{"id":2543,"date":"2008-07-14T20:43:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-14T20:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/revolution-a-player-goes-from-soccer-to-seminary.html"},"modified":"2008-07-14T20:43:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-14T20:43:00","slug":"revolution-a-player-goes-from-soccer-to-seminary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/revolution-a-player-goes-from-soccer-to-seminary.html","title":{"rendered":"Revolution: a player goes from soccer to seminary"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s not uncommon to find men who turn to the priesthood as a second career, maybe in their 30’s or 40’s. But this is the first I’ve heard of a man doing it at 26, after a successful career in professional soccer. <\/p>\n

From USA Today<\/a>: <\/p>\n

When he was playing professional soccer in Chile, Chase Hilgenbrinck would seek comfort in the churches to satisfy his spiritual needs and remind him of childhood Sundays spent at Holy Trinity in his hometown of Bloomington, Ill.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Even after moving back to the United States last Christmas to play Major League Soccer \u2014 a dream of his, but just one of them \u2014 Hilgenbrinck felt the pull of his religion.<\/p>\n

“I felt called to something greater,” Hilgenbrinck said. “At one time I thought that call might be professional soccer. In the past few years, I found my soul is hungry for something else.<\/p>\n

“I discerned, through prayer, that it was calling me to the Catholic Church. I do not want this call to pass me by.”<\/p>\n

Hilgenbrinck accepted the calling on Monday when he left the New England Revolution and retired from professional soccer to enter a seminary, where he will spend the next six years studying theology and philosophy so he can be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest.<\/p>\n

“It’s not that I’m ready to leave soccer. I still have a great passion for the game,” he said in a telephone interview. “I wouldn’t leave the game for just any other job. I’m moving on for the Lord. I want to do the will of the Lord, I want to do what he wants for me, not what I want to do for myself.”<\/p>\n

A 26-year-old defender who was the captain of the Revolution’s reserve team, Hilgenbrinck will attend Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md. After finishing his studies, he will report to his home parish in Peoria, Ill., for assignment.<\/p>\n

“He said it was time for him, that he had been thinking long and hard,” New England vice president of player personnel Michael Burns said. “Purely from a Revs standpoint, it’s too bad. But a lot of players leave the game not on their own terms. He’s clearly left on his own terms, which is great for him.”<\/p>\n

Raised in a Catholic family of regular churchgoers, Hilgenbrinck played soccer at Clemson and hooked on with the Chilean first division after he went unpicked in the 2004 MLS draft.<\/p>\n

Far from home, he began to seek out familiar surroundings.<\/p>\n

“I fell back on what I knew, and that was the Catholic Church,” he said. “I grew up as a Catholic. I was always involved in the church, went to Catholic schools. It was when I got out on my own that my faith really became mine. I really embraced it. I didn’t have to go to church any more, I was free to really believe what I wanted to believe.<\/p>\n

“I looked to strengthen my personal relationship with Christ. And when my personal life started to flourish, I couldn’t turn my back on that relationship.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s much more about “that relationship” at the link<\/a>, so keep reading. And please keep this fella in your prayers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s not uncommon to find men who turn to the priesthood as a second career, maybe in their 30’s or 40’s. But this is the first I’ve heard of a man doing it at 26, after a successful career in professional soccer. From USA Today: When he was playing professional soccer in Chile, Chase Hilgenbrinck…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vocations"],"yoast_head":"\nRevolution: a player goes from soccer to seminary - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/revolution-a-player-goes-from-soccer-to-seminary.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Revolution: a player goes from soccer to seminary - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s not uncommon to find men who turn to the priesthood as a second career, maybe in their 30’s or 40’s. But this is the first I’ve heard of a man doing it at 26, after a successful career in professional soccer. From USA Today: When he was playing professional soccer in Chile, Chase Hilgenbrinck…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/revolution-a-player-goes-from-soccer-to-seminary.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-07-14T20:43:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SHv0KhEHM0I\/AAAAAAAACnM\/ogwz4PN3338\/s320\/0714_priest200x350.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"deacon greg kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Revolution: a player goes from soccer to seminary - The Deacon's Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/revolution-a-player-goes-from-soccer-to-seminary.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Revolution: a player goes from soccer to seminary - The Deacon's Bench","og_description":"It’s not uncommon to find men who turn to the priesthood as a second career, maybe in their 30’s or 40’s. But this is the first I’ve heard of a man doing it at 26, after a successful career in professional soccer. From USA Today: When he was playing professional soccer in Chile, Chase Hilgenbrinck…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/revolution-a-player-goes-from-soccer-to-seminary.html","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2008-07-14T20:43:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SHv0KhEHM0I\/AAAAAAAACnM\/ogwz4PN3338\/s320\/0714_priest200x350.jpg"}],"author":"deacon greg kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/revolution-a-player-goes-from-soccer-to-seminary.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/revolution-a-player-goes-from-soccer-to-seminary.html","name":"Revolution: a player goes from soccer to seminary - The Deacon's Bench","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/revolution-a-player-goes-from-soccer-to-seminary.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/revolution-a-player-goes-from-soccer-to-seminary.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SHv0KhEHM0I\/AAAAAAAACnM\/ogwz4PN3338\/s320\/0714_priest200x350.jpg","datePublished":"2008-07-14T20:43:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-07-14T20:43:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/052b8cd86cc713feaccdc8282b03cf10"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/revolution-a-player-goes-from-soccer-to-seminary.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/revolution-a-player-goes-from-soccer-to-seminary.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/revolution-a-player-goes-from-soccer-to-seminary.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SHv0KhEHM0I\/AAAAAAAACnM\/ogwz4PN3338\/s320\/0714_priest200x350.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SHv0KhEHM0I\/AAAAAAAACnM\/ogwz4PN3338\/s320\/0714_priest200x350.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/revolution-a-player-goes-from-soccer-to-seminary.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Revolution: a player goes from soccer to seminary"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic Deacon Ponders the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/052b8cd86cc713feaccdc8282b03cf10","name":"deacon greg kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a4e\/a4e07ce6fde3f10d4d9753243fd48d45x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a4e\/a4e07ce6fde3f10d4d9753243fd48d45x96.jpg","caption":"deacon greg kandra"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/365"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}