Running Toward History - Catholic Herald

Samuel Streitmatter will step to the starting line on Saturday, Sept. 7, for the SEU Fire Invitational in Lakeland, Florida, as a freshman member of the men’s cross country team at Ave Maria University.

“I was very shocked that any college was going to accept me for my running because I thought I would just do it for fun, but I really enjoyed it,” said Streitmatter, who graduated in May from Chesterton Academy of Milwaukee, located in Menomonee Falls. “I reached out to all of the Cardinal Newman schools, and Ave wanted me on their team. I was very glad. Chesterton really helped me prepare for college and especially sports, too. It helped me balance my faith life and taking my studies seriously. It’s an honor and a little daunting, too.”

Having arrived on campus Aug. 4 to start training with his teammates before classes started Aug. 26, Streitmatter said choosing the college that’s south of Cape Coral and Fort Myers and a little inland of the Gulf Coast has been a case of so far, so good.

“I say it’s a Catholic utopia. The campus is beautiful; the kids are great.”

The path that led him to his current station in life, as he embarks on the beginning of adulthood, began during the fall of 2020, as COVID restrictions were lifting, students were returning to in-person instruction and Streitmatter entered Chesterton as a freshman.

“The COVID year — not going to Mass on Sundays and watching it on Zoom — it didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel true,” said Streitmatter, who is studying political economy and government, and hopes to go to law school. “I was really excited to go to Chesterton. My first day there, we had a retreat, and they had adoration and confession. I hadn’t been to adoration or confession in a long time. That day, there was an hour-long adoration in the woods. I really started to take the faith seriously and understand that that’s what I was called to do. I’m called to be a Catholic and I wanted to grow in my relationship with Christ. For the next four years at Chesterton, it really helped me form my faith and grow in my virtue and closeness with God. That’s when I started claiming being a Catholic — it’s not just what my parents taught me. I’m not just doing it because they told me; it’s something I want to do.”

That same year, Streitmatter, at the urging of his mother, former Chesterton Athletic Director Tammy Streitmatter, joined the cross country team.

“I really enjoyed spending time with the coach and the kids on the team, so I thought I would take it up over the summer and keep running,” he said. He came back for his sophomore year faster and more confident and eventually joined the school’s track and field team as well.

That confluence was coincidental, but he has seen how the two aspects of his life can play off each other.

“It takes discipline to be a good Catholic,” Streitmatter said. “You have to be willing to sacrifice some things. I feel like that’s the same thing with running. Running is difficult, but at the end of every race, I have a runner’s high. It feels so good. It reminds me of my faith. I put in the effort, I try to be a good Catholic, and there’s these moments where I see friends or people start to understand the faith and that gives me joy, seeing my faith help them come closer to God through all of my hard work.”

When he’s running, he said he will often say a Rosary or the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

“Running can clear your mind and it’s a really good time to think,” Streitmatter said. “I can see what I need to fix in my life when I run, and then when I’m done, I try to make sure to complete that goal.”

For now, one of his main goals is to be ready for Sept. 7.

“I’m just trying to get used to the heat down in Florida now. I’m definitely more used to it now and drinking more water. I’m doing a lot better now than I was on my first week.”