RENO, Nev. - Former University of Nevada women's basketball forward Jessica Cox (Bridgeport, Calif.) is using her experiences to help others see how sports can have a great impact on lives.
After graduating from Nevada with a degree in secondary education, Cox attended San Francisco State to pursue a master's degree in sports psychology. During her time in San Francisco, she also taught physical education and was a program leader at an inner-city afterschool program.
"These opportunities awakened my passion of using the platform of sport to connect and teach valuable life lessons to people from vast array of backgrounds and experiences," She said. "I realized how dramatically sport can facilitate growth and change. It's a tool God provided me that had the capacity to help me uniquely make a difference in the world."
From that point on, Cox realized the direction God had for her life and passions and she became involved in Athletes in Action (AIA). Cox credits a passage on that AIA website that made her realize this was something she wanted to get involved in.
The passage reads:
"Sport is a universal language with the powerful ability to shape a culture, heal a nation, break down political, racial and economic barriers and restore national pride. In most cultures the value system highly esteems the performance of the athlete and gives him or her a national platform of influence. The nations that look up to athletes as heroes must find those heroes looking up to God. AIA wants to help build an army of sport heroes around that have a character worth modeling."
Cox is involved in several areas with AIA including assisting ministry with college, professional and top amateur athletes and coaches all over the United States as well as internationally. This summer she is competing on two AIA international basketball teams that will play in the Czech Republic and Israel.
"The first project is going to Israel for the month of June. I will go with four other women and we will be placed on five Palestinian professional basketball teams in the Bethlehem/Jerusalem area for about three weeks," Cox said. "We will work out, practice and then play in a large tournament at the end. This is a chance to really connect with fellow athletes and use our lives to display Christ. We will get a chance to plug into the community and really immerse in their culture. We will also be blessed to spend time doing Bible studies at many biblical sites around the country for our discipleship times."
Cox's job with AIA also allows her to take part in hosting outreach events at major sporting events including the Super Bowl, Final Four, NBA All-Star Game, Olympics, the World Cup and more. In addition, she spends time during the school year doing ministry with female athletes on college campuses in Ohio as well as other states.
"The best part of my job is that I am blessed to be able to combine passion, experience and purpose into a role that enables me to fulfill a calling to something bigger than myself," Cox said.
Cox, who played for Nevada from 2006-08 after transferring from Corban College in Salem, Ore., redshirted during the 2006-07 season after transferring. She played in four games with one start as a senior.
"I love that I can look back at my life before I went to Nevada and see how the people and experiences there were so crucial in my growth and development, Cox said. "My time with my teammates and coaches is unforgettable. To this day I feel so blessed that I had an opportunity to be a part of the women's basketball team. The things I learned, the relationships that were formed and the experiences that I had are immeasurable.
"As for my future plans, I am actually considering playing professionally in Eastern Europe sponsored by Athletes in Action for a couple seasons," she said. "We'll see how the summer goes."
For a photo gallery of Cox's travels with AIA and from her time at Nevada click on the photo icon at the top of the page.
