Rams Coach Nate Scheelhaase Says Youth Ministry Taught Him to See the Person Behind the Player

Before Nate Scheelhaase coached NFL players, he worked with teenagers in a church. Now the Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator is describing how that experience shaped a central part of his leadership: earning trust by understanding people's lives.

His journey raises a question that reaches beyond football: How does a leader show people they matter when their performance is constantly being evaluated?

According to ChurchLeaders, Scheelhaase recently told NBC that his time on staff at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, helped prepare him for the personal demands of coaching. He joined the church in 2014 after four years as a quarterback at the University of Illinois.

"From a ministry standpoint, just being around people from all different walks of life, different journeys, being able to meet them where they're at, that's also a football locker room," he said.

That connection gives his move from ministry to coaching a deeper significance. A locker room brings together people with different backgrounds, pressures, and expectations. Communicating instructions is only one part of leading them. Scheelhaase's account suggests that effective coaching also depends on whether players believe their coach understands and cares about them.

"[Players] know I not only understand what we're asking them to do, but I care and I see them," he explained. "That's the part I enjoy the most about my job."

For Christian leaders, those words invite examination of how care operates in environments driven by results. Attention can become transactional when people receive it primarily because of what they contribute. Scheelhaase's emphasis on seeing the person challenges leaders to consider whether their relationships extend beyond the next task, game, or measurable achievement.

His interest in coaching developed while he was still serving in ministry. As a volunteer football chaplain for two Louisville high school teams, he noticed the influence coaches exercised in young people's lives. That experience prompted him to consider how he might serve people through a similar role.

Coaching positions at Illinois and Iowa State followed, before his move into the NFL.

Faith had already become central to how Scheelhaase understood himself. During his college years, his mother said he attended Stone Creek Church in Urbana regardless of the previous day's result. In a 2013 ESPN interview, he described God as the one he relied on through difficulty.

That history adds another dimension to his approach: identity and achievement need not rise and fall together. In a profession where wins, losses, and career opportunities can change quickly, that conviction offers a foundation beyond public approval.

Scheelhaase also credited Southeast's leaders and congregants with modelling Christian marriage and parenthood. The church's influence extended beyond his professional development into the husband and father he would become.

His story offers pastors and coaches a shared challenge. Building trust requires more than speaking persuasively or asking people to work harder. It requires knowing whom they are leading-and making that knowledge visible in how they listen, teach, and care.