Greg Thiel: A Role Model Reformed

CBN.com  “I’d always prided myself being good with the athletes. “

As Head Track and Field Coach for the University of South Florida, Greg Thiel coached 17 All-Americans and helped two achieve their dream of competing in the Olympic Games.

“I spent almost every waking hour working, traveling, going everywhere to do whatever I could to be this successful. To help our athletes be successful at that level.”

In the early days of his coaching career, Greg was a great mentor during work hours.  However at night, he was anything but a role model.

“On weekends and even on away trips, there was another side of me. I liked to go to bars, strip bars. My philosophy back then was if I’m going to go to a bar, I might as well look at women naked.”

The Doll House was one of his regular hang outs.

“There was a girl there that caught my eye that was very attractive. Through my roommate, I found out that she was kind of interested in me.”

The two got together for a one-night stand.  That night of passion led to a shocking phone call. 

"She told me that she was pregnant. She wanted to not only have the baby, but that I was the father. I got pretty angry with that figuring that I wasn’t probably the only guy that she had been with.”

Her name was Chris, and she told Greg that he was the only man she had been with during that time. He tried to force her to abort the child, but she wasn’t backing down.

“I got very angry with her, that she was going to have the kid and actually left the restaurant. I washed my hands of the whole deal. A couple of days later, I gave it some more thought. Going in to The Doll House again, seeing how attractive she was, I started talking to her more and I said, ‘If this is something you’re dead set on, then I want to be a part of it. I don’t want to just be some stranger to it.
Why don’t you move in with me? I’m not going to marry you.  But at least I can tell you that I’m going to give it a try.'"

With the birth of their baby girl, Greg and Chris went from being strangers to friends.

“It was great! She was a drinking buddy.  We partied. The baby didn’t really affect a tremendous amount of our life at first. I would bring one of my athletes over to watch the kid, and then I’d see Chris at the bar and do everything I wanted to do."

This arrangement worked out so well that Greg and Chris eventually married.  With her family in mind, Chris quit her job at the strip club and started cleaning houses.  All the while, Greg continued to pour himself into his coaching career. 

“Track and field was my life. I sacrificed family, time, friends, everything. I was absorbed in it. It was my god.”

While he was away at track meets, Chris made new friends at home that inspired her to become a Christian. But her new faith soon created tension at home.

"She started pushing me to want to go to church with her. She actually started reading her Bible during the week and then there were some red flags going off with me. She wasn’t interested in drinking anymore. She wasn’t as gung-ho of me going out to the bars as much. Every once in awhile she would say things like,'I’ve been talking to God,' which really bothered me."

Greg was convinced that she had joined a cult.   So after four years of marriage, he was ready for divorce.

“I had packed all my bags and I was moving. I thought she’d just lost her mind.”

One early morning, Chris dreamed that Greg would have an encounter with God.  She even had a date: March 14th. She says, "I didn’t tell him for a long time. Then as March 14th approached, I went ahead and told him that the Lord was going to reveal Himself to him.”

"She handed me an envelope," Greg says. "She told me that there was a Bible verse in the envelope but not to open it. She loved me and reminded me that I was going to see God."

Greg was heading out of town for a national competition. But nothing could have prepared him for what he experienced in his hotel.

“I remember laying there and looking over to the right side towards the door. I just noticed that the hotel room looked darker than usual. There’s a paralyzing fear in the room, and I really thought I was losing my mind. I knew whatever was in this room was evil. Evil beyond evil. I remember laying there and looking over at that and reflecting my life. I remember just putting my hand up and saying, 'God, I don’t want to be this person that I was anymore. I want to be a good person.' Immediately that darkness went away. I just remember crying so hard.”

Greg found the envelope that his wife had given him. Inside she had written Jeremiah 29:11.

“It probably took me 20 minutes in the Bible to find this verse. The verse says, 'For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, to prosper and not to harm you, to give you future and a hope.’ Then this is the part that really got me: ‘That you will come to me and that you will pray to me and I will hear you and you will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all of your heart.’ I said, ‘God, I want to be a part of You. I want You in my life. I really didn’t understand what happened to me, but I just knew, whatever it was was a better feeling than the cocaine I dabbled in, the alcohol, the sex, the motorcycles, the fame. It was a feeling. It was a euphoric feeling. It was an addictive feeling. I can’t even describe.”

The couple that started as a one night stand, now has Christ as the foundation for their home. 

"It’s amazing that we’re together. Absolutely amazing. It’s clearly God that did that whole thing. We have no right to be together."

Chris says, "It was very exciting.  Our relationship has changed dramatically. We can pray together. We can worship together.  We now actually really love each other.”

Greg resigned from his coaching position at South Florida to spend more time with his family.  Now he coaches his daughter Logan at a Christian high school.

Logan says, “I’m really proud of my dad and the changes that he’s made and how God’s just influenced his life.  It's really changed my life and my family’s life."

Greg says, "Clearly God’s raised her up and brought her up the way she is.  I’m so blessed to have someone that’s walking with the Lord and that loves Jesus. I can’t even put it into words. I don’t know that I’ll get over that amazement that the God of the universe stepped out and drew me to Himself.I’m a better husband, a better father, a better person, more fulfilled. I have nothing yet I have everything.

"That everything that you’re chasing and everything that the world tells you is of value is worth nothing. I’m not going to say it’s easy. I’m not going to say that I haven’t had a lot of struggles and battles, but at the end of the day, there’s nothing greater  than serving Jesus Christ."

God has made it possible for you to know Him and experience an amazing change in your own life. Discover how you can find peace with God.