Student athlete Derek Waddick knew something was missing
By William Van de Planque | On Mission
Photography by Scott Eastman
GREEN BAY — Like most young athletes, Derek Waddick dreamed of being on a team in college. He is now a Nordic skier at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (UW-GB) in his senior year.
However, Waddick quickly realized that something was missing.
“At the end of freshman year of college, I wasn’t really fulfilled with life,” he said. “I kind of thought I was living the dream; I was a college athlete doing something I loved.”
Waddick grew up in Minneapolis. Much of his family is Catholic, but when he was 1 year old, his parents went through a divorce, and faith was no longer a part of his life.
“I wasn’t really raised in the faith after that,” he said. “So, I was baptized Catholic before that, but I never had Confirmation or first Communion.”
Waddick played sports throughout childhood, primarily baseball. When he started high school, he joined the mountain biking team.
“(Mountain biking) looked awesome,” he said. “A bunch of my friends were going to also do Nordic skiing in the winter, and (I thought), ‘You know what, that would be a great way to stay in shape for mountain biking.”
Nordic skiing, or cross-country skiing, eventually became Waddick’s primary sport throughout high school. Following the state championship in February of his senior year, Sam Myers, head coach of the Nordic ski team at UW-GB, reached out to Waddick.
After a full academic year on the UW-GB Nordic ski team, Waddick felt unfulfilled in life and set out on a journey to discover the only thing that could fulfill him: faith in Jesus Christ.
“Eventually, I found out that (fulfillment) must be God and that the way I was going to find him was going to be in the Catholic Church.”
Beginning in the fall semester of Waddick’s sophomore year, he was accompanied through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA), the formal process for adults to enter the Church, primarily by Sr. Laura Zelten, OSF, the director of Catholic campus ministry at UW-GB.
By Easter Sunday 2024, Waddick had received the sacraments of first Reconciliation, first Communion and Confirmation.
Waddick’s first Catholic Mass was with the Catholic campus ministry at UW-GB. He attended many more Masses before receiving his first Communion, but at that first Mass, he met someone who became another reason to keep coming back.
Bree Van Camp, who grew up in the Appleton area, had started a new role as outreach coordinator with Phoenix Catholic, the Catholic campus ministry at UW-GB.
“It was my job to go and talk to people,” she said. “I saw him, and I (thought) ‘He’s new.’ I noticed him, and so I made sure to go and say hi.”
Van Camp was homeschooled and raised in the Catholic faith. Toward the end of high school, when deciding where to attend college, a strong Catholic community was one of her top criteria.
“I remember being really stressed about not going to a Catholic college because it was always my dream to go to (Franciscan University of Steubenville) or the University of Mary,” she said. “I actually, when I toured Green Bay, set up a meeting with Sr. Laura. That was my biggest concern. I wanted something Catholic.”
Sr. Laura was honest in telling her that the community was small, Van Camp said.
“But we’re committed,” Sr. Laura had said to Van Camp. “There are people here who care, and you will find belonging.”
Van Camp said that was exactly what she found, and Waddick had a similar experience from his first interactions with the campus ministry.
“I just remember the community was very welcoming,” he said. “Immediately, I saw that these people are serious about their faith, they’re actually fun to be around, and they’re all very welcoming.”
Soon after getting to know each other in fall 2023, Waddick and Van Camp began dating. Two years later, on Labor Day 2025, Waddick proposed to Van Camp, and they set their wedding for this summer at Van Camp’s home parish, St. Pius X Parish, Appleton.
Waddick’s continuous progression in his faith journey was an opportunity for Van Camp to grow in her own faith, she said.
“As we got closer, he would just ask me questions (about the faith),” Van Camp said. “It was really cool because it helped my faith, too, to understand why I believe what I believe.”
Van Camp was not the only one answering Waddick’s questions about the faith. When he first began to look for more fulfillment in life, he utilized online resources.
During the summer before his sophomore year, in between daily ski training for the winter Nordic ski season and mountain biking for fun, Waddick spent his free time researching arguments for and against Christian beliefs online. This led him to conclude that it was reasonable to believe in Christianity, but he found he needed to narrow the options further.
“There are so many denominations; who’s right?” he said. “It was people like Matt Fradd, Trent Horn and others. Fr. Mike Schmitz was one, for sure, who convinced me to be Catholic.”
Fr. Schmitz, a university chaplain who walks with students like Waddick every day at the University of Minnesota Duluth, is a popular Catholic speaker and online influencer.
Even before going to his first Mass, Waddick knew he wanted to make faith a regular part of his life and “be a practicing Catholic,” he said.
Isaac Erickson, a senior at the time of Waddick’s conversion, was another student who accompanied Waddick on his journey to the Catholic Church.
That winter, Erickson, who also served as an outreach coordinator with Phoenix Catholic invited Waddick to the St. Andrew Dinner, a diocesan event organized by the Office of Vocations that serves to provide formation for young men open to the priesthood.
Waddick had many questions after the event and talked with Erickson for hours, Van Camp said.
Phoenix Catholic offers many opportunities for students to spend time in community and grow in their faith, including Mass, confession, Eucharistic adoration, dinners, men’s and women’s ministry events, small-group Bible studies, biannual retreats and mission trips.
“Sr. Laura kind of runs the show,” Waddick said. “She has a very big heart, and she always just wants the best for everybody. Fr. Kevin is very involved, too. He does our adoration, confession and Mass on Wednesdays, and confession and Mass on Sundays.”
The largest and most popular event is the dinner that follows the Wednesday evening daily Mass, celebrated by Fr. Ripley.
“I remember (Bree) invited me to one of the dinners,” Waddick said.
“I begged him to come,” Van Camp said. “Specifically, the words were, ‘I will make you anything you want if you show up.’”
By the time Waddick arrived at the dinner that night, the mac and cheese Van Camp had made for him had been eaten by other students. Still, Waddick made the best of it.
“I met a lot of people there,” he said. “I had already met Bree, but I got to know her more.”
Starting their junior year, Waddick and Van Camp have been leading a small-group Bible study, something that has become popular among those involved in campus ministry in recent years.
All kinds of students on campus have formed small groups, including the Nordic ski team, to discuss Scripture.
“That’s actually been very beneficial for us, too, not just the people,” Waddick said. “Really, it’s just a discussion on God’s Word and meditation on it.”
“The people we had coming to our group were people we never had come to weekly Mass or dinners before,” Van Camp said.
Waddick will graduate this May with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, and Van Camp, having completed her undergraduate studies in nutrition last May, will graduate with a master’s degree in nutrition this May and plans to become a registered dietitian nutritionist.