Student-athletes need to know they are MORE THAN the sports they play! Their identity and worth is MORE THAN their ability to compete.

They are Amazing not because of what they do but because of WHO they are! It is through identifying their true GREATNESS that makes them the most influential and inspirational players in the athletic arena.

“Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win. Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.”
1 Cor 9:24-25

Hard as Nails is committed to supporting and working through your school’s athletic department to take athletic training to a deeper level that promotes greater purpose, perseverance, performance, and a desire to WIN.

My name is Alex Ruston I am the Cordinator for Catholic Sports Outreach.  My dream is to reach young athletes to challenge and encourage to use your time as a high school athlete to find who you are and who God has called and created you to be.  Right now in our country sports consumes our culture, we are willing to give everything we have to the game.  Sports gives us a sense of purpose and an identity, but what happens when the game comes to an end? Are you left with a deeper sense of purpose? A deeper sense of identity?  Or did all fade away when the game came to an end? 

This was the conflict that I felt and where my missionary call was born.  Growing up I loved sports and throughout high school I played Football, Basketball, and Baseball.  From the outside I was living my high school dream.  I was the starting Quarterback on the Football Team and was on a state championship basketball team!  However, during this time interiorly it was one of the most challenging times of my life. Why? Because I put all of my idenity and purpose in a game that was soon coming to an end.  I was lost and deeply unfulfilled, left without a sense of purpose and an identity that was shaken because I forgot who I was at my core.  God met me at that place to remind me who I am and who he has called and created me to be.  This is when my life was transformed because for the first time I came to know that I am a Son of God and the call for my life as far more than the game!