Kaitlyn Acciari, Stephanie McQuaid and Kelly Backes
summer of 2019. Stephanie McQuaid and her husband, NHL player Adam McQuaid, attended a conference hosted by Pro Athletes Outreach (PAO). The event was shaped for NHL couples, aimed at creating a Christ-following community in a league where faith isn’t often at the forefront. At the conference, the McQuaids met former NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and his wife, Sarah, who had long been a part of the PAO community. They desired to share with NHL couples about the fellowship that had long existed in the NFL (PAO was founded in 1971 by NFL players), and when they met the McQuaids, they learned they lived only 20 minutes apart near Boston. Sarah and Stephanie exchanged numbers, and with the help of PAO, Sarah offered to host a get-together the following September at her house for Bruins women to meet some Patriots women. “It was kind of just to get the teams together, to kind of be like, ‘Look, there’s this Christian community in sports and this is what it could look like,’” Stephanie said. “I think most NFL teams have a pretty established wives Bible study, and that was just a totally new concept in the NHL for women, just something that hasn’t been done before.” Adam had started the Bible study among the men, and after meeting many NFL wives, Stephanie wondered if she was the one to start something similar for NHL women. “It was just a really encouraging day, and I left there feeling motivated and spiritually moved,” she recalled. “And I think it was Kirsten Watson (wife of former NFL player Benjamin Watson) that said to me, ‘You don’t need to do 22
SPORTS SPECTRUM
Decorations from the get-together at the Hasselbecks’ home.
anything fancy to gather these women, you just need to set a time and a place.’ “I’d never led anything before and it made me so nervous, and I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ But she was like, ‘What are you doing next week? Pick a date and time next week and tell the girls to join you.’” Mallory Brown and Natalie Wiesen, the women’s ministry leaders at PAO, offered up a devotional book on Colossians that numerous women’s groups around the NFL had studied the year before — thus solving any concern about what an NHL women’s group would be centered around. “There’s this book already done, let’s just jump in,” recalled Kelly, who also attended the event at the Hasselbecks’. “And let’s send it out to our wives chat and see who wants to jump in.” When “seven or eight girls were super interested” right away, women’s ministry in the NHL found its start.
“Fellowship” and “ministry” events aren’t officially tracked anywhere, so it’s likely that women’s Bible studies or Christian small groups in the NHL have existed in some capacity in the past. But if they have, Stephanie, whose husband entered the NHL in 2009, hasn’t been privy to them. Same goes for Kelly, whose husband joined the NHL in 2006. Whether or not their Boston wives/ girlfriends group was the first, however, is of little importance. What McQuaid and Backes are more interested in is continuing to build Christ-centered community in hockey. Their group began in September 2019, and the women alternated hosting
at their houses. Sometimes babies and kids were there, other times they’d arrange for babysitters, knowing they could all focus a little better and dive a little deeper without having to be “mom” for a couple hours. “There are so many things that connect us, whether it’s being mothers or having husbands that are playing or were active athletes,” Backes says. “But [it’s great to] just to dive deeper and connect with one another and continue to grow that vertical relationship.” “Girls have opened up about what they’re going through personally or what’s going on in their family, bringing forth prayer requests,” McQuaid says. “The fact that we’re able to pray for one another and follow up on those things, I think it’s just deepened a lot of relationships.” They finished the study on Colossians around the time the COVID pandemic hit, so in-person gatherings ceased. But like countless other Bible study groups around the world, they shifted to Zoom. Meetings continued every couple weeks and they began studying a new book, “In His Image,” by Jen Wilkin. Around the time the puck dropped for the Stanley Cup Finals in mid-September, the women finished their second book study. They’ve since taken a break, as the rest of the NHL goes through an uncertain offseason. The league announced a target start date of Jan. 1 for the next season, but as of mid– November, that still wasn’t official (even though voluntary workouts had begun at some team facilities). In the meantime, some women joined in on another virtual study through PAO, virtually going through the book of TO SUBSCRIBE: CALL 866-821-2971
