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•IH!IIul:mllmllmt • As the daughter of a former NFL player, Notre Dame power forward Kelley Siemon knows how glorious sports can be. After all, her dad, Jeff Siemon, played middle linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings for 11 years and went to three Super Bowls. But the elder Siemon also taught his hoops-loving child to keep the highs and the lows of athletic achievement in perspective. "He showed me that God comes first," says Kelley. "Sports is something God has blessed us with. My dad has a ~ tremendous eternal ~ perspective and is so 15 humble. People al~ ways think playing ~ football was the ~ glory years, but for ~ him, what came afterward-his min_. Key player. Kelley istry-is more imporSiemon played in all tant." The fact that 32 games for the faith is highlighted Irish last season, against disappointleading the team in rebounds during the ment and defeat is a NCAA tournament. lesson Kelley picked up the hard way. Although she had started her freshman and sophomore seasons on the Notre Dame basketball team, the current senior was dismayed to learn she lost her starting position at the beginning of her junior year. "My coach told me right before the game that I wasn't going to start, and initially I didn't handle it that well," Kelley remembers. "I played halfheartedly. Later I went to God in prayer and saw some areas where I had been lacking, like not working on my game outside of practice.
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He brought that to the forefront of my mind." She decided to work harder, and she chose not to bicker about the coach's decision with her teammates. God also boosted Kelley's attitude and gave her a different viewpoint: "Another player, a senior, started over me. I had started over her the last 2 years, so in a way I was almost happy for her, and I think God helped me feel that way. On my own I wouldn't have." As Kelley contemplates life after hoops, she is placing her future in good hands. "Christ continually hits me with how incredible His love is for me, and how even if everything in the world falls apart, my relationship with Him is the one thing that will stand firm." - LORILEE CRAKER
• He's not the first person to do it, of course, but in this age of increased specialization and competition, athletes like Andy Chance are becoming a rare breed. Last fall, Chance (6-2, 200 pounds) started all 11 games as a red shirt freshman for the University of Louisiana at Monroe, guiding the Indians to a 5-6 mark and leading the squad with 160.5 yards of total offense per game. He completed 141 of 246 passes for 1,327 yards and also had five touchdown passes. He finished second on the team in rushing with 438 yards rushing on 130 attempts. After the football season, he still managed a fair amount of playing time on the baseball field, filling in at shortstop on the Tribe's baseball team, batting .245 with three homers and five RBis. "I feel the Lord has given me the talent to play both sports, so I want to make sure that I make the most of that talent," Chance says. "A favorite Bible verse that keeps me going is Philippians 4:13 which says, 1 can do all things through Christ who
~ Big day. Against Nicholls State on September 9, Andy Chance was 25 for 35 passing with 369 yards in a 27-21 win.
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strengthens me: I lean on that verse a lot during the year, just because my schedule gets so hectic sometimes." Chance, who is majoring in business management, also works parttime at ULM, helping out with youth clinics and doing maintenance work. "It's tough to work it all in," he says. "This past spring, I'd go to class from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Then, I'd go over to the football field and watch game film with the quarterbacks coach Stan Humphries (former San Diego Charger QB). Next, I'd go to baseball practice and take infield and get some batting practice in, and then I'd go back to the football field for our spring practice. After that was over and the other guys were going home, I'd go back out to the baseball field and see if anyone was around so I could take a few more groundballs or do some more hitting." Not many play two sports anymore, but it's a chance Andy had to take. -JIM GIBBS
• University of Minnesota senior center Ben Hamilton's name appeared on just about everyone's preseason AU-American football team this year, but it's the squad that doesn't include Hamilton's name that reveals what's most important to the 23-year-old center from Wayzata, Minnesota. Last spring a well-known "men's magazine" that features pornographic pictures notified Hamilton he was their first-team AUAmerican choice and invited him to a photo shoot in Phoenix with the other players on the list. An aU-expenses paid trip to sunny Arizona and the prospect of important publicity for the NFL hopeful were strong temptations, but in the end Hamilton decided his faith was more important. He turned the opportunity down, and another center took his place. "People who know me know I'm a Christian guy," Hamilton told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "I didn't want people to get the wrong impression about what's important in my life. I didn't want people who know me to say, 'Hey, what are you doing in Playboy? I thought you were a Christian: I didn't want to send any mixed messages."