In January of 2011 during a girls’ basketball game, Nikki Elsaesser lay at mid court of Timothy Christian School’s gymnasium with excruciating pain in one knee. At the time Nikki Elsaesser was in the 11th grade. She was the school’s leading goal scorer in soccer, the starting point guard for the basketball team, and the fastest sprinter for the spring track & field team. The coming days would reveal that Nikki had torn her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and would require reconstructive surgery. The future of Timothy Christian School’s best female athlete was bleak at best. Fast forward to November 2014 and the future is crystal clear. Aided by a tremendous work ethic and positive outlook, Nikki rehabbed her knee, had an incredible senior campaign at Timothy Christian School and headed to off to play collegiate soccer at NCAA Division 3 national power, Messiah College.
Nikki’s growth has continued at Messiah College where she has been part of a national championship team, featured with her teammates in a national news story, and garnered multiple individual awards. Nikki is just one of the many former Timothy Christian School student-athletes that are making the Tiger Family proud!
Nikki Elsaesser named Commonwealth Conference Offensive Player of the Year
Messiah College Women’s Soccer Program featured by ESPN Women including quotes from Nikki Elsaesser
‘Not only did I learn math, history, science and how to write a well formulated essay in high school, in addition, I learned more about Christianity and how I am called to live. Every year at TCS, the high school has a theme for which we base most of the chapels throughout the year. My junior year the theme was “Do Difficult Things”. This really impacted me because as teens in America we do not tend to think “What is something I can do, that I would really rather not do?”, instead we think “What is the least I can do and still get by in life, in school and in general?” I know what I learned my junior year will stick with me forever because at my school, I was taught the benefit and necessity of working hard at whatever is placed in front of me. This is a biblical principle but it is also loaded with logical validity. That is just one of many examples of how my faith and worldview was strengthened by something I learned through the biblical outreach of my school.’ – Nikki Elsaesser, Timothy Christian School class of 2012