Coach Chris

Hey everyone! I’m Chris Scheeren (“Coach Chris”), the founder and Head Coach of Play in Faith. I believe this is the most important and exciting mission of my career. There’s no greater dress rehearsal for life than athletics— setting and striving for goals, learning to be an amazing teammate, celebrating successes, and forging resilience from setbacks. There is very little we can’t accomplish when we instill a lifelong habit of COMPETING.

I started speaking professionally while still an undergrad at the University of Central Florida and have been blessed to reach over half a million participants across the globe through more than 1,500 engagements. I’ve had the privilege of speaking, teaching, creating learning content and consulting for some of the biggest and best brands on Earth, including Walmart, Microsoft, Bridgestone, CDW, professional sports teams, The PGA Tour, and The United States Army. It’s been an incredible journey to plant successful seeds of communication, leadership, and success all around the world.

My wife Shanda and I make our home in Northern Indiana, where we own and operate two other successful businesses (she’s the Big Boss of the Wedding & Event Venues, lol!). We have two awesome daughters and three thriving businesses. However, I came to a nagging realization as I became more involved in running our district’s youth girls’ basketball program and coaching many teams: while athletics DOES have the power to teach so so many valuable lifelong lessons, as I looked across the landscape of youth sports, that was NOT the positive experience so many young athletes were having – in fact, for many, it was stridently the opposite.

I love being on stage. I love writing and creating messages and content to empower and inspire. But NOTHING means more to me than our teams and our program—watching lives transform through sports and witnessing growth and success that goes FAR beyond the basketball court. I realized, most of my favorite people in the world called me “Coach.” This. THIS is what I want to be doing with my talent, passion, and energy – helping thousands and thousands of young athletes get the most of this amazing period of their lives and athletic careers. It killed me as week and after week, event after event, I saw so many examples of behaviors, attitudes and actions that ran contrary to everything that should be good in sports

I believe there’s a better path forward.

What if we could do more? What if we could take these transcendent, life-changing lessons from sports and empower an entire generation of athletes and leaders? What if we could remove some of the toxicity and boorish behavior from youth sports culture, helping young athletes develop not just skills on the playing field but in LIFE? What if we could inspire a deeper faith and fuel the next generation to truly embrace the joy of COMPETING—not just on the court but in the classroom, boardroom, for their faith, relationships, and LIFE???

Welcome to Play in Faith! On some level, I suppose it is a “business,” but our team considers it a mission and ministry. Whether your young athlete decides to partner with one of our AMAZING college Christian athletes for mentoring (I believe it will change their life), or you ARE one of our amazing mentors – THANK YOU!! Maybe you are a parent looking to nurture your athlete’s success both physically and mentally or a youth coach wanting to make a deeper impact on some incredible young lives—or maybe you just popped by to listen to our podcasts or read our content or pass along to someone else who could benefit from hearing it —THANK YOU! I am 100% convinced we can be a pebble that creates an infinite ripple in building a better youth sports culture and shaping lives through the power of sports.

I can’t wait to embark on this mission together!

Let’s Goooooooo!!!!