Fate in divine hands
Stingers women’s basketball team members put special trust in their God
The Concordia University Stingers women’s basketball team is not your run-of-the-mill basketball team.
Your run-of-the-mill basketball team hypes each other up in the moments leading up to the start of a game, encouraging one another and getting focused on their opponent. The Stingers women’s basketball team, on the other hand, adds a moment of prayer to that, eyes closed and heads down.
Your run-of-the-mill basketball team digs in immediately during team meals. The Stingers women’s basketball team takes a moment to say grace.
Your run-of-the-mill basketball team praises each other after a win, and thanks all their teammates for their hard work. The Stingers women’s basketball team is likely thanking someone else, too.
“ They know that I'm a believer. I don't shy away from making that known because I do believe it's important to believe in something and to believe that there's a higher power watching over you, protecting you, guiding you,” head coach Tenicha Gittens said.
Gittens attended Sunday school at her Protestant church growing up because her parents wanted her to be immersed in her religion. But as she got older, life got in the way and she found herself distanced from her religion—albeit unintentionally.
“Basketball, for example, we’d have games on Sundays, so I wouldn’t attend church as often on a Sunday because I’m busy with basketball or something like that,” Gittens said. “So as you get older and you start to do other things, it pulls you away.”
Despite these conditions, Gittens started making a conscious effort to get closer to God. It has become a part of her daily routine, and even finds its way onto John Dore Court.
“I don't go to church every Sunday or anything like that, but I do take time out of my day to give thanks, to pray,” Gittens said. “I'm always praying at some point. I'll be praying when I'm on the bench, coaching on the sideline.”
The players on her team are certainly aware of Gittens’s passion towards her faith.
In fact, even fifth-year guard Dalyssa Fleurgin knew how important faith was to Gittens before she joined the team two years ago. Fleurgin transferred to Concordia from Ontario Tech University for the 2023-24 season.
“ This is one of the reasons why I committed to Concordia for my last two years,” Fleurgin said, “because we share some similar values with [Gittens] and the fact that she believes in God was one of the big ones.”
Fleurgin attended church regularly when she was young, but also gradually stopped as she aged. At a certain point, she decided to start attending church again and got baptized in 2017.
She often prays and talks to God, and she reads her Bible every day.
Since joining the Stingers, she has found connections with other team members who share her passion and belief in a higher power. It has made her feel right at home.
“It gives us something more that we can believe in all together, knowing that I’m not the only one who believes in God,” Fleurgin said.
One of those teammates is fourth-year centre Serena Tchida.
Tchida considers herself a “baby Christian.” She has always believed in a higher power but only started deeply connecting with God roughly two years ago.
“ I'm still, like, growing in faith,” Tchida said. “I don't think I'm there yet. I don't think there's a way to get there, but I'm still growing in baby steps.”
Her relationship with God hit a speed bump when she tore her Achilles tendon during the 2022-23 season and had to sit on the sidelines for the entire second half of the campaign.
“I got mad at God because I couldn’t find anything [else] because it wasn’t rational for me: popping your Achilles during a random Thursday game doing a move that I usually do every day,” Tchida said.
Tchida eventually understood that her injury was simply part of her journey, and stopped looking for a reason to understand why it happened. She dedicated her energy to putting in the work to recover, and believing that everything would work out.
She still applies that attitude today, by “just trusting the work that I put in,” Tchida said. “And then trusting that God is going to make things work for me and being conscious of doing the right thing.”
Furthermore, Tchida appreciates that Gittens understands the importance of her faith. Before the current season began, Gittens allowed Tchida to miss practice to attend a spiritual retreat.
“She understood because she knows that I'm growing in my faith and that I'm learning, I'm still in my process with God,” Tchida said.
Gittens says that she and Tchida share a favourite Bible verse, Jeremiah 29:11, and that she connects deeply with Tchida and Fleurgin because of their strong passion for their faith.
A big reason for that is how vocal Tchida and Fleurgin are about their beliefs.
“They’re OK expressing that, whether it be via social media or otherwise,” Gittens said.
Gittens has been at the helm of the Stingers women’s basketball team since 2015, but because of her connection with God, she does not believe that her job is to simply coach basketball.
“I was put in a position of leadership and God opened the doors for me,” Gittens said. “That's my belief, and it's given me the opportunity to lead young women.”
Although Gittens loves to win and hates to lose, God also helped her realize that basketball is not the be-all and end-all.
“ I'm a competitor 24/7/365, but I know that it's not all there is to it,” Gittens said. “And if my happiness or my faith or my sense of value and purpose is literally based on the big wins or the big losses, I wouldn't be a very happy person.”
Gittens’s strong belief definitely rubbed off on Tchida, and Tchida feels she is better off because of it.
“This program really helped me get closer to God,” Tchida said, “and I’m really grateful for that.”