By Jessica Peterman

Fourteen seconds hang on the scoreboard. Shouts echo from every direction. Freshman Ava Evenhouse catches her breath. Her teammate steps up to the free-throw line and releases. The ball ricochets off the rim. Ava catches it above her head and goes to shoot, but her arm is knocked for a foul.

Now it’s her turn to carry the weight of her team’s season on her shoulders. Ava walks up to the free-throw line. She twirls the ball, pounding it against the ground. Her heart pounds harder. She prays, “Give me peace, Lord.”

Ava shoots. Whoosh. Nothing but net.

A referee tosses the ball back. Ava breathes.

One more point separates her team from what they’ve worked toward all season: going to State.

Ava breathes. Somehow, her hands don’t shake. Her grip is firm. Her eyes focus. She continues to pray. Her lips move. She whispers under her breath.

“Let the shot go in if it’s Your will. Let Your will be done.”

***

Today, Ava Evenhouse is a senior three-sport athlete at Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua, Wisconsin, who passionately leads others to the peace and joy she’s found in Jesus. From encouraging her teammates on the court to pouring into her local FCA Huddle, Ava radiates joy to all.

For years, however, Ava battled grief, guilt, loneliness and anxiety. In eighth grade, Ava suffered the loss of her grandparents within a month of each other.

“They were huge supporters in my life, my best friends,” Ava said.

Immediately after her grandparents’ passing, Ava was thrown into her traveling basketball season at full throttle, with little opportunity to process her grief. That spring, she entered a season of deep loneliness.

“I tried to fulfill myself through the world, and it didn’t fulfill me,” she said. “It made me more lonely, you know? But [God] was so patient with me.”

The following summer, in 2022, Ava attended FCA Camp in Minnesota and experienced something she never had before.

"I'm sitting there worshiping at the altar, and I feel a hand on my shoulder, but no one's there. It was as if God was like, ‘Ava, I'm right here with you. Your grandparents are with me.’”

After this encounter, Ava began to make her faith her own. Light shone into her loneliness, grief and isolation. She began to feel how God had loved her through it all, through her highest peaks and lowest valleys.

Still, Ava couldn’t comprehend being loved in the wake of perceived failure.

Ever since she began playing basketball in fourth grade, Ava’s coach pressured her team to perform and succeed. Every time teammates struggled, torrents of verbal aggression followed, planting seeds of performance anxiety in Ava for several years. She remembers the dread she felt going onto the court, fearing she would make the slightest mistake.

Things began to change after attending FCA Sports Camp the summer before her sophomore year. It encouraged her to surround herself with Christian athletes and prompted her to come back the following year. When she attended Northland FCA Leadership Camp in 2024, a breakthrough came.

“God doesn’t care about the scoreboard, and that hit me,” she said. “He didn’t care if I made a bunch of baskets. He didn’t care about all the mistakes I made on the court. All He cared about was that I was working hard, I gave everything I had, and was a good teammate and competitor.”

Ava began to play out of a place of freedom. She started to see sports as an opportunity to glorify God. This convergence of her faith and sports completely changed the game.

She describes finding peace in knowing that God loves her, win or lose. Now, Ava’s motivation to win is fueled by the desire to glorify God through every platform she is given.

***

Ava holds her breath at the free-throw line as the ball flies towards the basket.

Whoosh!

The crowd explodes. Lakeland Union is headed to State.

Following the game, news reporters from three different outlets interview Ava.

It is here that she testified of God’s goodness.

***

God used that day in Ava’s life to show she could depend on Him. She can have peace, even in the most intense moments, and God will use her story.

This year, she is focused on playing for Him. She helps lead a Huddle at her school’s FCA and continues to lead students to a true relationship with Jesus. Next year, she plans to attend Bethel University in the Twin Cities and is seeking God’s will for all aspects of her life, from deciding if she will play college sports to what career God has for her.

Ava lives every day with the goal of testifying of God’s goodness and showing others the peace that only God can give.

“I’ve gone through so many seasons in my sports, and He’s a constant,” she said. “Whenever I grow weak, He’s my strength. He will always be my Rock.” 

-FCA-

Photos courtesy of Ava Evenhouse