Totally New Concept

Kaitlyn Acciari, Stephanie McQuaid and Kelly Backes Decorations from the get-together at the Hasselbecks’ home.

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 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

James every Friday morning. Others began preparing for moves to new cities.

As is common with all professional sports, trades and free agency happen. Defenseman Torey Krug signed as a free agent in October with St. Louis, meaning he’ll be leaving the Bruins’ men’s group and his wife, Mel, will be leaving the women’s group. David Backes was traded from Boston to Anaheim in February, so they’ll be moving west whenever the 2021 season begins. And Adam McQuaid is a free agent, meaning he and Stephanie could leave Boston too.

Yet, the beauty of what has been started in Boston is that it can be replicated anywhere. Whether it’s on Zoom or in small groups, Stephanie, for one, is now more confident in leading others, having been poured into by Sarah Hasselbeck.

“I’m not quite sure what it’s going to look like. But my husband and I are still in Boston and so I’m hoping to continue something. Sarah lives in the city too, which has been really cool. I feel like she’s been a huge help. I feel like because she’s been pouring into me, I’ve been able to pour into other people, if that makes sense; having that support from someone who’s been part of a lot of different Bible studies over the years,” Stephanie says. “So we’ll see. I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but we’re definitely going to keep it going.”

A group appears to be brewing in Anaheim. When the Backes soon move to California, they’ll know Danton Heinen and his girlfriend, Julie Sternberg, who were a part of the Boston groups before Heinen was traded in February. And they’ll also know Josh and Julie Manson, who were at the hockey conference last year (the 2020 event was canceled due to COVID) and have been in Anaheim since he broke into the NHL in 2014.

“Steph McQuaid spearheaded it for us, and she was kind of our fearless leader where she really helped all of us; she just initiated everything and got that group chat going,” Kelly says. “I think you just need that one person that’s like, ‘I’m gonna do this.’

“And I think God’s working through me in this way.”

Adam and Stephanie McQuaid David and Kelly Backes with their children

Bridge Your Faith & Finances

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DREAM Chasers

When Trey, Terrell and Tremaine Edmundsall played in the same game last year, it marked the first time in more than 90 years (and only second time ever) that three brothers shared an NFL field. The journey to get there was a testament to the family’s faith in each other and in God. BY JON ACKERMAN

The pipe dream began early in the 2000s, when young Trey, Terrell and Tremaine Edmunds began showing signs of athletic ability. Some of that was inherited — from a father, Ferrell, who played seven years in the NFL, and a mother, Felicia, who was a high school state champion and college athlete in hurdles. But it was also ingrained — by those same parents who, like many elite athletes, harbored a healthy dose of competitiveness to go with their athletic gifts.

The far-fetched dream was motivation during the early-morning workouts the parents would put the boys through, before school. And it remained an inspiration during the boys’ evening workouts, after practice with their school’s sports teams. When Ferrell and Felicia asked the boys at a young age if they wanted to play professional sports, and they all replied affirmatively, the parents told the boys they would have to work — really hard. All three boys accepted the challenge and followed through, even on family trips, on the other side of the country, when they’d find a nearby high school or track to get in workouts.

“Man, we worked all the time,” says Trey, the oldest. “We worked all the time. We had a great childhood, don’t get me wrong. We traveled, we played when we were kids, but at the