Praying and playing: Jordan Roberts is a Division III star and seminarian

Pat Borzi | Special for USA TODAY Sports

ST. PAUL — Sundays are sacred at the St. John Vianney Seminary, a plain five-story red-brick building across a grassy quad from the main chapel at the University of St. Thomas. It is the only day Jordan Roberts and 133 brother seminarians studying to be Roman Catholic priests may wear priestly garb for Mass — black cassocks with the white Roman collar.

Rising at 6 a.m., they begin their day with Holy Hour prayer and morning Mass. They end it with a rosary and lights out at 9:30 p.m. Last Sunday, seminary officials permitted Roberts a brief leave in late afternoon to join another fraternal group — his St. Thomas football teammates — to watch the NCAA Division III playoff selection show. Roberts is the Tommies' top rusher and scorer.

"The leaders in the seminary are very understanding, and football is very understanding about seminary," said Roberts, 22, from Sheridan, Wyo. "My coaches know seminary always comes first, but the opposite is true as well. If I have to miss something in the seminary every now and then to be at football, they're OK with that too."

A recent convert to Catholicism, Roberts last year renounced his football scholarship at South Dakota to enter St. John Vianney, the largest college seminary in the country. Roberts showed plenty of promise for the Coyotes in 2013, making three starts and rushing for 107 yards against four-time FCS champion North Dakota State.

St. John Vianney rector Michael Becker said one or two seminarians participate in intercollegiate sports every year, though Roberts is only the second in football in 25 years. A 6-0, 222-pound junior tailback, Roberts ranks 10th in Division III with 1,439 yards rushing and is tied for first with 24 rushing touchdowns. His 25 TDs overall (one receiving) broke the school record.

St. Thomas, which leads Division III in scoring at 56.4 points per game, hosts La Verne (Calif.) on Saturday in the first round of the Division III playoffs.

"We're very proud of Jordan because he's one of us. He's our brother," Becker said. "God has given him a wonderful platform to witness his love for Jesus, his Catholic faith, and prayer life. We need athletes in general to be able to witness that, because young kids look up to star athletes."

Finding the opening

Last Saturday at Gustavus Adolphus, Roberts rushed for a season-high 230 yards and three touchdowns — his eighth consecutive 100-yard game — in a 66-9 rout that completed the Tommies' fourth 10-0 regular season in six years.

"He's a beast. That's the only term I can think of," said St. Thomas coach Glenn Caruso. "I wouldn't say he's an imposing character. You know he's among the fastest guys on the team, but then you see him and you realize he's pound for pound one of the strongest guys on the team as well. The combination of speed, toughness and agility is just uncanny."

The youngest of three children, Roberts grew up in a family that believed in God but never joined an organized church. Three personal heartaches his freshman year at South Dakota left him reeling.

The day after Roberts and his girlfriend of six years broke up, his best friend and high school teammate Nick Bazemore committed suicide in his dorm room at Black Hills (S.D.) State University. Roberts said he and Bazemore loved each other like brothers, and he plays with "NB20," Bazemore's initials and number, imprinted on the heels of his cleats.

"Those two things, combined, were the greatest amount of pain I ever felt," Roberts said. "When Nick died, that changed everything for me. And shortly after that, my parents got divorced. All these things kind of made me search for answers."

Teammates introduced Roberts to a Fellowship of Catholic University Students Bible study class. "Slowly, I started to love the faith and love the Bible study I was in," he said. "It gave me so much hope. It really helped me through the situation I was in, to put it bluntly."

At the group's urging, Roberts attended SEEK 2013, a Catholic conference for college students in Orlando in January 2013. When he returned, he said, "I was on Cloud 9." He converted that October, almost one year after Bazemore's death. Then Roberts felt the pull of something stronger.

"As I healed and recovered and learned more, I started to have thoughts and feelings coming out about possibly joining the priesthood," he said. "That was definitely coming from God. I kind of kept them in for a long time. I didn't want to talk about them with anybody. But he kept putting priesthood in my heart."

For months Roberts had been meeting with Jeff Norfolk, the chaplain at South Dakota's Newman Center. In October 2014, Roberts confided in Norfolk. The next morning they drove 4½ hours to St. John Vianney, where the Diocese of Sioux Falls, S.D. sends seminary candidates.

"I absolutely fell in love with it — the structure, the brotherhood and the school," Roberts said. "The next day, I was applying to the seminary."

Sports, Seminary mix

When Roberts asked about football, seminary officials approved. The seminary is particularly sports-minded. Becker played two seasons of baseball at St. Thomas. The seminarians and neighboring St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity play an annual touch football game.

And seminarians make up Caruso's Crew, a fan group that flies the Vatican City flag and dresses like construction workers — white hard hats, muscle shirts with suspenders, and oversized tools. "When they announce Jordan Roberts, we all erupt," said Crew boss Kyle Loecker, a third-year seminarian. "That bond is what we're all grateful for."

Said Becker: "The natural discipline of sports — daily practicing, stretching your limits, the competition of others but maintaining good sportsmanship — are a good foundation for grace in a spiritual life. It gives you other things too – friendships, relationships, being proud of certain accomplishments. So we support seminarians who want to play sports, and make various compromises to do so."

Every day tests Roberts' discipline and vocation. St. John Vianney graduates advance to the St. Paul Seminary for four more years of study before ordination. A band on Roberts' right wrist reads, "Pray for priests."

"It's been very challenging, but it's been an absolute blast," Roberts said. "I would not want to be in any other place but here. I love my coach. I love my team. I love my brothers in the seminary. I don't think it can get any better than the situation I'm in."