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“Okay Lord, prepare my steps.”

This is a phrase used every morning by Character Coach Deanna Veach, better known as Nan, to prepare herself for the day ahead and however it may turn out. Paired with this phrase, Nan makes black coffee, because according to her, it is the best and only way to drink it. With her coffee in one hand and her prayer journal in the other, Nan is ready to take on the day.

Since Nan works with multiple groups both on and off campus, her prayer journal has become a necessity, especially as a way to start every morning.

“[The journal] helps me look in the morning at my life and the people I know are going through stuff,” Nan said.

The day following is filled with assisting students, athletes and coaches within all aspects of their life. As the Character Coach, Nan is someone who anyone can go to to talk to for a variety of reasons, including faith, life stressors or even to be the shoulder to cry on. For the past three years, Nan has helped students with these reasons plus more within the dance team, the cheer team and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA).

Before she meets with these athletes, Nan goes out of her way first to meet with coaches in the Wellness Center to check on them and make sure that they are doing okay as well. While following Nan around and meeting with each coach, you cannot help but smile as her energy and excitement for what she does spreads into each room she visits.

“Coaches have needs too,” Nan said. “I want to be able to support a coach so that they are able to be fully effective to their teams and we always say ministry is an overflow of the heart and coaching is a ministry.”

Even though she may not know every coach by name yet, she tries to pop in and share a smile and a wave to each open door in the coaches hallway. One of her main goals in this is to make every coach feel as important as they make their athletes feel.

During this walk throughout the campus and Wellness Center, Nan sometimes runs into FCA members or athletes from the cheer or dance team. One student that she sees through the cheer team every week and sometimes on her walks on campus is junior Tayana Williams.

“She’s always a good shoulder to cry on and she’s someone who you can just talk to and she’ll give you a level head. She’ll be like ‘was it actually like this or was it like this instead,’” Williams said.

Nan’s final stop is with Michelle Prange, the Grand View University Athletic Success Coordinator. Here, Nan talks to Michelle about any students or even faculty that may need additional support within their academics or athletics. With this information, Nan is able to check in on people in such a caring way that they do not feel called out but rather supported.

After her check in with the coaches, Nan gets ready for either an FCA Huddle or a meeting with her designated teams.

“The Huddle is a multi-sport athlete meeting on Monday nights where athletes get a community outside of their teams,” Nan said. “They share devotions, pray with each other, pray for each other and is just a soft place to land outside of your room.”

Being someone who found her own faith in college, with tears in her eyes, Nan expressed how much she loves and is honored by being invited to a private space where she can help students build authentic relationships, handle their mental health and build their faith.

“I knew Jesus and my faith in middle school and high school. I saw the rules and I didn’t think I could measure up to them. I made a lot of regrettable mistakes but when I got to college I really found my faith and I figured it out,” Nan said. “I saw that the things I was trying to fill a whole with were leaving me empty still. I realized in high school that Jesus was my savior and I didn’t realize until I was 24 that he was part of all aspects of my life.”

Although Nan teaches from a base of faith, when she talks to the dance or cheer teams, her focus is to connect with everyone on all faith levels to make sure everyone understands the message personally before connecting it to the Bible.

During one dance team meeting, Nan brought in five different colored ribbons for each team member that each represented a different valuable trait to have as a teammate and person: red was leadership, blue was encouraging, yellow was honesty, green was trustworthy, and purple was compassion. This activity allowed the athletes to give the ribbons to different teammates that they felt matched the characteristic. At the end, each person had a ribbon that their teammates felt represented them and their place on the team. Coming into college athletics, some students feel frustrated with their position on the team. Doing activities like this shows that each person is just as important to the next in different areas.

Nan wants to leave each practice or Huddle with an impact, even if an athlete does not remember the Bible verse used for the lesson, as long as they are able to absorb the message and find out who they are in college, Nan could not be happier.