Harding Academy Football
- searcylivingads
- 1 hour ago
- 4 min read
By Jennifer Webb
“What are you going to do to make my son grow in his relationship with Christ? How are you going to disciple my son?” Coach Ashley Henley’s friend, the parent of one of his football players, asked him.
The truth was, he didn’t know. When he started seeking the answer, it changed both his life and his coaching career.
Ashley had grown up a preacher’s kid. He’d been around church people and a Christ-centered environment his whole life, but to him it was mostly routine. He went through the motions, but it wasn’t something he was on fire about.
At that point, he’d been coaching for a good number of years. He and his wife, Alyssa, married after college and spent most of their lives in Oklahoma. They had two sons who both played football. But that question from his friend stopped him dead in his tracks. It was something that he had never thought about before, and frankly, he was a bit confused as to what his friend meant. It was a challenge to invest in his players personally and to strengthen his own walk with Christ.
He struggled personally at first, but with some guidance, he learned what a real connection with Jesus was and what it meant to pursue it. As he grew spiritually, it became important to him to share it with others and to encourage it in his players.
Since his coaching career has been in private schools the last six years—first at Shiloh Christian in Springdale, Arkansas, in 2019, and finally to Harding Academy in 2025—it has given him a unique opportunity to speak freely and openly to his players about their spiritual walk. His biggest hope is that kids who grew up like he did in a Christ-like environment would realize the importance of developing their own personal walk with Christ and not simply go through the routine/motions. He encourages his players to find time to read the Bible on their own and to pray. He tells them, “it’s something that becomes a secret to life, when we shift our focus to following Christ more closely.”
“I don’t walk with Christ perfectly, but when I do, I’m a better person. The blessings come back tenfold when we bear fruit like that.”
- Coach Ashley Henley, Harding Academy Wildcat Football
The game of football itself is a great teacher. It’s hard. It takes a huge commitment from the players, putting in much more practice time than is actually spent in the games. The players spend the whole year preparing for 10-14 games per year. He talks to the players often about living with urgency every day, including spiritually. He tells them that every day is a gift from God and challenges them with, “How will you attack it?” That includes pursuing a relationship with Jesus and being transformed by the process. Their philosophy is to “develop champions—academically, athletically, socially, and spiritually.”
“I feel strongly that once you make the personal connection to God, intimate time with Him becomes a true need and He becomes easier to seek. Once you make the connection, you understand how special it is.”
- Coach Ashley Henley, Harding Academy Wildcat Football
He would love to see the environment and the culture continue to grow so that athletes are pushing athletes to not only excel on the field but also with spiritual growth and life as a whole. He wants his players to be authentic, honest, and very real with one another and to support each other. He realizes that the world is tough and that kids today face unique challenges. He wants them to know how to apply the Word of God in their lives.
A support system is an integral part of the culture that he is trying to develop. He and Alyssa have started hosting high school players for dinner in their home once a week. One week they host the seniors, the next week are the juniors, and the third week are the sophomores. Then they repeat. It creates an uplifting environment where the players get to know one another and their coach better. It creates strong bonds where the team is not playing together simply to win, but to support each other in love.
“My hope would be that every believer’s life would look different than the average person in the world.”
- Coach Ashley Henley, Harding Academy Wildcat Football
Following more closely after God translates to the team’s performance on the field. It removes the pressure of comparison to other people and shifts how the players identify as people. There is a peace that comes with growing through challenges. The reality is that a player’s worth is not tied to their performance on the field. They play to honor God and not to honor themselves.
“God is love and we play out of love for each other. It means a whole lot more than if we are doing it for ourselves.”
- Coach Ashley Henley, Harding Academy Wildcat Football
Coach Henley is the first to admit that some players get more out of it than others and attributes what they get out of being part of the team to what they put into it. If it changes one person, then he feels like it’s worth it.
Read the full issue below.
