To understand Sister Lisa, you must begin in the southern Minnesota town of Sleepy Eye, back when her brothers were the only people who called her sister. There, in this two-stoplight farming community, the first-born child of Gene and Diane Maurer dove into sports at a young age. From elementary through high school, she attended St. Mary’s, a small Catholic school where athletes rarely limited themselves to just one sport. For Lisa, the rotation was always volleyball in the fall, basketball in the winter, softball in the spring.

Back in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, Lisa followed in her father’s footsteps at St. Mary’s, teaching middle-school science and coaching three sports. Submitted by Sister Lisa Maurer

Her father taught sixth-grade science at St. Mary’s and coached a variety of junior high sports, including football. Lisa loved being around him and his players and helped any chance she could – mowing lines, painting markers, collecting stray balls. During basketball season, his junior high team shared the school’s gymnasium with the high school squad. No gym available on practice day? No problem. Gene Maurer was content running his practices in the cafeteria. You can learn sports anywhere, he figured.

He was the kind of coach who hammered home the fundamentals, teaching novice players the correct way to tackle, throw and run drills. Bad habits are hard to break, Gene Maurer believed. And if you’re going to do something, you need to do it right.

These lessons were ingrained in Lisa’s everyday life. Discipline came naturally to the young girl. Over and over and over again, she practiced her swing, her shot, her spike. Every breakfast, lunch and dinner, she said her prayers. She attended Mass with her family on Sundays, where she grew fascinated by the highly structured Catholic service – the recitations, the gestures, the incense.

Sisters of the church often taught in the school. Lisa was in fourth grade when she realized nuns weren’t all serious and strict – they could also have fun. Her teacher, Sister Arnold, incorporated games into her lesson plans – and prizes! – and she was approachable in a way no other sister had been.

Lisa moved away from Sleepy Eye for the first time to attend Southwest Minnesota State University. She played catcher for the softball team during her freshman year, but after a nagging shoulder injury kept her off the diamond and in the trainer’s room, she quit. In the classroom, she studied elementary education with the intention of becoming a teacher and a coach. Just like her father, she was invigorated by the idea of molding young minds and helping kids realize their potential.

After graduation, Lisa took on new teaching and coaching opportunities that brought her closer and closer to her beloved hometown. First she worked in a town called Tracy, 50 miles away from Sleepy Eye. Her next job was a mere 14 miles west, followed by another 14 miles east. By that time, she was coaching basketball and volleyball in the evenings back at St. Mary’s, back on the court that shaped her leadership skills and tireless work ethic. There, she could pass those lessons on to a younger generation.

Lisa was in Sleepy Eye the day her father’s health crashed in 2003. Walking had become difficult for Gene Maurer, and he had developed a bad cold that made it hard to breathe. He was working a Sunday dinner at the church when the congestion became unbearable. Lisa helped her mother, a nurse, rush him to the hospital, where doctors put him in a temporary coma to stabilize his ailing body.

Gene remained in the hospital for the next month as a new reality became clear: He would not be returning to his sixth-grade science class or his junior high teams. Substitute teachers rotated in and out over the weeks and months that followed. Finally, Lisa felt pulled to action. The students needed a permanent teacher, and she was ready. The next school year, she stepped into her father’s former classroom armed with a lesson plan and a determination to carry on his legacy. She was fulfilling her dream back in Sleepy Eye, the only place she had ever wanted to be.

But, the way she tells it, God had a different plan.

Pictured with the 2005 St. Mary’s basketball team, Sister Lisa acknowledges she sees God where others might not. “God came to me through sports. ... He knew that’s where he’d have my attention.” Submitted by Sister Lisa Maurer

At first, the tug was subtle. Lisa was chaperoning St. Mary’s students on a mission trip to Guatemala when the thought entered her mind: She was meant to serve God in a bigger way.

Was it the simple lifestyle she witnessed on the trip? The introduction to a bigger world so far outside Sleepy Eye? Whatever the trigger, Lisa soon realized it could not be ignored. Back in Minnesota, she tried adding more to her religious life – more involvement with the church, more prayers. Still, the pull persisted.

OK, God, Lisa thought in a moment of desperation. I know you’re calling me to be a sister, but if I stop coaching, I will die. Getting married, having children, raising a family in a house like she grew up in – at 35, she could accept a life without those traditional trappings. But giving up coaching? That seemed impossible.

Clarity came in the middle of a basketball game. Her team’s point guard stole the ball, took it down the court and made a layup. Lisa was about to call a timeout when, over the cheers of the crowd, she heard the calling louder than ever. You can leave this.

She knew what that meant.

She could leave Sleepy Eye. She could leave coaching at St. Mary’s. She could leave her father, who was battling a slow-progressing form of ALS, and her mother, who was caring for him. She could leave it all – because she had to.

She began her search for the right convent, continuing at St. Mary’s while she prepared for her new life. She told her family and her friends, who greeted her decision with support. Then came the hard part.

The girls basketball team was gathered in the school cafeteria for the 2006 season-ending banquet. After the last awards were handed out and the mothers had begun to clean up the remains from their casserole dishes, Lisa approached the team before the girls rose to leave.

“I have something to tell you,” she began, her eyes already starting to water.

“I think God’s calling me to be a sister,” she told them. “And I’m going to say ‘yes’ to God.” Lisa couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. She explained that she was leaving St. Mary’s, but the girls would always hold a special place in her heart. She would forever be Coach Maurer.

Some of the players wiped away tears of their own. Others expressed excitement for their coach, knowing how much Lisa valued her faith. “That’s so cool, Mau-Pow!” one exclaimed, calling her by the nickname the girls gave her.

One of the basketball players had once said to her: “Maurer, you are so holy and cool.” The statement had hit her – back in fourth grade, it was the sentiment she had felt for Sister Arnold. She could follow in that fun-loving nun’s footsteps, she realized. She didn’t have to be an either/or: She could answer God’s call and remain herself in the process.

“It’s all going to be OK,” Lisa assured the girls that night.

It’s all going to be OK, she told herself.