Assistant Hockey Coach Chris Carroll confers with head coach Charlie Burggraf during a close game to Augsburg in the Fogarty Ice Arena on October 28th, 2011. Carroll came into this season with six years of experience being the assistant coach of the Royals, with a total record of two winning seasons, three losing seasons, and one .500 season during that time. “Chris is an outstanding leader and coach,” said former teammate Steven Witkowski. | Photo by Andy Keuntis

Once a royal, always a royal

Alumnus and Professor of Bethel University shares how his time at this school has shaped him.

By Emily Rossing | Reporter

Chris Carroll knows these halls. He’s been walking them nearly every day for 20 years. The blue and gold paint everywhere, posters of Roy, the lion mascot and big letters in the gym spelling out “BETHEL ROYALS” have almost started to blend into the old, red brick of the school.

There’s that classroom he met his wife in.

The doors he walked out of every day to go to hockey practice.

The office he interviewed in to be a professor.

His whole life seems to be centered on 3900 Bethel Drive, but he’s encountered many challenges outside of it.

Like in March 2013, when instead of being congratulated by doctors on a newborn son, he and his wife were told Jack had trisomy 21, otherwise known as down syndrome.

Or in January 2018, when Carroll’s younger and only brother killed himself.

Biokinetics professor Chris Carroll poses for a family photo at the Down Syndrome Association OC’s celebration of World Down Syndrome Day In Pacific City, CA with his wife, Carissa, and his three children, Luke (9), Jack (7), and Taylor (5), in March 2019. The Carroll’s went to participate on behalf of their own nonprofit, Jack’s Basket, which celebrates babies with down syndrome. “Thanks to all that spread some love in celebration of people with Down Syndrome,” said Carissa Carroll. | Photo courtesy of Jack’s Basket

Photo courtesy of Jack’s Basket.

His faith has given him the ability to press on. He says he will never forget God speaking to him while on a run in his neighborhood in the first few hours after Jack’s birth. He was told how lucky he is to be the one who gets to raise Jack.

“I came to Bethel in the fall of 2000, and it’s been 20 years and I haven’t left.” — Chris Carroll, Biokinetics professor

Carroll credits Bethel for being a huge part of why he’s cultivated his faith, to the point that it’s his primary reason for waking up in the morning. He came into college as an unbeliever, but it was at Bethel where his leadership roles forced him to reevaluate his life and place his trust in Christianity.

“I came to Bethel in the fall of 2000, and it’s been 20 years and I haven’t left,” Carroll said.

So he walks the halls, day in and day out, knowing he’s got another chance to influence lives in the place where his was forever changed.

Once a royal, always a royal.