HIGHER CALLING

HARRISONBURG — A month-long excursion in Saskatchewan was exactly what Vad Lee needed.

The former James Madison football star didn’t find the same success in the Canadian Football League that he had with the Dukes. Instead, he stumbled upon what he wanted to do next in his life.

“I just felt like I lost the love of the game a little bit,” Lee said. “The only thing that could give me joy and peace while I was there was writing devotions, looking in the mirror and practicing it in front of the mirror as if I was a team chaplain.”

His stint with the CFL’s Roughriders started in July of 2016 and was over in August.

Now, the ex-quarterback and former Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Year, is doing exactly what he wants to do. He’s the team chaplain for Indiana University football and the school’s campus director for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

“I didn’t get cut or anything from the Saskatchewan Roughriders, but I went into the head coach’s office and told him that I felt like the Lord was calling me into ministry,” Lee said. “I told him that I wanted to pursue the opportunity of serving coaches and athletes.”

He said the team released him from his contract and gave him the chance to start chasing his dream — one that he said initially began during his time in Harrisonburg when former JMU coach Everett Withers let Lee speak to his teammates after suffering a season-ending injury his final year with the Dukes.

Lee hurt his foot in the Dukes’ 59-49 loss to Richmond in October of 2015, but was there for the team to deliver words of inspiration the Friday night before JMU’s next contest at William & Mary.

“He’d been doing it all year long, he just hadn’t recognized that he’d been doing it all year long in front of the team,” said Withers, now the coach at Texas State.

Withers recruited Lee to JMU as a transfer after Lee’s time at Georgia Tech.

“When Vad spoke, everybody listened and he had that ability to make you understand the message,” Withers said. “But the opportunity for him to speak at our reflection services after he was injured was really important for us as a team because one, he was such a big part of our team, and two, I knew the kids would take whatever message he put out there, listen to it and try to live by it on that day. So having Vad speak was easy for us as a staff and myself because that’s the kind of guy he was.

“And deep down, I really thought he had a passion for that and now two, three years later he’s a chaplain at Indiana. It’s exciting.”

It wasn’t until this past fall that Lee arrived in Bloomington, Ind.

Lee’s first job after removing himself from playing football came at Clayton State, a small college in Georgia. He was leading FCA meetings on Tuesday nights for the school’s athletes.

Lee said it was his supervisor there that connected him with Indiana coach Tom Allen, who was in search of a team chaplain. Lee went through the interview process, but admittedly thought it was a long shot since he was told the program was probably looking for someone older.

“The next week Indiana was scheduled to play the University of Maryland,” Lee said, “which brought back all kinds of memories because I played Maryland at Georgia Tech and James Madison. That was my first game at JMU, so it brought back great memories even though the game didn’t play in our favor.

“But anyway, Mark Batterson, a famous author, he was supposed to speak to the team, but he had to cancel and since I had just done a Skype interview with them, they had decided to schedule me to come speak to the team and lead devotion with the team.

“I only had four or five days to prepare, so it kind of put me back at my James Madison experience when I spoke to the team after Coach Withers had asked me to. It was the same deal.”

Lee said there were flashbacks to Canada too, when he’d look at the mirror and practice.

“And of course I was looking at my JMU teammates in my head,” Lee said. “So I was looking at guys like Brandon Ravenel, Rashard Davis and Bryan Schor.”

His talk with the Hoosiers went well and Lee said after speaking to the team, he spent Friday evening discussing football and Allen’s desire to hire a chaplain that could relate to his players.

Allen never coached Lee, but Lee said his last game as a Yellow Jacket came against Ole Miss in the Music City Bowl, where Allen was the linebackers coach at the time.

“We joke about it now that he was scheming for me then just like he was scheming for me to be their team chaplain at Indiana,” Lee said. “But he told me that he cared more about the development of athletes and their faith than winning games, so honestly it just showed me where his heart was at.”

Lee said he uses ability to connect with players and the fact that he recently played to his advantage.

In two seasons at JMU, Lee was a two-time All-American, a Dudley Award winner and threw for 5,652 passing yards and 51 touchdowns. He’s the only player in Division I history to pass and rush for at least 275 yards in the same game — he did that with 289 passing yards and 276 rushing yards in the Dukes’ 2015 48-45 upset win at FBS Southern Methodist.

“They can talk to me about anything,” Lee said. “I was in their shoes not too long ago, so I know exactly what goes on in the locker room. I know what goes on off the field and I know what goes on in the classroom. I know the struggles of a college student-athlete with being away from home and facing adversity, competing. I’m able to speak their language in a way that they can understand while also tying in the gospel to it as well to let them know that there is hope and brighter days ahead.”

None of this surprises Withers, who said he saw Lee’s leadership skills shine at JMU from the moment he arrived on campus.

“And to be honest with you, I always thought Vad could be an unbelievable football coach just because of his passion, his faith and his belief in people,” Withers said. “I’ve approached Vad on a couple of occasions about coaching, so I think he has a lot of ability to do a lot of different things, and that’s what makes him special.

“And again, I think it didn’t matter what the setting was or what the environment was for Vad. He could connect and make everyone feel at home. He could make everyone feel valued and that is just one of his gifts. He was that way in the Harrisonburg community, the JMU campus community, too. He made people feel valued and I think that’s a big, big piece of what’s made him what he is.”