Matt Kowalczyk lives in Green Bay with his beautiful wife Karen and together they are blessed with five wonderful children: Taylor, Hunter, Jarrett, Jake, and Alex. Matt owns a financial planning firm Cornerstone Benefits Consulting and helps people not be a slave to the lender or worship the wrong god in retirement. SportsFaith is a way for Matt to fulfill the command that Jesus gives us all in Matthew 28:19-20 which I to go out and make disciples of all nations… Enjoy SportsFaith and God Bless.
Kelly Landry has taught high school and college English for fifteen years. Currently, she is staying home with her boys Hank (3) and Oscar (2). She also helps her husband Phil on a part-time basis with his land surveying business. The Landrys previously made their home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (Phil’s place of origin) but currently reside in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
Although Kelly’s first love is literature (some of her favorite authors include Ernest Hemingway, Joyce Carol Oates, and C. S. Lewis), she also has a special affection for baseball. In 2012 she published The Mental Road to the Major Leagues, a book which she wrote based on extensive interviews with major league players, coaches, and sport psychologists to explain what it takes to become a major league baseball player. She enjoys using the arena of sports to analyze human nature, relationships, and particularly people’s faith in Christ.
I was born a poor black child…oops, wrong movie. I was born outside of Philadelphia. My education was dismal. I went to a series of schools for mentally disturbed teachers. I was actually a total jock in school and entered the military after school. I was trained in Elevated Urban Assault and served on a Special Reaction Team. I had the honor of serving under General Schwarzkopf. I was diagnosed with an allergy to bullets; I broke out in blood. I was discharged and entered a much safer profession and wrestled professionally. A few major injuries derailed my career and I ran some gyms around the country. After a few years I woke and up realized that what I had been doing was trying to fill a void. I had walked the aisle as a ten year old and accepted Christ as my Savior and did everything I thought I was supposed to do. I then fell away from my faith and was trying to find fulfillment with other things; the adrenaline of the military, the glamour and glitz of wrestling, the stability of working in management. Little did I realize that all during my wandering God was preparing me. He blessed me not because of me but in spite of me. I answered His calling and rededicated my life to Him. In the process I felt a call to enter ministry and attended Seminary. I have been a vocational minister for the last twelve years.
My name is Kathy Hansen and I am a wife and mother to four amazing children. I have been a middle school Language Arts teacher for over 24 years and am passionate about helping people to reach their full potential in life. I have carried this passion into a health and fitness related business and also started a 5 am group exercise class in my town of Wrightstown. My husband and I also founded and run a nonprofit basketball program in Wrightstown that services boys and girls in grades K-12.
I am so excited to begin my journey with Sports Faith and couple two things near and dear to my heart, my faith and sports. I look forward to bring the word of God to many through the avenue of sports, and to bring the truth to so many that need and want to hear it.
Shawn lives with his wife and son. Shawn is attending Liberty University pursuing a Masters of Divinity degree. He is an avid sports fan and spends much of his free time either working on his golf game or coaching his son’s sports teams.
Brent Kelly is Professor of Religion at Simmons College of Kentucky. He received his Ph.D. from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also a Major in the National Guard where he serves as a Brigade Chaplain. He deployed to Iraq in support of Operation New Dawn. Dr. Kelly currently resides in Kentucky and can be contacted via his Facebook page, The Doctor’s Call.
As the founder and owner of Green Bay’s first personal training studio, Fitnessology, Inc., Jacqueline has maintained a leading business and has been recognized nationally as a trainer, writer and educator. She competed as a Nationally ranked bodybuilder for 10 years. Combining her passions for competing and teaching, the formula for personal success was integrating spirituality to the platform of wellness.
As the author of the Understanding the Almighty series, John’s experiences include serving as a missionary to the Indonesian community in the United States and Canada. He has also been involved with an apostolic ministry which has planted churches from Toronto, Canada, to Atlanta, Georgia, and as far west as Los Angeles, California. John has ministered as close to home as his local church and as far away as Jakarta, Indonesia, a nation containing the largest Muslim population in the world. John is also the founder, and Chief Executive Officer of Cornerstone Wealth Management, LLC. With more than twenty three years of industry experience, John has helped families all throughout the country achieve their financial goals. John believes that faith and stewardship should not be separated from a family’s financial plan. John has been married to his wife Devi, for twenty three years, and has three beautiful children. They currently reside in New Jersey.
Jorie is no ordinary dietitian. Her high energy, dedication, motivation and humor have allowed her to work with high performance athletes, corporate wellness and individuals coaching them to go beyond survival mode to create a life, a business of both success and significance. Jorie received her undergrad degree at the University of Manitoba and furthered her education with the prestigious 2 year International Olympic Committee Diploma in Sport Nutrition and obtained her ISAK Level 1 Certification. To add to all of this…Jorie has become a Life/Executive Coach! Jorie has been working and mentoring in the field for over a decade. She works for the Canadian Sport Centre Manitoba as Director of Sport Dietetics. She was past president of and continues to participate on the Sport Medicine and Science Council Manitoba Board, past co-chair of Dietitians of Canada Sport Nutrition Network and current provincial executive representative, and is the founder and co-chair of the Manitoba Sport Nutrition Network Inc. With each and every work opportunity, Jorie coaches her clients to live to their ultimate potential! Jorie has gained extensive experience working with provincial, national and Olympic/Paralympic level athletes, the NHL, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Faculty of Family Medicine, and Legacy and Pan Am Sport Medicine Fellowships.
Jaq is an anonymous opinionator, who thinks that the strength or his opinions, and the degree to which they adhere to Scripture, are far more important than who he is. His opinions are not any better than yours, unless they are, in which case they are better, then.
Seriously, Jaq is the former JAG (of the former Sportsfaith website) under new management. He is older and perhaps a bit wiser since then. He hopes the opinions you read show that.
He is a he, he likes sports, and he is born again. He thinks too many sportswriters write sensationally and in order to get eyeballs. He will try very hard not to write like that.
I am a retired paper-mill worker who enjoys sports that revolve around children. I enjoy high school sports, kids soccer games, and little league. Personally I like trout fishing most of all. I love Wisconsin football and basketball. I enjoy watching the Packers and Brewers. Usually when I buy a newspaper I turn to the sports section first. I have to say I like the little kids sports the best because they are so innocent and happy which is the way God wants us to be.
I was born with a genetic disorder, Osteogenesis Imperfecta (brittle bones). This disability keeps me from walking and confines me to a wheelchair to get around on a daily basis and also to play sports.
I am a former Wheelchair Basketball, Softball and Tennis Player. I started playing wheelchair basketball when I was 13 years old for the Junior Horizons out of Green Bay/Appleton, WI area. I played for UW-Whitewater where in 1999 I was a member of the wheelchair basketball team that won a National Collegiate Championship. I then went back to the team I started with, the Green Bay Horizons. Was part of the team that finished third in the country in 2006 in Division Three of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association(NWBA). This was the highest a team from Wisconsin had finished till a team from Waukesha, Waukesha Thunder, did it in 2011.
In 2002 I won Rookie of the Year at the Wheelchair Softball National Tournament. I’ve been blessed to have won All Tournament Catcher, Pitcher and Classification in the 11 years I played. Then I was lucky enough in 2006 and 2011 I was part of two teams who won the Wheelchair Softball National Championship.
For two years I played wheelchair tennis and was pretty successful. In my first year of playing, I broke into the top 50 in singles and the top 25 in doubles in the ITF/World Rankings and got in the top 10 in the USA rankings for both singles and doubles. Then in my second year I broke into the top 20 in the world rankings in both doubles and singles. USA rankings I finally broke into the top 5 in both singles and doubles.
Now that I am done with playing I am trying to be the best husband and dad I can be. I have been married to my wife, Christy, for 11 years and have three awesome children that God has blessed us with. Joshua is 11 and is our biological child and then we adopted twins from Ethiopia, Jorja and Xavier and they came home in 2007 and are 7 years old. God has blessed me with so much and without him none of this would have been possible. I thank him every day for all I have. He is truly great!