FROM THE PANTHER FIELD TO THE COLLEGE PITCH: JOSH’S JOURNEY
Some stories start with a scholarship offer or a highlight reel. Josh’s starts with his parents driving him and his twin brother Jake across Ontario and the northern United States, weekend after weekend, to soccer tournaments and college ID camps. But just as often, that same car was headed somewhere else entirely: to a youth group event, a Bible camp, a place where faith came first.
That balance, between chasing a sport he loved and chasing a God he loved more, would go on to define Josh’s entire journey, from his years as a Panther to college soccer at Emmaus Bible College.
A Family Built Around Faith and Fellowship
Josh’s parents never treated soccer and faith as competing priorities. They saw them as intertwined. While Josh and Jake were core players on their travel team, they would still give up as much as three weeks of their summer for Bible camp. During COVID, when travel was complicated and uncertain, Josh’s parents put him on a plane to Michigan by himself so he could serve at camp for the summer before heading to college soccer.
He and Jake trained together constantly, conditioning side by side until, in his words, they could not stand each other anymore. Then they would take a break, come back, and do it all again. Josh often beat Jake in practice, but Jake had the edge when it mattered most, at the actual meets. Iron sharpening iron, on and off the field.
Finding His Voice at MCA
Josh’s years at MCA were where his gift for leadership first surfaced, though it did not always show up gracefully. As a freshman, he was elected to represent his class in student government, a role he carried through all four years, eventually serving as both vice president and president.
One memory has stuck with him ever since. At a grade nine retreat, Josh was struggling to get a group of students organized for a game when a teacher pulled him aside and told him to use his “man voice.” It became a defining moment, the first time Josh understood that God had given him the gift of leadership, and that leading well meant being willing to speak up.
He went on to captain MCA’s robotics team, coaching the robot drivers through the pressure of live competition and learning how to communicate clearly when the stakes were high. But Josh is quick to admit that leadership did not come as easily on the sports field. He was short tempered in competition and quick to grow frustrated with teammates. It would take him years, and a season at college, before he fully learned what it meant to lead like Christ in the middle of competition.
The Discipline Behind the Success
Josh’s freshman year of college did not start the way he had hoped. He performed well on the field but was injured halfway through his premier season, and school slipped down his list of priorities. His girlfriend at the time, Kaitlin, ended their relationship because Josh had grown complacent in his walk with God. It was, in his words, a wake up call.
He recommitted himself to his faith and to his responsibilities. He and Kaitlin married halfway through his sophomore year, and under her influence, Josh’s GPA climbed from a 2.93 to a 3.6 in just two and a half years. He was playing soccer, attending classes, working a job, and building a marriage, all at once.
Rather than use his wife’s longer study hours for himself, Josh decided to match her time with work of his own. Within a month, he was weeks ahead on every assignment. He built a system: dividing required reading by the number of days before it was due, writing the daily page count inside the cover of every book, giving himself a two week head start on every paper. Ten minutes between classes became reading time. Twenty minutes became library time. Nothing was wasted, and nothing was left to the last minute.
The result was more than good grades. It meant Josh could be fully present, with his team during a run to regionals, with a friend who needed to talk, without the weight of unfinished work pulling at him. The discipline he built gave him the freedom to lead in the way he felt called to.
His Word to Current Student Athletes
Josh’s advice for MCA students chasing their own athletic dreams is simple and direct: chase your passion, but chase Jesus harder. Soccer gave him awards and opportunities, but none of it compares to what he has gained in learning to know Christ more deeply. Sports were never the problem, he says. The real risk is letting them become the main thing.
For Josh, knowing Jesus was never about facts learned from a distance. It was about an intimate, experiential relationship, the kind worth giving up everything else to pursue.
His Word to MCA Parents
Looking back, Josh has a clear message for the parents of current MCA athletes: your kids will probably ask to go somewhere else. He and Jake did. They desperately wanted to play soccer for a bigger, more competitive non-Christian school down the road. Their parents said no.
Josh is grateful for that decision every day. At MCA, he was given real opportunities to lead, and just as importantly, real room to fail and grow from it. He had teachers who challenged him because they cared, and he was fed the word of God every single day, a gift he says he is still discovering the full weight of.
His encouragement to parents is to trust that process, even when it is not the flashiest path. Pushing your kids toward Jesus, he says, is what leads to the truly blessed life.
Josh is one of many MCA alumni carrying what he learned as a Panther into college, career, and family life.
