DePaul University Athletics
Martire a Living, Breathing Inspiration to His Team
11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM | MEN'S SOCCER
CHICAGO- Ryan Martire files into the DePaul Student Center chapel with his team before every Blue Demon home game. As the team sits down, Martire stands and leads them in a brief prayer.
For each game, he picks a different player to tell a short, motivational story and then Martire concludes the session by discussing a Bible verse that stands out to him. Everyone bows their heads in prayer. One by one, the men's soccer team gets up and leaves the chapel to head back before game time.
Martire has been doing this since he joined the soccer team in 2014. This North Dakota native was looking to play soccer and compete at a Division I level while attending a Catholic school. DePaul was the perfect fit for Martire, and the junior found his home after attending an ID camp.
The original plan was to become a high school religion teacher. But not long after Martire had been attending DePaul, he felt as if God was calling him to enter the seminary to become a priest---a calling he could not ignore.
Martire feels that having faith is one of the most important things in life and he wanted to bring that faith to his team, both on and off the field. Which is why he decided to ask coach Craig Blazer at the beginning of his freshman year if he could conduct chapel before each game.
"It was a bit intimidating to take on such a big task as a freshman, but I knew it would bring a new level of togetherness to this team," Martire said. "Having chapel has been really good for building our team closeness and it has been great at building the dignity for this program."
Blazer implemented a four-hour pregame routine for the Blue Demons which includes Martire's pregame chapel. Blazer discovered this special aspect of the pregame routine has helped the program succeed.
"This brings more spiritual time and team bonding," Blazer said. "It allows the young men to be themselves and to talk about being successful and how they can become successful. I think it is extremely unique, and I am very proud that Ryan stood up and took the leadership in this role. He has provided opportunity for all of his teammates to find themselves and grow.
"We always say the first thing we need to do with every game is that we need to find strength in each other, whether that's the guy who completes the first pass or the first tackle or tracks back on the extra run. But the guys know that in this process of being reflective that they've all grown to become better."
Attending daily mass has become a part of Martire's routine since he made the move from Bismarck, N.D. It was while attending mass that Martire found his calling to enter the priesthood.
"My time in Chicago has been very blessed," he said. "I've been amazed at all of the opportunities that have come up for me. I began attending daily mass and praying every day and I was resisting the call at first. But I slowly began to realize this call would bring me to something more, something greater.
"Honestly, my passion was to teach, but it was a call from the Lord and I had to answer it. It wasn't of my own choosing but He worked on me slowly but surely and eventually I chose that path to enter the seminary, to become a priest, and from there everything worked out very smoothly."
This Blue Demon defender went to Calcutta, India on a summer mission trip after concluding his freshman year and conducted his work alongside the Missionaries of Charity. After realizing his interest in Blessed Mother Teresa in high school and visiting Calcutta, Martire decided to write an essay titled "The Eyes of Christ". The essay was written to show that mission work is done for the salvation of the soul. Martire received the 2016 Paulson Award for his work.
"I was blessed to go to India by myself and spend a whole two weeks there," Martire said. "It was a very intense experience, but I received so much from it. One of the things I wanted to do was write a paper on it and it turned out to be a pretty good paper. That experience was so transforming for me."
Martire plays a significant role on this Blue Demon team, and he believes this team has played a huge role in his life as well.
"Simply the day in, day out grind has been huge for disciplining me," he said. "But also the aspect of having the community of teammates. We grow together, we work together, we encourage each other and we persevere through the season when times get tough.
"Those tough times together are the most powerful when we work as a team and as a unit. I really truly appreciate that aspect of this team and it has had a huge impact on me.
"I don't think that there's a primary and a secondary between soccer and faith. But faith is the center of everything I do. So that my faith reflects the way I perform in soccer, it affects the way that I come out every day and focus. It doesn't conflict because it is permeated into my studies and to the way I talk with my teammates. Faith is central to everything I do."
Blazer brought Martire on to this Blue Demon team as a freshman and has supported him throughout his unique journey.
"Ryan has been a very successful person on this team," Blazer said. "He brings a lot of the intangibles. For everyone on our team, we want them to contribute any way that they can.
"During the recruiting process when we learned more about Ryan and that he was going to go into Catholic Studies, we felt like he would be very reliable and very dependable. We have watched him grow in his devotion and he never wavered from his faith. From Ryan we have all developed a kinship with him in the sense of following your faith and doing what you think is right and good things will happen."
In just two-and-a-half years, Martire will graduate with a degree in Catholic Studies from DePaul and make his way to Washington, D.C to enter St. John Paul the Great Seminary. He will begin his journey to becoming a priest in January.
As Martire goes through every day as a Division I student-athlete preparing to enter the seminary, he keeps one Bible verse in mind.
"What do you have that you did not receive?" - 1 Corinthians 4:7.
"That's really helped me with all of my relations at college because it's so easy to think that successes are our own," Martire said "But nothing that we have is without God."
