’ve got each other. You work out for the man to your left and to your right.
“Alright, let’s get a break. ‘Family’ on three. One, two, three … “
“Family!”
