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GScheid
Mary's Servant

USA
406 Posts

Posted - Oct 22 2008 : 10:19:29 AM

Hilgenbrinck Retires; Dube Moved to Senior Roster

Defender Chase Hilgenbrinck retires from soccer;

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Revolution has announced that defender Chase Hilgenbrinck has decided to leave the club and retire from soccer to enter a Catholic seminary in Maryland to prepare for a new career in the ministry. Additionally, the Revs announced that MLS rookie of the year candidate forward Kheli Dube has been promoted to the team's 18-man senior roster.

Hilgenbrinck, 26, signed with the Revolution on March 28, 2008 following a four-year career in Chile. He made four appearances in MLS first-team matches, including one start. A native of Bloomington, Ill., he also started the Revs' two U.S. Open Cup victories this month. Additionally, he started all six of the reserve team's games for which he was available, captaining the team twice.

"We understand Chase's decision to retire from soccer and pursue his mission of helping others and we support his desire to make this change in his life." Revolution Vice President of Player Personnel Michael Burns said. "We wish Chase the best and thank him for the service and leadership he provided in his brief tenure with us."

"After years of discernment, I feel strongly that the Lord has called me to become a priest in the Catholic Church," Hilgenbrinck said. "Playing professional soccer has been my passion for a long time and I feel blessed to have successfully lived out this dream. My passion now is to do the will of God, which is wanting only what He wants for me. Though I will miss the game of soccer, I know that I am moving on to something much greater."

http://www.revolutionsoccer.net//news/index.cfm?ac=latestnewsdetail&pid=32603&pcid=115&Print=1

�Everyone needs thirty minutes of personal prayer time each day, unless they are too busy to pray�in which case, they need an hour!�
Saint Francis de Sales

GScheid
Mary's Servant

USA
406 Posts

Posted - Nov 20 2008 : 10:28:44 AM

Faith-Based Initiative
For Chase Hilgenbrinck, a Professional Soccer Career Was a Dream. But Priesthood Was a Calling.

By Kathy Orton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 20, 2008; E01

Chase Hilgenbrinck sat in his apartment in Chile, clutching the phone, full of nervous energy. He was about to make a call that would change his life forever. After spending more than two years agonizing over his decision in solitude, Hilgenbrinck finally decided he was ready to tell someone of his intention to become a priest.

That September 2007 day, the first person he called was not his mother, father, brother or girlfriend, but the vocations director of the Peoria, Ill., diocese, a man he had never met.

"I was nervous on the phone," Hilgenbrinck said. "I couldn't believe the words that were coming out of my mouth."

Father Brian Brownsey was thrilled to receive the call. It's not every day a professional soccer player phones to say he wants to join the priesthood.

Though many professional athletes have gone into ministry, usually with Protestant churches, most do so after their careers have ended. Few leave during their prime. Hilgenbrinck, a 26-year-old defender, had signed his first MLS contract earlier this year after four years of playing professionally in Chile. He had made it, achieving a dream he'd had since childhood. And now he was leaving it all behind to serve God.

Starting with his seventh-grade teacher, people had been telling Hilgenbrinck that he should become a priest. He was flattered, of course, but he really didn't think priesthood was for him. He wanted to play soccer.

Hilgenbrinck was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family in Bloomington, Ill. He and his brother Blaise were altar servers at Holy Trinity Church and attended Catholic schools through junior high. When it came time for high school, they had a decision to make: attend the Catholic high school with their friends or go to the public high school where they could continue their budding soccer careers.

With his family's support, Hilgenbrinck chose soccer over his religious education, a decision that contrasted with the one he would make more than a decade later. He believed the public high school provided him with the best opportunity to earn an athletic scholarship to college.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/19/AR2008111904007_pf.html

Keep Christ in Christmas!