Ultimate Training Camp lead singer Chaz Miles performs for a crowd of athletes Sept. 24, 2013 at the Skandalaris Football Center. The concert was organized to bring together the Christian athletes at MSU. Khoa Nguyen/The State News
Chaz Miles and the Ultimate Training Camp band rocked the Skandalaris Football Center Tuesday night, performing a Christian-themed mini-concert at the Athletes in Action, or AIA, weekly meeting. The Ultimate Training Camp, or UTC, band is composed of former student athletes from across the country and plays Christian-themed music.
Spartan athletes gathered to watch as the five-member UTC band sang variations of old and new musical arrangements.
AIA is an interdenominational Christian fellowship made up of college athletes, with the goal of providing a spiritual source to student-athletes. AIA has chapters all over the U.S. and across different countries. MSU’s chapter specifically has weekly meetings with Bible studies, community service and social opportunities.
“We’re students and coaches who desire to grow in a personal relationship with Christ and talk about how that relationship is relevant to the life of an athlete,” said Athletes in Action Campus Director Phil Gillespie.
While the MSU chapter is created for Spartan student-athletes, the organization still attracts individuals from outside of MSU to their meetings.
“I graduated from Albion College and I was a swimmer there and (the directors) told me that because I didn’t have AIA at Albion, to come down to MSU, so I come … here and I drive 50 minutes every Tuesday,” said former Albion english major and art minor graduate Chelsea Robinson.
For other students, the mini-concert served as a reunion from Ultimate Training Camp in Colorado, where college and pro athletes from all over the country attend a week-long seminar at the end of May. Women’s soccer sophomore defender Shauna Stadelmaier said she raised the funds needed for her trip to UTC.
“I actually got all the money raised, about $1,000, more than I needed which was awesome,” Stadelmaier said. “It was just a great way to experience God in your sport and learning how to worship him in your sport. It was life-changing for me.”
For the third year, the group returned to engage MSU student athletes devoted to their sport and their religious faiths to gather, reminisce and enjoy songs performed by the band, while camp itself served as an opportunity for student athletes to grow as individuals.
“It’s pretty transformational, people who have gone to it really have been affected, whether it’s a Kirk Cousins, or a third-string athlete that nobody knows their name, they all have an amazing experience and it’s pretty life-changing,” Gillespie said.
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