Taking it on faith
Jonathan Stewart’s ascension equal parts spiritual, physical
JON NAITO; The News Tribune
Last updated: November 25th, 2004 02:35 AM (PST)
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
– Philippians 4:13 You can question many things about a man, but never his faith.
Because to believe, to really give of yourself, is the most personal of acts.
There are Bible-thumpers, proselytizers and evangelists, a whole cadre of people mass-marketing religion. There are those who adorn themselves with crucifixes but couldn’t recite a Bible passage it you spotted them the book, chapter and verse.
But to really believe, to care, to walk the talk, is all about action.
For Jonathan Stewart, the all-everything running back for Timberline High School and The News Tribune’s 2004 Area Player of the Year, it has never been about what the world could do for him, but what he could do for the world.
“It’s very important to me,” Stewart said. “That’s why I’m on this earth – to do God’s work. That’s how I live my life and that’s why everything that’s happened to me has happened.”
To find the 17-year-old who is considered one of the nation’s top high school running backs, take your eyes off the field for a moment and focus them on New Life Baptist Church in Lacey.
Because every Sunday morning you’ll find Stewart in a pew with his mother. You’ll also see him there every Thursday night for Bible study. Philippians 4:13, his favorite Bible verse, is always with him.
Occasionally, he brings church home with him.
He considers his youth pastor, Cecil Daniels, one of his best friends and mentors. Sometimes you can find Stewart, Daniels and Jaron Taylor, Stewart’s best friend and teammate on the Timberline football team, hanging out at Daniels’ home.
They’ll stuff themselves and watch games on TV and talk about faith and school and football.
But if you really want to know the depths of Stewart’s faith and how he stays so humble and unaffected, you really need talk to only one person. The fact her son has shattered the state rushing record with 7,757 career yards and is receiving recruiting letters signed by coaches from Southern California, Ohio State and Tennessee doesn’t change things much for Lora Faison.
Faison still has the southern lilt in her voice, the product of her Georgia upbringing.
She has the same face and smile as her son, and the same aversion to self-promotion.
Faison takes no credit for her son’s football success – “That’s God’s gift,” she said – or his jovial, fun-loving personality, a quality his coaches and teammates rave about.
While Jonathan is his given name, most people – friends, coaches, teammates, college recruiters, fans and alumni of a half-dozen or so colleges – know him as Snoop.
Not his family.
“ ‘Snoop’ was actually a misunderstanding,” Faison said. “I used to call him ‘Snooty baby’ as a baby. It got shortened to Snoot. Everybody in his family still calls him Snoot. But when he went outside, the kids would call him Snoop. It stuck.”
Faison, 40, raised Stewart and his older brother, Cory Faison, after she and Stewart’s father, also named Jonathan, divorced in 1997.
His father moved to Georgia, and the two have had sporadic contact since.
Faison worked at several jobs – she is now a nurse’s assistant at Madigan Army Hospital – to support her boys. She instilled in them discipline, humility and faith.
“Here was this hard-working, single mom, and she raised him and his brother to be honest and devout,” Daniels said. “As a single mom, she impressed on two young men what it was to be a man. I admire how she could do that.”
Faison is a fiercely spiritual woman who writes scripture on her son’s bedroom mirror. The two are close, but also have a typical parent-teenager relationship.
“He was raised by his mom,” Taylor said. “You can’t separate what they have. He has a lot of love and respect for her raising him and his older brother. I think with his brother in school in Georgia, and because they don’t have a lot of relatives here, I think Snoop might want to stay closer to home. But she wants what’s best for him.”
Stewart rushed for 2,278 yards and 30 touchdowns this season, leading the Blazers to their second consecutive Pac-9 title and a state quarterfinal appearance. He broke the state career rushing record early this season against Yelm.
He has narrowed his college choices to Washington State, California, USC, Tennessee, Ohio State, Oregon and Oklahoma State.
He already has had an official visit to WSU and will visit USC this weekend and Tennessee on Dec. 10. Coaches are knocking at his door to schedule in-home visits.
And while Stewart and his mother cite the same factors – education, atmosphere, a connection with coaches and teammates – they also have stated that God ultimately will help make the call.
Stewart’s relationship with his mother will be a factor.
“My mom, she’ll definitely be something I think about,” Stewart said.
“It’s his decision,” Faison said. “I want him to do what’s best for him.”
Timberline coach Kevin Young is amazed by Stewart’s qualities.
“I don’t think I’ll ever see someone like him,” Young said. “You can’t replace a kid like him. A lot of coaches never get to coach someone like him.”
Football is easy for Stewart – or at least it appears that way.
He is 5-foot-10, 224 pounds, with feet like a ballerina and the power of a bull. He has balance to go with surprising speed – he finished third in the 100 meters at last year’s Class 4A state championships.
Stewart is a player who, while bothered by muscle spasms in his lower back, could rush for 294 yards and 120 yards in back-to-back playoff games.
He is a kid’s kid, prone to practical jokes and ribbing from coaches and teammates. His mother worries about his driving.
Despite the deluge of calls and mail from schools steeped in tradition, Stewart is handling recruiting like he handles would-be tacklers.
“I think he and his mom are doing a great job with it all,” Young said. But people don’t realize how much pressure it is to put on a 17-year-old kid. It’s a pretty big-time commitment from him. It’s hard to say no sometimes.”
Stewart remains coy, saying he will take his time and use all five of his allotted official visits. After all, this type of thing only happens once.
“Right now, it’s like meeting a girl for the first time,” Daniels said. “You go through that feeling of attractiveness. Like, ‘Wow, they like me.’ I think right now, he hasn’t filtered it down to other things. He’s enjoying it all. He’s still a kid.”
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