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Nicole Skoch

Episode 174

30 MAY 2022

She has had an extensive career in volleyball. The sport has seen her in roles from head volleyball coach at Shawnee Mission East, a high school in Prairie Village, Kansas, to being a volunteer coach at the college level with the Kansas Jayhawks, and even coaching a club team, plus, having been a student-athlete at the University of Texas where she played for four years and was a member of the 2012 NCAA National Championship team. Prior to her time with the Longhorns, she played on the U.S. Girls’ Youth National Team that competed at the 2011 International Volleyball Federation Girls’ Youth World Championship. She led her high school to two Colorado 5A State Championships and was a two-time Gatorade Player of the Year.

Notable guest quotes:

“Every Sunday night started Lent…five years back, I want to say… we would meet for Sunday night calls… we now do video Zoom calls… So, it’s a great way for us to gather and praise Jesus that way.”

“I’m very, very, very thankful for my parents… to ask about… how I can continue my faith journey and be involved in Bible study and continue to flourish in that.”

“This is why they want me, to play volleyball… that was my identity then and a few years down the road I figured out that’s not where my identity can lie.”

“She gave me a journal that night that I still have that she wrote Bible quotes throughout it.”

“That’s when the whole identity thing, like, this was taken away from me and now I have this feeling, this hole in my heart that’s always been there but it’s now even more radiating that only Jesus could fill.”

“That’s how Jesus just flourished in my heart, and I started wanting to lead Bible study and learn more.”

“That is a big part of my reversion story of allowing Jesus to be, yes, that number one priority in my life, and that was through spending time in Adoration and entering fully into the Mass and knowing Jesus in the Eucharist.”

“I’ll just forever be grateful for the Eucharist and Jesus revealing himself to us in such an intimate way through that.”

“It changed how I lived day to day and balance in keeping Jesus first rather than finding my worth in volleyball and this sport that is one day going to end.”

“Finding true joy in choosing to trust Him daily is what kept me going and what keeps me going today.”

“The Litany of Trust by the Sisters of Life is truly amazing… Sometimes I do it daily… but whenever I’m feeling anxiety… I love pulling out this prayer.”

Related link:

Nicole’s Prints & Praise Instagram account

(This episode contains a prayer adapted from one by an unknown Confederate Soldier, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)