Trey Brock leaps for a catch in the first half against Lake Erie in Sept. 2018. Liam Bredberg | Collegian

Varsity athletics is an art similar to a classical liberal art, said Trey Brock ’18 on Sept. 16. 

In his talk, titled “The Sweatiest of the Liberal Arts,” Brock said he used his experience as a collegiate athlete, as well as his liberal arts background at Hillsdale, to propel him into the deeper study of how sports can shape a person into a well-formed human.

“The more you understand who you are as a person and the more you understand the sport you play, you will become a better person,” Brock said. “You can see objective truth in athletics more so than in the other arts.” 

Brock played wide receiver for the football team at Hillsdale and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in sports management and psychology. He holds the school record for career receptions, career receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns. He pursued a master’s degree in theology from Holy Apostles College and Seminary and said he is currently studying for his doctorate at Christendom College to deepen his knowledge about the relationship theology and philosophy has with sports. 

Every art is driven by science, Brock said, just as how music and art are driven by math. Athletics are driven by five sciences: anthropology, kinesiology, aesthetics, ethics, and moral theology, according to Brock.

“God gave us athletics, so we must learn how to play sports well,” Brock said. 

Peter Jennings, associate professor of leadership studies, was one of Brock’s teachers during his undergraduate studies and worked closely with him on the football team. Jennings said that when students learn that athletics is about more than only competing, it will shape the way all students develop virtue and discipline in the classroom.

“Athletics serves the cause of education,” Jennings said. “This liberal arts education is about being led to God and becoming the person God created you to be.” 

Brock included his faith in his studies of athletics, and he said that morals and virtues are essential to the development of a good athlete. His current studies also include ancient and modern philosophers, notably Plato and his writings about gymnastics, or sports, being used for the improvement of the soul. 

Brock defined athleticism as the at-ease perfection of bodily potential in competition or sports and said the cultivation of this virtue helps the development of the soul.

“Our soul is the form of our body,” Brock said. “Our soul directs all of our actions. Our body doesn’t just move on its own. So, having cultivated the virtue of athleticism is what I would say has its roots in some soul, deep inspiration.”

Brock also takes inspiration from Pope Saint John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body,” which teaches that the way humans use their bodies should reflect the formation of their souls.

“We have a will, which is another high power of our soul,” Brock said. “Our will is ordered towards applying that truth to our actions.  If I have a bad state of my soul, and the way that I act as a result of that, if I have a good state of myself, I’m pursuing truth.”

Brock said he sees that natural virtues are developed just by the nature of playing sports, but he thinks that, currently, sports are not being played in a way that fosters these virtues. The current way of playing — involving extreme competitiveness and humiliating the opponent — divorces sports from morals, something Brock said is contrary to the reason people should play sports. 

Junior Inez McNichols, a swimmer for Hillsdale, said that she was interested in the talk after hearing Brock talk in Jennings’ Leadership and Excellence for athletes class. McNichols said she hopes to implement Brock’s philosophy into her own performance as an athlete. 

“I think the thing that inspires me the most is remembering that all these sports and the things we do are gifts, and all these talents and skills that we have are ways in which to develop and to better yourself,” McNichols said. “Ultimately, they’re like the gifts that God’s given us, like we’re meant to give back to him and to be the absolute best we can be.”