“…because running an integrated life doesn’t have to come at the sacrifice of sport, relationships, and true peace.”
– WPDSports
At WPDSports (est. 2021), we mentor collegiate and post-collegiate athletes who are excited about life and seek guidance to navigate it. We help athletes who struggle to slow down long enough to face what’s really going on outside and inside themselves and who long to find clarity, confidence, and encouragement for the race ahead.
We know what this feels like because we walked and ran, sadly alone at times, through seasons of sport and personal life with uncertainty and vagueness, trying to please others and ourselves while feeling lonely and lost on the inside and isolated on the outside.
We believe every athlete benefits from a safe place and committed community to grow holistically without pretense, because running an integrated life doesn’t have to come at the sacrifice of sport, relationships, and true peace.
Through custom face-to-face and virtual one-on-one and small group mentoring experiences, we help athletes discover God, others, and self, gaining clarity, confidence, and encouragement for the race ahead, igniting hope within them to serve their families and communities. And always…never alone!
Will they know God, others and themselves? Will they be ready for life beyond sports? Will they “influence” for good? A blessing to others? Frankly, will others like to be around them? So many questions. So little time.”
– Dr. McNeal
THE MISSION:
- WPDSports provides holistic and integrated mentoring to athletes, guiding them to experience God, others, and self both in and beyond sports, igniting hope within them to serve their families and communities.
THE VISION:
- To see every athlete fully experience God, others, and self within a biblical framework for the sake of others.
WPDSports values…
- Acknowledging and honoring the image of God (imago Dei) within each person.
- Approaching each person in a holistic and integrated manner.
- Engaging the sport, its culture and all those who participate in it.
- Honoring God in all things.
- Building personal relationships based on trust, respect, and integrity.
- Practicing responsible stewardship.
THE TEAM:
Dr. McNeal – Sag support for the athletes.
pc: T. Talley
Dr. Scott W. McNeal – President and Executive Director, Chief Sports Mentor
Dr. McNeal provides holistic and integrated mentoring to athletes, guiding them to experience God, others, and self both in and beyond sports, igniting hope within them to serve their families and communities.
- Forty-five + years as an athlete (runner, triathlete)
- Twenty-five + years in higher education
- Married thirty + years. Two grown children.
- Sports Culture & Leadership Certificate (2023): (Mental Health in Sports, Sports & Theology, Bible & Sport, and Sports Leadership). Baylor University.
- Plumline Coaching Certification (2026): Supports holistic, integral mentoring with athletes who are excited about life and seek guidance to navigate it.
Mr. Barry Tate, B.S. – Chairman of Board
Mr. Tate brings a strong “left” brain to the team with twenty-one plus years as a software development architect. Being a sportsman, he loves to run and occasionally gets hurt playing basketball. He currently wears his hair long!
Mr. Kelly Rehm, M.A. – Secretary and Treasurer
Mr. Rehm brings over twenty years of collegiate student-development, pastoral, and missional experience to the team. He loves to build and race cars. At times his machismo is palpable.
THE STATEMENT OF FAITH:
With humility and graciousness, WPDSports leadership affirms and practices the following biblical and theological perspectives:
- We are motivated by Mark 12:30-31: ‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31, NIV).
- We are motivated by Hebrews 12:1:Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1, NIV).
We believe that God created all human beings in His image. Therefore, we believe that human life is sacred from conception to its natural end; that we must honor the physical and spiritual needs of all people; following Christ’s example, we believe that every person should be treated with love, dignity and respect. GENESIS 1:27 | PSALM 139:13 | ISAIAH 49:1 | JEREMIAH 1:5 | MATTHEW 22:37-39 | ROMANS 12:20-21 | GALATIANS 6:10
We believe the Bible to be the only inspired, trustworthy and true, without error, Word of God. 2 TIMOTHY 3:16-17
We believe there is only one God who eternally exists in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. MATTHEW 28:19
We believe Jesus Christ is God, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His death that paid for, our sin through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension/rising up to the right hand of the Father and in His personal return in power and glory. JOHN 1:1 | MATTHEW 1:18,25 | HEBREWS 4:15 | HEBREWS 9:15-22 | 1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-8 | ACTS 1:9-11 | HEBREWS 9:27-28
We believe that acceptance of Jesus Christ and the corresponding renewal of the Holy Spirit are the only paths to salvation for lost/sinful men and women. JOHN 3:16 | JOHN 5:24 | TITUS 3:3-7
We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit, who lives within and guides Christians, so they are enabled to live godly lives. JOHN 14:15-26 | JOHN 16:5-16 | EPHESIANS 1:13-14
We believe in eternal life, and that through belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, we spend eternity with the Lord in Heaven. We believe that in rejecting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we receive eternal suffering in hell. MATTHEW 25:31-46 | 1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-18
We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, that all believers are members of His body, the Church. PHILIPPIANS 2:1-4 We believe God’s design for sexual intimacy is to be expressed only within the context of marriage, that God created man and woman to complement and complete each other. God instituted monogamous marriage between one man and one woman as the foundation of the family and the basic structure of human society. For this reason, we believe that marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic man and one genetic woman. GENESIS 2:24 | MATTHEW 19:5-6 | MARK 10:6-9 | ROMANS 1:26-27 | 1 CORINTHIANS 6:9