IU vs. Maryland, noon, Saturday, BTN

BLOOMINGTON – Vad Lee stood next to the broken Hoosier and prayed.

Lee had just watched IU sophomore running back Cole Gest tear up his knee Sept. 1 against Florida International.

Gest hoped when he felt something in his knee snap he had just hyperextended it. He even walked off the field to the locker room, at times bewildered by the pain to the point of laughter. But hope was dashed when he was told his season was over. And so there was Lee, in his first season as IU’s team chaplain at the team’s opener in Miami, with Gest in the locker room ministering through presence.

“He just literally prayed over my knee, just for a fast recovery and a quick healing,” Gest said.

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Lee spent the rest of the game with him, leaving intermittently to grab game updates because there was no television to watch. He was there to hear Gest call Gest’s parents. He was there as trainers came time and again to check on him.

The pair talked some, not much. Lee, 25, wasn’t there to be a “super-spiritual guy,” even if Gest is grounded in faith. He was just there to be someone Gest could lean on. While they had already started to form a bond before the season, moments like these allow Lee to prove to players he’ll always be there for them.

It started when Lee first addressed the team as a guest speaker last October before IU played Maryland, the Hoosiers' opponent Saturday. And as Lee delivers his motivational message ahead of this upcoming matchup with the Terrapins, it’ll continue.

“I think I was so just consumed by unbelief that I didn’t really notice him in the moment,” Gest said. “I guess I’ve never really thanked him for that.”

A Purpose Beyond Football

Lee grew up a regular churchgoer with his grandmother in Durham, N.C.

Lee valued his relationship with God from a young age. Some even called him “preacher man.” Family poked fun with “grandpa.” And he took to football just as quickly.

But even at 5 years old he had a plan. Before his skill as a quarterback led him to a state title in high school, the starting job at Georgia Tech and, after a transfer, a storied career at FCS-school James Madison, Lee strove for his future to incorporate both. Play football and share the gospel.

“I think God strategically placed me in the quarterback position because of the demand that it has for leadership,” Lee said. “It allows me to build relationships with guys on my team. Allows me to speak positive into their life and into the situation that we’re in whether we’re down in the fourth quarter or whether we’re struggling in life.”

Antonio King, Lee's coach at Hillside High School, noticed Lee’s natural leadership ability in middle school before Lee became a three-time captain. King isn’t surprised Lee became a team chaplain and a campus director for an organization called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), which has a branch at Indiana University. He jokes Lee is his role model.

“You hear people say it all the time but he was able to hang with the crowd, but not do as the crowd do,” King said. “Whether that was something against his moral belief, against his religious beliefs, against what his parents told him to do.”

Lee capped his high school career with a 16-0 season and that state title. He joined Georgia Tech’s 2011 recruiting class as North Carolina’s top prep football player in 2010.

“One of the big reasons why I went to Georgia Tech, probably the number one reason why I went to Georgia Tech, is because of the influence (Derrick Moore) had on me,” Lee said of the team chaplain. “I saw something in him that I ultimately knew I wanted.”

Lee thrived as a part of FCA at Georgia Tech. He joined the leadership team and praises FCA’s ability to meet athletes where they are to accommodate the demands of their schedules. Even in college he had a penchant for galvanizing his peers.

When Lee transferred to James Madison in 2014 after three years at Georgia Tech in search of a better fit, he joined the FCA there, too. And he set a number of single-game and single-season records at the school on his way to nearly rewriting the career record books in just 21 games.

All the while talking to King about his desire to become a team chaplain someday.

Same Plan, Ahead of Schedule

Vad Lee understands the pain Gest and IU freshman quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who also suffered a torn ACL this season, feel because a torn ligament in his foot cut his final season at James Madison short.

“It was like my life stopped while everybody else kept going on,” Lee said. “You hear the referee blow the whistle, you see your teammates out on the field playing, you see your backup come in. You see all these different things. Your coaches keep coaching. Your teammates keep playing, the fans keep cheering. But you’re no longer the one out there.”

Lee isn’t asking for a pity party. His injury kept him from being 100 percent healthy for NFL scouts and played into his decision to leave the Canadian Football League after a couple months.

But it also led to an offer from his head coach to stay engaged with the team by acting in some ways as a team chaplain. It gave him a sense of purpose. He would write devotions in his free time in Canada, too, and after leaving worked in character development as he coached at his high school for the 2016 season.

“College athletics is a tough place, you’re only valued for what you can do for people,” said Mark Parker, the campus director of Georgia Tech’s FCA when Lee went there. “And he’s the guy that can help reassure (athletes), ‘No, there’s value beyond this.’”

Lee even spent time in 2017 stacking shelves at Walmart and Kroger with cookies and crackers for Nabisco. It was the first time he was doing something that wasn’t what he felt was his calling.

So he connected with Parker, who now directs FCA efforts for colleges in the Atlanta area. He joined FCA at Division II Clayton State while still working for Nabisco. And married with a daughter, who a few months ago celebrated her first birthday, Atlanta looked like his family’s permanent home.

Parker put his name into consideration for IU football’s next team chaplain, but the Hoosiers were looking for someone more experienced.

The original guest speaker for IU’s game against Maryland on Oct. 28, 2017 had to cancel. IU called Lee. And the team embraced him.

“I sat and I talked to him in the hotel the night before the Maryland game, actually, for 30 minutes,” IU quarterback Peyton Ramsey said. “I couldn’t tell you what that conversation was about but it just goes to show how down to earth he is and how easy he is to get along with.”

“The staffs I’ve been on, those guys have really played a major role in helping our guys with things that matter outside of football, ultimately in their lives,” IU coach Tom Allen added. “Vad has done a great job of doing that.”

A Dream Realized

Come January of this year Lee spoke to the Hoosiers again, this time as the official team chaplain.

As Lee had operated in high school and college, he wasn’t going to force himself on anyone who didn’t want to speak with him. If they’ll listen, he’ll talk. If not, he won’t.

“I can see when guys want to pursue a relationship with God because they either come to me or you can kind of just tell or I seek out opportunities,” said Lee. “There’s guys on the team that I haven’t had a conversation with because not everybody is open to faith.”

Lee, who planned on a 10-year NFL career, still gets calls from teams in the CFL and National Arena League. He even signed with the latter’s Columbus Lions last fall while he was in FCA training because he thought he could balance the two, but that move never materialized much past the signing as he came to terms with his future.

“We’re selfish individuals, especially when we’re single, because it’s all about us and all about us building our empire or getting that career or getting that salary that we want,” he said. “But then there’s a lot of sacrifice that goes with that as well and in the game of football there’s a lot of sacrifices.”

Now his weeks are comprised of trips to practices, weightlifting sessions and meetings. Mostly it’s to continue his ministry of presence, especially during practices when he spends time supporting those injured who can’t participate, but sometimes he has to show Hoosiers who playfully question his fitness he hasn’t lost a step.

He also provides resources to players who want them, maybe in the form of bibles or texts with scripture passages. Each week there's a Bible study and chapel session. And before each game the opportunity to provide a motivational message because he goes to all of them.

Each message is focused on coach Allen’s one word for the week. The week of the Minnesota game it was “unbreakable.” This week, ahead of Maryland’s visit, it’s “relentless.”

Walking the Walk

Cole Gest thought he’d have a breakout season in 2018.

IU’s starting running back for the opener, he was confident he’d help propel IU to a bowl game.

But the day after he watched IU lose to Minnesota, he walked the streets of Bloomington with Lee and the pair shared their faith with people living in poverty. And it was Gest who brought the idea to Lee, who he calls a “brother in Christ.”

“I’ve always prayed for it and Vad has become that answered prayer, which is awesome,” Gest said. “I never anticipated this happening.”

It’s helped him find peace as he’s rehabbed. Doing something he’s always felt called to do. One man came up to them and guided them to the Shalom Community Center, where they spoke to many more.

“We want to instill in them that they matter, because they’ve been told their whole life that they’re never going to be anything, they’re nothing,” Gest said. “All those terrible things that they’ve heard growing up, we’re trying to basically alter their mind to start believing again.”

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Jordan Guskey on Twitter at @JordanGuskey or email him at jguskey@gannett.com.

IU VS. MARYLAND

Kickoff: Noon, Saturday, Memorial Stadium.

TV/Radio: BTN/WFNI-1070 AM, 107.5-FM.