Lyndsay Moncrief

Lyndsay Moncrief -Razorback Basketball (2008-2012)

Lyndsay Moncrief, a native of Hoover, AL, first arrived at the University of Arkansas as a student-athlete on the Razorback Basketball team in 2008.

Upon arriving at the University of Arkansas, Lyndsay won the starting job as a freshman and held that role for all four years under Head Coach Tom Collen. She left Fayetteville as a highly decorated student-athlete.

If you were talking to Lyndsay in 2012 this is all she would care for you to know. After all, "Ball is Life", right? What else is there tell? 

However, Lyndsay in 2022 has a much more exhaustive story to tell. One that shows how God never stops working on the hearts and minds of those who seek him. This is Lyndsay's story.

Despite growing up in Alabama, Lyndsay was beyond excited to be a Razorback. She was honored to be playing in the SEC. She loved that Arkansas wanted her and to be wanted felt really good.

As an athlete, her identity was wrapped up in being a basketball player. Lyndsay's mother passed away when she was 16 years old and the trauma and pain that came with that followed her to college. Basketball was her outlet for managing the hurt.

She found community with the basketball team. They had their ups and down, as every team does, but Lyndsay experienced a lot of success both personally and with her team in her four years at Arkansas.

However, Lyndsay didn't always feel that same level of success off the court. She confesses that outside of basketball she felt lost. She sought love in relationships (even a toxic ones). Off the court she wasn't quite sure who she was.

Lyndsay had attended church growing up, but her relationship with God was based on religion and tradition. Everything she knew about being a Christian was less about the Gospel and a relationship with God and more about the to-do lists of Christianity: Go to church, pray, read the Bible. She thought she knew what it meant to be a Christian. Lyndsay was even considered the "Christian" one on the basketball team. 

What Lyndsay lacked was a community of believers to walk with her in her faith that could help her grow in her relationship with God. The truth, in Lyndsay's mind, was plain and simple: Basketball came before God.

Baskeball was something she could touch and feel. It brought her joy whether she was happy or sad. Her junior year she tore her ACL and, just like that, basketball was taken away from her (at least for a little while). During that time she felt isolated, alone, and depressed. Looking back she recgonizes her relationship with God wasn't right because instead of looking to the Father for comfort, she spent that time feeling sorry for herself.

Lyndsay did recover from the ACL injury and played an outstanding senior year. However, basketball can't last forever and her four years of eligibility eventually ran it's course. Upon completing her undergrad degree in criminal justice she began studying for LSAT with plans of going to law school.

Sometimes plans change.

Lyndsay decided to continue her playing career overseas in Spain. She confesses that this decision was NOT something she talked to God about. It was a decision that was made because her identity was still tethered to the game of basketball. It's what defined every decision. 

Much to her surprise, she hated it. She returned home halfway through the season at Christmas and decided to stay. That was it. She was done.

"Ball is Life", right? For the first 22 years of Lyndsay's life it absolutely was. It was during her time in Spain that she believes God taught her that Ball is NOT Life, but perhaps HE is. She hadn't learned the latter half of the lesson yet, but God was moving in her heart. 

Shortly after hangin' 'em up, Zenarae Antoine, aka Coach Z, Head Coach at Texas State and the coach that had recruited Lyndsay to come to Arkansas, offered her a graduate assistant position at Texas State.

While in San Marcos, TX, Lyndsay started attending Promised Land church where Pastor Robin Steele led a sermon series called "ALL IN". It was the first time Lyndsay had heard the Gospel presented in a way that made her realize that she had been choosing what she was willing to surrender to God.

In the sermon series he said "Until you go ALL IN with Christ you're not going to experience God that way you want to." This perfectly described her entire life up to this point. 

For most of her life she would pick and choose what she was willing to bring to God because (1) she thought the sin in her life brought shame and she didn't want to approach God with it and (2) she thought there was certain things in her life that God wouldn't care about. She learned that she would never be the person God intended her to be unless she was willing to do both of those things.

She started to reflect on all the times in her life where she could have and should have invited God into the moemnt. She participated in a fast from the S's: Sweets, Secular Music, Social Media. During that time of eliminated distractions she committed to pouring her time and attention into God. 

Lyndsay found community with April Braxton, the first friend that she truly talked to about God. Including the painful confession of struggles to victories over sin and everything in between. They encouraged one another to to grow in faith and practice spirtual disciplines.

At the end of the her fast from the S's she could tell God had changed her, but the one thing she was hestitant to do was get baptized. Several thoughts weighed heavily on her mind.

"I was already supposed to be the "Christian" kid, people are going to wonder what happened?

"I don't want to dishonor my family who was there for my first baptism when I was 7 years old, will they think that wasn't important to me?"

"I've always called myself a Christian, but up to this point, have I really been saved?"

Ultimately the Lord proved to be greater than any of Lyndsay's objections. She was baptized at Promised Land Church by Pastor Robin Steele on January 24th, 2014 in San Marcos, TX.

During the remainder of her time as a gradudate assistant at Texas State she, as Pastor Steele had preached, went ALL IN on God. She finally commited to fully surrender to God. Things that previously were highest priorities like finding a husband or fixating on her career had been replaced by her Creator. 

Isn't it funny how when you finally surrender something to God, He has a way of doing something greater than you ever thought possible?

In April 2014, she met a guy named Brett. He too was a college athlete who had come to Christ while playing football at Troy University in Alabama. When they first started talking she didn't feel any pressure about dating. She wasn't anxious about "will we start dating?", "will we get married?", "where is this headed?" Because they both had strong foundation in Christ the relationship almost felt effortless. They talked more about friendship and purusing Christ.

Lyndsay and Brett made it "official" in June 2014. They spent the next 7 months in a long-distance relationship with Brett in Little Rock and Lyndsay in San Marcos, periodically visiting one another and meeting halfway. 

On Christmas day, 2014, Brett proposed. Seven months later, on July 18th, 2015, they got married. Nine months and one day later, their son, Bretton, was born.

Over the next 5 years Lyndsay saw God making some big moves in her life. She really wanted to be a teacher and coach, but failed the first time she took a qualifying exam by one point. She ended up spending a year substitute teaching. God was equipping her with teaching experience prior to giving her her own classroom. 

The job she applied for the previous school year was available again and now, with a year of teaching experience to her name, Lyndsay was ready to take it. She spent 3 years coaching 9th grade basketball and teaching world history at Creekview HS in Dallas, TX where she learned that "Relationships" > the" X's and O's".  She got to pour into the neediest kids while also teaching the game of basketball at a high level.

During this time Brett was selling cars in Dallas. One of his customers was a Wal-mart VP. This opened Brett up to the oppportunity to apply and ultimately led to him getting a job with Wal-mart. Lyndsay's path back to NWA was paved. 

The Moncrief family moved back to NWA in 2019. In her first year back Lynday was a stay-at-home mom during which time she would get up at 5am and spend intimate, uninterrupted time in the Word. That's where she learned the discipline of spending time with God. It's also where she got to pour into her kids and re-explore NWA as an adult.  It was during this time that she also met Cortez McCraney for the first time who planted the FCA seed in her mind.

In 2020, Lyndsay re-entered the coaching world at George Jr. High as the freshman girls coach while teaching US History which she did for the next two years.

In the Summer of 2021 Cortez reached back out to Lyndsay about joining the University of Araknsas FCA team. After praying through it she and Brett felt the timing was right and she was ready to answer the ministry call.

Lyndsay shared her testimony at a huddle in the Summer of 2021. She met Meghan Underwood, an Arkansas student-athlete on the track team, who was the first student she met 1-on-1 with. She felt the impact of what she was doing. God was showing her how powerful her story is. 

She believes that God strategically placed her in Arkansas as a college student because He wanted her here to do ministry as an adult. Lyndsay led her first Multi-sport Huddle on July 11th, 2022.

"I am a Razorback for life."

Being back in Arkansas brings her so much joy. She loves what her time in Arkansas represents. She recgonizes that even though she's 10 years removed from playing, her experience is far different than what current student-athletes are navigating through and she empathizes with them. 

Seeing 8 girls from the basketball team show up on a Monday night at an FCA huddle was greater than any basketball experience she had during her time as a student-athlete.

When Lyndsay was at Arkansas, FCA didn't exist, at least not for the women's basketball team. That faith based community wasn't available to her. She didn't have someone to walk alongside her through her struggles. 

Lyndsay's vision is to change all that. She wants these girls to know she's here and available for them. She wants to build faith-based community within the women's basketball team. She wants to be there to walk alongside these girls with the things she knows they're struggling with. She's here to challenge. She's here to encourage. She's here to show these girls that the same God who transfromed her life can do the very same for each and every one of them.