3 Sports Stars Shine, Share Faith
From the doorstep of England’s Premier League to the professional and national team fields of women’s soccer, Latter-day Saint soccer players have made news in recent months for both playing well and sharing their faith.
Olivia Moultrie
Olivia Moultrie is 16 years old, but she already has scored a professional goal with the National Women’s Soccer League’s Portland Thorns. In fact, she turned pro when she was 13.
She scored that goal in a tournament last summer and she’s seen action in two games so far this season. This spring, she scored two goals and had an assist to help lead the U.S. U-20 team win a regional tournament that earned it a spot in this year’s Women’s World Cup for players younger than 20.
Earlier this year, Primary General President Bonnie H. Cardon interviewed Moultrie.
Moultrie said sees herself first not as the youngest professional women’s soccer player but as a daughter of God. She always prays on the field right before kickoff.
“I’ve done it since I was 10 years old and I’ll do it forever,” she said.
She quoted President Russell M. Nelson’s statements that effort counts with the Lord and said she tries to stay as close to God as possible.
“Continuing to do the things we can to be the closest to him, he’ll tell us what he needs us to do,” she said.
Jon Russell
Every year, three English soccer teams are promoted from the country’s second division to replace the three worst teams in the Premier League.
Jon Russell’s helped bring Huddersfield within a single goal of promotion this spring. Agonizingly, the team lost 1-0 in the final play-in game.
In the process, Russell was the subject of two major features, one in the Telegraph and the other in The Athletic, both of which featured his unique place as a Latter-day Saint in British soccer.
The Telegraph called Russell, who previously played in the Premier League with Chelsea, “English football’s only Mormon.”
“I know I’m quite rare,” he said in the story.
“Praying and reading helped calm me down,” Russell said. “It’s been one of the biggest parts of my life and now it’s like a pre-game ritual. That is what I have and I feel God is there helping me. When I was young I would be petrified before games. Having faith made me confident and less scared.”
He went into more detail with The Athletic.
“I remember this time before a game I was reading the Book of Mormon, and it was the first time I read it properly and felt the scriptures and, during the game, my nerves just went (away),” he said. “I felt a confidence I had never felt before and then I knew how important my faith was.”
Ashley Hatch
Moultrie isn’t the only Latter-day Saint in the NWSL.
Last year’s Golden Boot winner as the NWSL’s most prolific goal scorer, Ashley Hatch is back at it again this year, with three goals through seven games, good for fifth in the league.
The Spirit are off to a rough start as defending champions, but Hatch treasured a recent opportunity to take several of her teammates to the Washington D.C. Temple open house.
“I didn’t realize how vulnerable I would feel bringing my teammates to the temple,” she told the Church News, “but I really enjoyed it. They were all so great to come and support me.”
