Chris Ice
Episode 232
10 JULY 2023
He holds the NAIA baseball career batting average record with a .480 career average while in college. He had played basketball and baseball for four years in high school before going on to play baseball at both Creighton University and St. Mary of the Plains College. After graduation, he was a graduate assistant at Ft. Hays State University and then a head assistant baseball coach at St. Mary of the Plains College. In addition to playing and coaching collegiate baseball he officiated high school football, basketball, and baseball, AND college (JUCO & NAIA) baseball and basketball. He also served on the executive committee for his local youth baseball league for ten years and started a non-profit organization to support the travel high school basketball team. His faith initiatives are just as extensive, if not more so, than all he has done with sports, including having been president of Ave Maria University, plus having a new book out that draws heavily from incorporating his Catholic faith into the business world and having gone through a major life tragedy.
Notable guest quotes:
“My parents made sure we got to church every Sunday and it didn’t matter if we were on a baseball travel trip or whatever, we always found a way to find a Mass.”
“When I was age seven, my grandmother used to stop by and pick me up every day to take me to Mass to go serve.”
“I went to Catholic schools all the way through – take out two years, of seventh and eighth grade – Catholic school formation all the way to the point of (when) I got my MBA.”
“I was forced a little bit to talk about my faith all the time because in the high school years I was in the high school seminary… with those formative years it was a conversation of – with all my friends and peers, especially when I played summer baseball – of, ‘Are you going to be a priest’?”
“When I saw people excel, I got even more enjoyment out of that. And then, of course, sharing my faith along with all of that (coaching) just really kind of felt natural.”
“There’s temptations that get thrown at athletes, especially these top tier athletes, and so (I’m) speaking to them about drawing on your Catholic faith and the grace that comes from the sacraments and making those good choices, maybe it’s making a sacrifice by praying the rosary in your room or go visiting the adoration chapel, just the blessed sacrament in the Catholic church, trying to get up early and go to daily Mass if you have that opportunity. All those things can help you focus on what’s extremely important and keep you out of those other temptations.”
“People kept asking me, ‘Chris, how did you do it? What led you through or able to do all that in that cloud of darkness?’ … I saw where God’s guiding hand throughout the whole thing… and it was pure grace and God’s gift back to me to endure was my faith.”
“I looked back and I go, ‘How did I do that?’ And it was purely the Holy Spirit and God’s grace.”
“My faith has been integral in everything I’ve done my whole life. I never set it aside. I’ve never missed Sunday Mass. When I’m on the road I go.”
“I would host trips of parents to Austria, and we would visit in the different… holy sites in Austria.”
“Integrating your Catholic faith, it doesn’t have to sit on a shelf when you walk into your office of your business. It doesn’t have to sit on a shelf when you go out and you’re having a nice dinner with friends. It should be an integral part of your life every day.”
Related link:
Chris’s book, “Walking the Leadership Tightrope: How to Balance Career and Family Through the Chaos of Crisis”
