January 2013 DigiMag by Sports Spectrum

A LOOK INSIDE: WINTER X GAMES 2013

WINTER X GAMES SNOWBOARDER NICK VISCONTI

DAVID WISE: SUPERPIPE SKIER AND X GAMES CHAMPION

NOW $12

jerseyeffect.org “It’s about recognizing the potential harm a jersey can cause—the self-centeredness, greed, immaturity, larger-than-life mentality, and obsession with this world—but also the potential power one’s jersey has for the good of society and, most importantly, the good of Christ’s Kingdom.” - Hunter Smith, author, musician, and former NFL punter

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CONTENTS FEATURES CLOSEUPS

XTREME WISEDOM

David Wise is not your typical action sports athlete. The Winter X Games-winning freeskier is turning heads in and out of the superpipe BY JEREMY V. JONES

Al Bello / Getty Images

Camilla Stoddart / Getty Images

6 JOHN HARBAUGH

BEAUTY UNSEEN

One year after taking bronze in the 2012 Winter X Games, Nick Visconti is in a completely different mental, relational and geographic state BY STEPHEN COPELAND

Photo: Courtesy of Nick Visconti

Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images

DANIEL KILGORE

KELLY CLARK

Ezra Shaw / Getty Images

OPINION

12 Doug Pensinger / Getty Images

ERIC WILLETT

AIRING IT OUT: The Te’o saga, what really went wrong

UNPACKIN’ IT: Renaldo Wynn

Speed instead of accuracy. Guilty until proven innocent. The danger of modern journalism and scary societal trends BY BRETT HONEYCUTT Faith and sports podcast host Bryce Johnson welcomes to the show Renaldo Wynn, who played defensive end at Notre Dame and then played 13 seasons in the NFL BY BRYCE JOHNSON

ANOTHER ANGLE: Underwater

Is religion restricting? Discover freedom with Nations Foundation founder Joel Parker and his reckless to redemptive story BY STEPHEN COPELAND

SPORTS SPECTRUM ~ DIGIMAG 2013

AIRING IT OUT

OPINION

BY BRETT HONEYCUTT

b h o n e y c u t t @ s p o r t s s p e c t r u m . c o m | F o l l o w @ b re t t _ h o n e y c u t t

The Te’o saga, what really went wrong

dd. Bizarre. Baffling. Strange. Stunning. Mesmerizing. Absurd. Dumbfounding. Crazy. Embarrassing. Weird. Twisted. Can anything truly describe the curiously interesting story surrounding Manti Te’o, the most-decorated football player in Notre Dame’s recent history? On Jan. 16, a story broke on deadspin.com that Te’o’s girlfriend (the one who had died from leukemia in September, only hours after Te’o’s grandmother died), was a hoax. Deadspin’s slant seemed to imply that Te’o was in on the ruse. The story ignited a firestorm on Twitter, and the rest of the internet world, where fans, along with some in the media, agreed and began calling Te’o a liar and a fraud. We learned about the TV show “Catfish” and psychological terms like “confirmation bias.” The thing that stood out the most, though, was the reminder that media love to rush a great story into print or onto the web, whether it’s true or not. Judgments abounded about Te’o, good and bad. Whether or not they were true didn’t matter. Reporters told you first (good and bad), and that’s what counted. The pompous and arrogant nature of our media culture reared its ugly head, disguising itself in a quest for what they called the “truth,” as if they created the definition. They were entitled to every piece of information about Te’o’s life, and regardless if what they reported was true the first time, they were going to tell you the truth this time—despite not talking to Te’o or the purported mastermind of the hoax, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo. The media’s reasoning? It was somewhat twisted, if not ironic, and went something like this: “We know you were involved, just like we knew your girlfriend was real. And, well, this is truth because we just believe it is. And, well, even though we have condemned you without talking to you, we deserve answers! Now! You liar!” That’s the arrogance behind the reasoning, albeit twisted. And that’s the mainstream media in a nutshell, especially in this social-media driven world where speed trumps accuracy (I reference the Associated Press story that came out after the Newtown, Conn., shootings, apologizing for getting so many facts wrong.) Seems some in the mainstream media didn’t read that apology or didn’t learn the lesson. After Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick held a press conference the night the Deadspin story came out, explaining the complexity of the hoax, that they had hired an independent, national private investigation firm, that Te’o wasn’t a part of the scam, that he’d been duped similar to what the TV show “Catfish” portrays, the media didn’t buy it. Reporters, though, trying to be neutral by playing both sides of the Te’o story, said they didn’t know who to believe. Usually, though, while trying to play both sides, they ended up on one side, questioning Te’o’s character by subtly implying he was involved or arrogantly saying he was involved—even though they hadn’t talked to him and weren’t sure. 2

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Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images

Te’o talked two days later, but that was too late for most. What we’ve learned since is that Tuiasosopo has confessed to multiple people, including a friend from church and the woman whose picture he used to start the ruse, that he was the mastermind behind that hoax and that Te’o didn’t know. Most disturbing, though, is the media’s handling of what Te’o told Schaap and later Katie Couric in exclusive interviews after Jan. 16. Te’o told Schaap and Couric that after he received a phone call on Dec. 6 that it was a hoax, he was shocked, confused, and that his emotions were all over the place and that he didn’t know if that was even true. He then did interviews several days later talking about his girlfriend’s death as if it happened. Schaap believed him, saying he understood and that it was plausible that Te’o really still thought his girlfriend was dead and that the phone call on Dec. 6 was some type of sick prank. Most in the media didn’t buy that either. It was as if they had the thread they so desperately wanted and needed to hang their argument on, so they could be redeemed from this mess they created because of their rush to tell a good story or to beat their competition. They were on a crusade for the truth, but until they heard what they considered the truth, it wouldn’t be true. But are we any different? Despite all of the mind-boggling information, we have to remember not to rush to judgment. We (that includes the media, you, and me), have all done it—in our minds, with our mouths, or through our actions. With our family, friends, neighbors, politicians, and even Manti Te’o. Fortunately, though, we aren’t God. Brett Honeycutt is the Only one person can managing editor of Sports claim to be all knowSpectrum magazine. His column ing—and we, as Chrisaddresses controversial topics tians, don’t need a refrom a biblical perspective. porter to tell us that.

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OPINION w w w. u n p a c k i n i t . c o m | F o l l o w @ b r y c e r a d i o

Every week Bryce Johnson is joined on Sports Spectrum’s official podcast, Unpackin’ It, by inspiring guests to discuss sports, faith and life. Listen to the full audio of all his interviews on unpackinit.com. Below are some highlights from Bryce’s interview with Renaldo Wynn, who played defensive end at Notre Dame and then played 13 seasons in the NFL for the Redskins, Giants, Jaguars and Saints. He currently works for Game Plan for Life, his former coach Joe Gibb’s ministry.

BRYCE JOHNSON: First, a few questions about your former teams in the news. As a Redskins fan and former player, did you think Robert Griffin III should have stayed in the game despite his injury? RENALDO WYNN: That first knee buckle that he had, I was like, “Hey they need to take him out. They need to take him out now and just put Kirk Cousins in there and finish the second half”…RG III was neutralized. Being injured, he was not the same RG III…I just felt, even just for himself and his career alone, prolonging his career, this is not just a one-year deal, he is the franchise. When you’re looking at an eight-year commitment, and more than that hopefully, you just don’t want him to put that in jeopardy and end his career. So I just think…the call should have been made. I know RG III is a heck of a competitor and he said countless times on the interview that, “Hey, I felt I could go.” Sometimes it’s not his decision. It’s the coaches’. BRYCE JOHNSON: Even though Notre Dame lost in the championship, how do you feel about your alma mater moving forward? RENALDO WYNN: I think every team has their down time, but there are certain teams that sooner or later they’re gonna be back. We’ve had a long down time. I don’t think I’m stretched to say that I think we’ll be right back in the hunt again next year with the talent that we have. We’ve got a young quarterback who has a year under his belt. I think the thing we need to work on is probably depth. We’re really lacking in our depth. BRYCE JOHNSON: I’d love to hear about your faith and how you came to know Christ. What is your story? RENALDO WYNN: Everything was football. As a result, my grades really fell because of it. I wasn’t putting the time into my grades and academics when I was at Notre Dame like I was in football, and I was on academic probation. I came to a point where I was on my last leg and about to get kicked out of school, and for the first time in two years when I was at Notre Dame I just got on my knees and humbled myself and prayed and 4

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asked God to help me when I was in that valley. He immediately answered my prayers and sent me a wife, and in that same semester I was able to make it out of academic probation and make the Dean’s List. So I give all glory to God, it wasn’t me…I began going to church, but I still didn’t totally commit. It wasn’t until right before I got drafted with Jacksonville that my wife and I totally gave our life to Christ. It was awesome being drafted with Jacksonville and being a part of a team that was Christ-oriented. When I say that, professional sports it’s hard to really witness to guys, but to go on to a team where our leaders Mark Brunell, Tony Boselli and a whole crew of different guys were on fire for the Lord, it made my walk a little easier I guess. BRYCE JOHNSON: So you have to tell me more about why you prayed for a wife and how God sent you a wife. RENALDO WYNN: At that time, I was in so many different relationships with so many different women. I was still lonely. There was no fulfillment. The lies had continued to mound up, lie after lie. I told so many lies, I couldn’t even remember the next lie I was telling. The pressure of dealing with different relationships with all the different women had begun to really get to me. I asked God to send me someone that’s for me. I was tired. As a result He sent me my wife. I met her a couple months after that, and then we got married three months later. BRYCE JOHNSON: Are you serious? Wow! RENALDO WYNN: In the midst of all the stuff that had happened, I knew this was right. In the midst of all that, God will send you someone, a helpmate…He knows we can’t do things on our own. For me it was my wife. I wanted to change, but I wasn’t doing the things to change. So he had to send me someone. I really believe that...she was that inspiration for me to give it all I had…from there I really believe it was because God sent her to me that I was able to not only stay in school, but make the Dean’s List.

BRYCE’S BEST Book: Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler This book is so intelligently simple and is one of the best books I’ve read. The Bible’s gospel is so beautiful, and with Matt’s unique personality, he explains it in a very insightful yet entertaining way. He breaks down the gospel, as well as life’s purpose, to allow readers to understand God’s role, Jesus’ role, creation’s role, and our role in it.

Movie: “The Dark Knight Rises” If you love worship music as much as I do, I highly recommend the new album by Zachary Kale. His lyrics are so strong and God-focused. I really enjoy the song “Greater Than All” with lyrics that include, “ Your name is greater, God you are Savior, Jesus it’s you alone, both now and forever, hope and defender, You’ll be our victory song.” It’s a very powerful album with worshipful songs to give glory to the One who deserves it. Tap Drill: Quick thoughts about faith, sports, life and entertainment • Tim Tebow will be an NFL starting quarterback again and that the Denver Broncos losing with Peyton Manning helps Tebow’s case for being a starter. • The Lakers and the Heat still have big winning streaks ahead of them this season. Both teams have shown weaknesses, but they will shine in the second half of the year. • Lance Armstrong needs to experience grace and forgiveness, but I am also convinced there are major consequences when you do what he did. • Russell Wilson is the most likeable player in the NFL now. His personality and style of play is fantastic, so it’s easy to root for him. • The new Manti Te’o story is the most bizarre story I’ve heard involving sports. This changes everything moving forward, from the way fans view heartwarming stories to the way writers cover them because now there will be questions about the truthfulness of the stories.

Proverbs 2:6 says, “ For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” That is the heart of this book, which ties together scripture and sports to minister to sports fans, who are looking to grow deeper in ther faith with God.

Wisdom & Sports explores all 31 chapters of Proverbs and 31 spiritually inspiring stories on well-known Christian athletes like baseball stars Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton and Mariano Rivera, pro football players Tim Tebow, Drew Brees and Derrick Brooks, international soccer star Kaka, surfer Bethany Hamilton, golfer Aaron Baddeley, coach- ing legends John Wooden and Tony Dungy as well as 20 more features on athletes and coaches in various sports.

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SPORTS SPECTRUM ~ DIGIMAG 2012

CLICK HERE to listen to John Harbaugh talk about what drives him 6

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John Harbaugh - Baltimore Ravens head coach

“I credit it to the faith that our team has in their Lord above...a trust and a faith in a greater power. A spiritual strength that is throughout our football team,and I just have to say that. I have to say that.” For more in-depth Christian athlete profiles, visit www.sportsspectrum.com/resources/ testimonials.php

CLICK HERE

Al Bello / Getty Images

to read an SS feature on John Harbaugh

he “Hello Kitty” poster was the first clue: Something was amiss. This couldn’t actually be the office of an NFL head coach, could it? Where were the pithy motivational placards about success, endurance and teamwork? Where were the ostentatious odes to football or the coach’s own achievements? And how did this girly paraphernalia make it past security? This is, after all, the NFL, which has annals filled with stories of blustering men who rule football fiefdoms like medieval lords and treat their serfs accordingly... Read more here by clicking above or visiting this web address: http://www.sportsspectrum.com/articles/2012/01/20/inthe-news-john-harbaugh/

Daniel Kilgore

- San Francisco 49ers center/guard (#67) “Just talking to students and letting them see I was not always perfect. In college, I wasn’t living like I should have been. I was just getting by. Once I changed my life around, I got back in church, started hanging out with the right people. And being where I am today, telling my story and seeing the kids how they react, it’s awesome. It’s a blessing.” For more in-depth Christian athlete profiles, visit www.sportsspectrum.com/resources/ testimonials.php

SPORTS SPECTRUM ~ DIGIMAG 2013

CLICK HERE to listen to Daniel Kilgore on Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images

Sports Spectrumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s faith and sports podcast

SPORTS SPECTRUM ~ DIGIMAG 2013

Kelly Clark

- Defending Winter X Games superpipe champion who is a seven-time Winter X Games medalist, including three gold, and a two-time Olympic medalist, including one gold “(I asked myself,) ‘Could I ever wake up another day and not think about God?’ And the answer was ‘no’ because He was already so real and active. And I asked myself, ‘Could I ever run from Him?’ And I was like, ‘No, because I know that He loves me.’ So I was like, ‘Okay, that’s it, and then I gave my heart to the Lord.” For more in-depth Christian athlete profiles, visit www.sportsspectrum.com/resources/ testimonials.php

CLICK HERE CLICK HERE

to watch ‘One Year,’ a Nations Foundation documentary about Kelly Clark 10

SPORTS SPECTRUM ~ DIGIMAG 2013

to read an SS feature on Kelly Clarke

elly Clark sat alone in a Utah hotel room, writing in her journal. It was another contest beginning another season: 2004, two years past the pinnacle of her stellar career when she became the first American female to win an Olympic snowboarding gold medal. That same year, 2002, she also won every other event, including the Winter X Games, and attained all her professional goals—at age 18. Clark was the queen of snowboarding and had everything: fame, money, travel, the ability to dictate her career. It was incredible—for a little while.... Read more here by clicking above or visiting this web address: http://www.sportsspectrum.com/articles/2013/01/24/canthide-her-love/

Ezra Shaw / Getty Images

Eric Willett

- Pro snowboarder, slopestyle Dew Tour gold medalist (2012), Winter X Games silver medalist (2010) “I believe God gives everyone a talent, and He’s given me snowboarding for the time being. I use it to honor Him by being a role model in the industry. It’s a very worldly sport, so I do my best to shine some light and influence people through my actions and attitude.” For more in-depth Christian athlete profiles, visit www.sportsspectrum.com/resources/ testimonials.php

LOOK FOR a feature story on Eric Willett in an upcoming issue of Sports Spectrum

Doug Pensinger / Getty Images

SPORTS SPECTRUM ~ DIGIMAG 2013

Camilla Stoddart / Getty Images

SPORTS SPECTRUM ~ DIGIMAG 2013

avid Wise stood on deck at the top of the superpipe in Aspen, Colo. Before him stretched the perfectly groomed ice and snow tube carved 567 feet long into the mountainside. As he mentally prepared, Wise watched competitor Justin Dorey smash into the lip in what ESPN called “one of the gnarliest crashes in years.” (Thankfully, Dorey walked away with only an injured shoulder.) It wasn’t the kind of precursor you want before beginning your own high-speed attempt at defying gravity in a giant geographic playground. Wise was already nervous about one trick in his run—the first trick in his run—the same trick that had just crumpled Dorey. The 21-year-old freeskier from Reno, Nev., paused to refocus. He said a prayer and told himself, It’s just another run. But it wasn’t just another run. This was the 2012 Winter X Games finals, the snowy epicenter of the action sports world. And Wise was poised to claim the biggest victory of his freeskiing career. He pointed his skis, picked up speed and dropped into the pipe— backwards. He rocketed down one 22-foot wall, across the floor of the superpipe and up the other near-vertical wall, launching himself into three end-over-end rotations—think flips turned on a diagonal axis. In other words, picture throwing a coffee mug into the air and watching it wobble around rather than flip straight over. Wise was the human coffee mug with fiberglass skis on both feet, spinning around and around 20 feet in the air over the top of the pipe, 42 feet above its bottom. His landing target was the vertical wall. His switch double flip was flawless. And that was only the beginning. Wise’s height out of the pipe, or amplitude in X-speak, was three feet higher than the other skiers’ average. And he capped his stellar run with a huge double cork 1260 with a mute grab—three and a half diagonal flips while holding a ski with one hand. The impressive performance secured X Games gold. The victory was the beginning of a breakout 2012 season that also included wins at the next two major contests: the Dew Tour in Snowbasin, Utah, and the U.S. Grand Prix in Mammoth, Calif. And the season positioned Wise as a favorite heading into the Olympic qualifying year before the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia. But before America starts chanting his name in unison, there’s something you need to know about David Wise: He’s not your typical action sports star. Yes, he loves amplitude and hucking big tricks— he was the first skier to land a double cork 1260 in the halfpipe. Yes, he’s young—though at 21 he was the oldest on the Winter X Games podium in 2012. And yes, he is sponsored by an energy food and drink company. But Wise is also a husband and father who eschews any of the industry’s arDavid Wise: Freestyle Ski World Cup half pipe final at the U.S. Grand Prix on January 11, 2013 16

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rogant swagger. His image is bouncing his toddler, Nayeli, and leading the youth group at his church back home in Reno rather than partying with the snow sports elite. It’s a difference that the action sports media has quickly noted. Wise humbly views it all as part of who God has and continues to make him. “Skiing is my art,” Wise says. “It’s the skill, the talents and opportunities that God has given me to show the world what I think skiing should look like and what I think beauty is. Skiing is my way of worshiping.” David and Lexi met in high school at a church leadership camp at Hume Lake. They shared a camp crush; then went their separate ways. Wise was focused on pursuing his career and becoming the best skier possible. He figured he might get married around 30 if that was what it took to pursue his goals. But when he ran into Lexi at church several years after that camp. Things clicked. The couple was married within a year. Another year later, Nayeli was born. Others have noted that Wise didn’t win any platinum level contests like the X Games until after his marriage and the birth of his daughter. He doesn’t dismiss the insight. “Being a pro athlete is a selfish trade,” he says. It’s easy to be consumed with fine tuning every movement, every trick, every morsel of nutrition or every edge to become fitter and better. But Wise has found that his family relationships have turned his focus outside of himself. “Having a family and being a father figure and supporter of a family instead of just skiing for myself has changed my whole outlook on life,” Wise says. “When I finally stopped worrying about succeeding and making money, then I started winning. There are things that are hard, but you learn you’re no longer living for yourself; you’re living for your wife and family.” Lexi and Nayeli are with Wise at as many contests as possible. He calls it “so cool and unexpected and different and at the same time so normal.” Wise also stays grounded by meeting weekly with two friends, including his former youth pastor, Mike Koudreit. He credits those guys with helping him grow spiritually and keeping him from feeling like a spiritual island in his sport. Koudreit remembers Wise as an energetic middleschooler launching flips and gainers off boulders into Lake Tahoe on church retreats. Now he describes his friend as “passionate, resolute and persistent.” “I appreciate his level of humility,” Koudreit says. “It’s refreshing to see a world-class athlete hang out just completely as a friend. There’s no hierarchy, just friendship based on history and common belief.” Of course, a shared practical joke is fairly common as well—like several Christmases ago when the three friends captured a duck late at night. They placed the bird in a box in the living room of a friend. “They found the box, picked it up and ended up with a duck flying around in their house,” Koudreit says. That sense of humor makes Wise a natural for leading the youth group at his Reno church. Lexi takes point while David travels to competitions during the winter, but the couple serves as youth pastors for the group. “If I can give back, I want to be involved,” he says. “He genuinely enjoys the kids,” Koudreit says. “He has a good ability of not trying to come from above them or impress them— he jumps into wherever they are with different maturity levels and beliefs. He’d probably work with the group even if he wasn’t skiing.” Wise knows how vulnerable the teen years can be. He struggled in high school when his parents divorced, and he rebelled against his family’s Christian faith at that time. He was a top national skier then, too, and wanted badly to be the best of the best. He says

Richard Bord / Getty Images

David Wise from the USA rides the Superpipe during the Winter X-Games in Europe.

he would have bought into the whole self-centered lifestyle to reach the top. He could land the tricks the X Games athletes were doing. But his perfect practice runs kept turning to frustration in contests. It fueled his anger at God, and he tried to fill his emptiness with skiing. It didn’t work. “Some of the ugliness of the world drew me away from God for a little while, but that experience brought me back tenfold,” he says. “Coming back was like Wow, now I can see for myself that this faith is worthwhile. It’s true; it’s real; it’s raw; it’s powerful.” As for the current youth group kids, Wise thinks most of them don’t comprehend the level he competes at. A few do, and some hound him for the ubiquitous action sports energy drinks. Some are clueless, he says. And that’s fine with him. Wise’s approach to expressing his faith in the ski world is similarly low-key. His style is not Tim Tebow’s. You won’t hear Wise invoking God in most interviews. But you will hear him talking about serving others and placing his wife and daughter’s needs above his own. Those are radical concepts in the circles of individual action athletes and the industry built on promoting image. As Wise’s performance and profile have soared, a common media angle is “Who is this humble guy who would rather hang out with his wife and kid than party?” The answers are respectful and admiring. They should be. Wise comes across as thoughtful and well-spoken, whether he’s discussing designing and testing new ski prototypes, being a family man or living out his faith. It’s easy to forget he’s

still only 22. Wise says he would rather consistently live out his faith before talking a lot about it. The style matches his personality—not loud and in your face. “I don’t tell my Christian friends I’m a pro skier. I don’t tell my skier friends I’m a Christian,” Wise says. “But you’re going to find out if you spend enough time with me either way.” Still he’s been criticized by some Christians for not preaching more. “He tries to be sincere and honest to himself and to his beliefs and faith,” Koudreit says. “Sometimes I’m a little too quiet. Sometimes I could be more outspoken,” Wise says. “At the same time, I do enjoy when people come up and say, ‘You’re really different. What’s the deal with that?’” With Wise’s star continuing to rise, that question will pop up more and more. Jeremy V. Jones is a freelance writer based in Colorado. His books include Toward the Goal: The Kaká Story and Triple Dog Dare.

Photo courtesy of Nick Visconti

UNSEEN ONE YEAR AFTER TAKING BRONZE IN THE 2012 WINTER X GAMES, NICK VISCONTI IS IN A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MENTAL, RELATIONAL AND GEOGRAPHIC STATE BY STEPHEN COPELAND

Photo courtesy of Nick Visconti

he drive from Lake Tahoe to Seattle is about 13 hours. The road, like a river, winds its way through an array of landscapes—mountains, valleys, forests, desert, and high plains—as if God is showcasing His most beautiful paintings. Nick Visconti is on the road, the river. He doesn’t secondguess his direction, just as water doesn’t question its current. There’s something as mysterious, unexplainable, and true as gravity that’s pushing him. Like the flow of a river, he can feel its direction. He cannot see it. But he can feel it—the thrill of adventure as he looks ahead, hand on the wheel, toward an open road of endless opportunity, yet a reality as poignant as lost love, as he sees everything in his rear-view mirror vanish quickly behind him. His comfort zone and contentment. His family and friends. Everything he once knew. Lost in the miles. Visconti is wearing a snowcap, aviators, flannel, and tight Sessions jeans, the same pants he snowboards in. He has his windows down and is blasting 90’s grunge rock. He looks hip, like he could play gui-

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tar in coffee shops, but also hard-core, like a Johnny-Knoxville-sort-of-crazy, like he snowboards down mountains and leaps off cliffs…which, he does. If you saw him on the street, you may think he painted graffiti on a library, but if you heard him speak, you may think he’s read every book in the library. He’s extreme like a skydiver and reckless like a cowboy, but he has the vernacular of a poet and the gentleness of a counselor. When ESPN asked him about his past “record” in snowboarding competitions, he replied, “I don’t keep records because I don’t spin vinyl.” When they asked if there was anything else he’d like to talk about, he said, “This morning I danced with the sunrise to the Moulin Rouge soundtrack.” Visconti, the 2012 Winter X Games bronze medalist in the snowboarding street contest, is his own man. “The drive to Seattle was vivid imagery, almost foreshadowing what I was about to experience—really, what we will experience in all of life because of the different landscapes and terrains,” Visconti says softly and elegantly, almost as if he’s reading. “There were different weather patterns. There was blue sky, where all you could see was the expansion of the sky meeting the horizon in dark, vivid, blue and beautiful colors. At the same time, I would go over areas of the northwest, and it was dreary,

doom, gloom and torrential downpours. Everything metaphorically spoke to not only how I was feeling but foreshadowed life as a whole…You can clop all those words together and create a picture. But at the end of the day, I was feeling.” Leaving northern California for Seattle made about as much sense as the 6-foot, 155-pound Visconti dropping snowboarding to be a linebacker. It was where he had spent his entire life, where his family lived, where his closest friends lived, where the girl he loved lived. It was where his snowboarding career began and where it blossomed. Northern California claimed him as its own. It was where he was loved. Visconti’s life, on the outside, had never looked better. After eight years of balancTO SUBSCRIBE TO SPORTS SPECTRUM: CALL 1-866-821-2971

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SPORTS SPECTRUM ~ DIGIMAG 2013

Photo courtesy of Nick Visconti

ing snowboarding and his college education, taking one semester of school each year, he had finally attained his bachelor’s degree in Speech Communications from the University of Nevada. One of his lifelong academic goals, after nearly a decade of dedication, was finally complete. But it didn’t stop there. After receiving his degree that December, Visconti took bronze in the street contest of the 2012 Winter X Games in January, thus earning him an automatic invite to the 2013 Winter X Games on Jan. 24-27. In a year, he had gone from aspiring snowboarder and student to bronze medalist

SPORTS SPECTRUM ~ DIGIMAG 2013

and graduate. He had achieved two of the most important things he sought after in life: academic and athletic success. “Those were very grand things,” Visconti says. “Although I want them to continue evolving, when I kind of came to climactic endpoints of both of those accomplishments, I was kind of questioning, ‘Well, what’s next?’ It was somewhat mediocre and felt somewhat empty…Aesthetically, things looked great. Internally, I felt a lack of direction. I felt hollowness, but more than anything, an insurmountable desire to make a change. Seattle was that change.” In April, Visconti left everything he

knew. He wanted more than academic and athletic accolades. He craved meaning. Why Seattle, he doesn’t exactly know. He just says it was a “faith-based” move. And that’s the thing about a river’s water; it doesn’t have to explain its direction. It simply flows. There’s something pushing it. “That life was something that, at that point, was lackluster,” he says of northern California. “It was dim-lit, and I was ready to shine.”

≈≈≈ Someone handed Laura Lawson a soda,

Photo courtesy of Laura Lawson Photo courtesy of Laura Lawson

ABOVE: Writer and artist Laura Lawson has already been told she should use a cane because of her eye disease, Retinitis Pigmentosa. Though her vision is digressing slowly, Lawson estimates she will be completely blind in 20 years if there is no healing. BELOW: Lawson’s drawing was a means of expression during a time of hurting.

and she didn’t even know it was there. “Your peripheral vision is terrible,” her friend told her, holding the soda. Over the next few weeks Lawson realized she couldn’t see things, even if they were placed right next to her face. At first she didn’t think it was a big deal. But just in case, she decided to get her eyes checked out. Lawson, who was studying fine arts at Laguna College of Art & Design at the time, was referred to an ophthalmologist. Then another. And another. Nothing. In March of 2010, she found herself sitting in a San Francisco doctor’s office with one of the top eye specialists and researchers in the nation, and listening to the bitter truth that she had a rare eye disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa, something only 1 in every 4,000 people have. And Lawson was one of them. Because her digression was so slow, she hadn’t noticed that she had lost 70-75 percent of her peripheral vision over the course of her lifetime. She was told she would lose the rest of it. Not just her peripheral vision. But all of it. One day she would have a cane, and she would be dependent on others. She was an artist going blind. “Depression definitely set in where I asked, ‘God, why am I pursuing a career when I need my eyesight? Someday, I’m going to be blind,’” Lawson says transparently. She could no longer drive a car. She noticed herself tripping over things in class. And she eventually left art school. She hit rock bottom. As for painting, she was done. She was giving up. “I left school completely devastated, and my heart was in a very vulnerable place,” Lawson says. “No one told me, ‘Hey, it’s okay to grieve. It’s okay to cry about this. It’s okay to grieve the loss of something so incredibly precious.’” Instead of painting, she began writing. Her words inspired people, and she developed a large, online following in low-vision communities. And, while encouraging others was fulfilling, she couldn’t hide what she was feeling privately. She was wrestling with reality and blinded by depression. Hope and peace, she couldn’t see—and understandably so. The disease was getting the best of her. “It really was a very interesting journey for me where I immediately thought I was okay,” Lawson says. “I thought, ‘Okay I’m a Christian, you trust God through hard times. That’s what you do. So

“Depression definitely set in where I asked, ‘God, why am I pursuing a career when I need my eyesight? Someday, I’m going to be blind.’”

SPORTS SPECTRUM ~ DIGIMAG 2013

I’m fine.’ But all the while, I was actually really suffering. I was really hurting. There was this huge pressure I put on myself to be okay and trust God. I felt like, as a good Christian, I shouldn’t be questioning this. I shouldn’t be questioning, ‘Why me?’ and I shouldn’t be feeling so sad. I should be able to trust God. “However, the thing is, I felt like God was grieving right along with me.”

≈≈≈

Photo courtesy of Laura Lawson

Nick Visconti got a call one day from Laura Lawson, the girl he had wanted and pursued ever since they met three years before in a northern California wine bar through a mutual friend. “I’m going to Seattle,” she told him over the phone, the first time he had heard her voice in two months. “Well, very interesting thing you say that,” he said. “I’m moving to Seattle next week.” Visconti and Lawson have an interesting past, something Visconti calls a “romantic entanglement.” For three years, Visconti wanted to date her, but their paths never aligned. Visconti was traveling continually, immersed in his snowboarding career and earning a degree. She had art school and was wrestling internally with her disease. He lived in Lake Tahoe. She lived three hours away in the Bay Area. “Whenever he was in town, we would hang out,” Lawson says. “We always had this spark, but my heart was not in it. I saw someone who had his life on a very exposed platform. Nick is an amazing person, but he is a very intense person and I felt like I wasn’t ready for that kind of relationship.” Everything changed in Seattle. The two of them began dating and Lawson decided she had finally found her match, that his extremity was exactly what she needed. “In Seattle, I told him that this is the reality of what I have,” Lawson says. “But the thing with Nick is that he is just adven-

SPORTS SPECTRUM ~ DIGIMAG 2013

turous and a daredevil and does not let anything get in his way ,and he pursues life to the fullest more than anyone else I’ve ever known, so for God to put him in my life, for me, is like a necessity. “When Nick and I met (three years ago), I was living very cautiously and letting my disease get the best of me. It’s been largely through dating him that I’ve realized that I need to not let this define me and go out and live life and be adventurous and make the most of my time now…There are times when it gets the best of me, and there are still hard days. It’s an emotional thing. It’s difficult. But he’s just a great example to me of someone who takes risks. What he does for a living is certainly risky in itself, and he really does pull me in a good direction and I think the people who have known me for a long time see that influence.” Not only did their relationship click in Seattle, but so did their personal lives. Visconti, who is unofficially the first snowboarder to land a “Christ Air” and is “one of the most progressive snowLEFT: Visconti recently took Lawson snowboarding for the first time. BELOW: Lawson tweeted that Dec. 21, 2012, was the happiest day of her life. RIGHT: Visconti and Joel Parker, the founder of Nations Foundation and producer of“Anthropology,”worship with their“family”in Africa.

Photo courtesy of Nick Visconti Photo courtesy of Laura Lawson

boarders riding today” according to ESPN’s Matt Vanatta, saw his snowboarding platform and ministry grow exponentially. Nations Foundation, a snowboarding ministry that creates stories through film to reach out to the action games culture, contacted Visconti to do a 45-minute year-in-the-life production about him titled “Anthropology,” a project that led to his involvement with World Vision and a snowboarding/mission trip to Africa. As for Lawson, she started painting again and signed a book deal with Slim Books for her upcoming memoir “Believing is Seeing,” which is about her return to art and her move to Seattle, a project she completed this January. “When you start trusting God in the small things—He does fulfill his promises and is true to his Word—it’s easier to trust Him in the big things,” Visconti says. “You see that He is not only authoring but perfecting your life according to His will as Scripture promises. “Once you start to realize that all of this is God’s story, and we’re merely characters in that, being guided by the Holy Spirit, you can let go and give God control and see that He is doing something crazier and more beautiful than you can ever imagine or even write yourself.” Two days before Christmas, eight months after Lawson and Visconti separately moved to Seattle and began dating, the two of them stood outside on the snow-covered ground at an alpine lake in northern California. Snow slowly fell from the sky, and the sun was shining brightly. It was so still they could hear one another breathe. Visconti got down on one knee, and everything felt right.

≈≈≈ They say seeing is believing, but it’s kind of a lie. It’s true if taken literally, but false in what it fundamentally implies. It places all belief on what’s known, what you can see. It places no belief in what’s unknown, what takes faith. You can live your life by the idiom, like much of society, but don’t be surprised when your life lacks risk and adventure, faith and beauty. Don’t be surprised when, like Thomas, your cynicism and doubt betray you, as your hands touch the wounds of Jesus and the Savior responds, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” It’s impossible to flow with the current if all you do is question its direction; to drive to Seattle if all you desire is comfort; to start painting if you’re blinded by the future; to take a risk without belief. The most beautiful things, often times, are the things you can’t see. “The faith-based life, living according to God’s will, is a mighty and extreme calling, but it’s also a radical calling,” Visconti says, talking gently and quietly. “I still have uncertainties. There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not thankful for what God has done, that I don’t see how He has orchestrated beautifully my life, but there are still things I just don’t understand, a future I’m uncertain of. There’s still the daily grind that has its difficulties and struggles, but,” he says, making a long pause and speaking even quieter, “I do know that I am confident in the fact that He’s got me. That’s what the faithbased life is, not that everything is easy, but that you have hope.” Stephen Copeland is a staff writer at Sports Spectrum magazine.

SPORTS SPECTRUM ~ DIGIMAG 2013

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Underwater

ately, I’ve been thinking a lot about fish. I wonder if they fantasize about leaving the water and living on land. Like, does a blue gill dream of one day working on Wall Street? Does he fantasize about walking down the streets of New York City with a briefcase and his morning coffee, answering emails and checking scores on his iPhone? Outside a Pixar film idea, it’s kind of a strange thought. Why? Because fish are content and free in the water and have no desire to wear a suit or dabble in the stock market. But there have been times in my life when I’ve felt like that fish. Religion, at times I have thought, is like water; it’s restricting. The high life, on the other hand, is land. Then I hear a story like Joel Parker’s… Joel Parker was on his way back from the slopes. He pounded another beer and chucked the bottle out the sunroof of his Subaru station wagon. He pressed his foot on the accelerator, his friends laughing in From left to right: Joel Parker, professional snowboarder Nick Visconti and the backseat, anxiously peering out the rear-window to see if the snowboarding legend Dave Downing. bottle struck a brand new car in the dealership parking lot. A fun day of snowboarding was never enough for he and his heroine. I didn’t want to do crack.” friends in high school. Drinking underage was never enough. At 18 years old, with snowboarding stripped from his life, Parker Drinking underage while driving was never enough. Drinking un- found freedom in the very thing he had been running from. derage while driving and vandalizing a Benz? Ah, there it is. That “I used to see Christianity as conformity,” Parker says. “I wantwas enough. For the day, at least. ed to be adventurous. I wanted to live life to its full. And, come to “If we went to school the next day and didn’t have a story about find out—John 10:10—Jesus is the one who does that.” something radical, insane, or bad we were doing, we weren’t living Now, at 35, Parker is the founder of Nations Foundation, a snowlife,” Parker reflects. “That’s where we found adrenaline, excite- boarding ministry that tells stories through film and impacts thoument, and life...If I wasn’t going 100 mph with my hair on fire, I sands of snowboarders worldwide. Parker is going after the culture wasn’t happy.” that nearly destroyed him. Parker never wore Nike. He wore Vans or Volcom. In eighth “I know that culture is in bondage, and I know how enslavgrade, he punched his teacher. In high school, he and his friends ing the lifestyle becomes after a while,” Parker says. “I stand beonce stole a $500 snowboarding rack from a broken-down car on fore you now 18 years later, and I’m free today. I have complete the way up to the mountain. He would sometimes get his “old, freedom in Jesus. I’m content as a person. Not trying to impress piece-of-junk” Subaru up to 110 miles per hour. anybody. Not even trying to impress God. I’m just a guy who, Snowboarding, as a sport, had no rules, and the lifestyle was every day, I’m trying to receive His grace even more and try to unno different. It lured him in. He had nothing to do with religion derstand it even more. I really found life in Christ to be the most because religion had nothing to do with him. Religion had rules adventurous, freeing, transforming thing I’ve ever partaken in.” and he had none. If you’re at the crossroads of freedom or adventure, you should think “I had been around Christians,” says Parker, who went to a about fish. Theologian Timothy Keller mentions in “The Reason for Christian middle school and high school. “I just kind of assumed God” that fish are restricted to water, and yet, they thrive in the water. that religion was trying to make you better. I had more fun being We’re very comparable to fish, I think. We’re created by God and bad than being good. I thought Christianity was all about being wired by God. God is our water. And, you can look at water as a restricgood and acting and behaving a certain way…I saw bondage.” tion, but there’s nothing freeing, nor enjoyable about dying on land. One day, Parker suffered a third-degree back sprain off a jump Ever find it weird that 95 percent of the underwater world remains while snowboarding backcountry. unexplored? It makes me wish I could explore it. It makes me jealous “I kept pushing it and pushing it,” Parker says. “I kept going as of fish. The Christian life, big as I could possibly go, and at some point, your body can’t take I’ve found, is a lot like the Stephen Copeland is a staff a landing from x amount of feet high.” ocean. It’s infinitely deep. writer and columnist at All around, his “no rules” mentality started betraying him. He It’s to be discovered. Sports Spectrum magazine. was cooped up for a year without snowboarding; one of his friends Joel Parker challenges His column tackles sports impregnated a girl; two of his friends wound up paralyzed. all of us to either start and faith from another “For me, the thrills started running out,” Parker says. “How swimming or venture deepangle, whether it’s much faster can you drive a car? I didn’t want to go from pot to er. humorous, personal or controversial. SPORTS SPECTRUM ~ DIGIMAG 2012