By CAROL STUART
For Brentwood Home Page
Four-time state decathlon champion Ben Davies told current Brentwood Academy high school students Thursday how God had different plans for him when he was sidelined by injury in college. Davies ended up with an even bigger platform by getting a main role in the new Christian film about fatherhood, Courageous, from the creators of Fireproof.

Davies said his freshman year at the University of Florida began with an injury he suffered his senior season at BA. He was able to throw the javelin but not compete as a decathlete, and then his coach got fired and Davies ended up transferring to Georgia.

It was a “come-to-Jesus moment for me where I had to decide who I was going to live for.”

In Courageous, opening Sept. 30, Ben Davies, right, portrays rookie police officer David Thomson, who is mentored by partner Nathan Hayes (Ken Bevel, a retired Marine and Sherwood Baptist Church member who appeared in Fireproof).

When he got to Athens, Ga., that summer, he said “OK, Lord I’m going to do all this stuff on the track and do it all for you. This is the plan for my life and I’m going to do this. I’m going to glorify you in everything that I do.’

“I had all these plans in my mind while forgetting what the bible says, ‘I know the plans for you says the Lord and I’ll prosper you.’ I was basically making my own plans, saying ‘Lord you better bless this because this is what I’m going to do.’ ”

Davies told the BA students he then got frustrated from another injury.

“I can’t tell you how many nights I lay awake saying ‘Please Lord heal my shoulder, so I can reach out to you, so I can still use this as a platform,” Davies said. “It’s really frustrating when you believe that’s what your purpose is and it’s not coming true, it’s not being fulfilled. I finally got to the point where I said ‘Lord whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it.’ ”

So he had potentially career-ending shoulder surgery. The very next day Davies – who had been acting and modeling on the side since he was a small child – got a call from out of the blue from his agent who he hadn’t talked to in a while.

“They said ‘Do you have time to go on an audition?’ I said ‘I’ve actually got six months.’  … So I drove down to Albany, Ga., in a sling and auditioned to be in Courageous and took the role. And it was a bigger platform than I could have ever hoped for and imagined.  I just heard the Lord audibly say ‘Ye of little faith. I’ve come to take care of you, like that was what I always wanted you to do.’ ”

Davies, who has since made another film and may make a non-Christian film with Billy Ray Cyrus, said the experience was humbling. He also encouraged the BA students to “lean back on the Lord” during trials and disappointments because he has a plan for them, too.

Ben Davies, on the set of Courageous

In Courageous, which opens nationwide Sept. 30, Davies portrays rookie police officer David Thomson who grew up with a pressure-oriented dad, is always trying to prove himself, and is dealing with mistakes he made in the past. His partner, Nathan Hayes (played by Ken Bevel), is a mentor to him and is a fantastic father, Davies said.

The movie is about four men in different stages of fatherhood “trying to man up and be courageous,” the BA grad said.  

The Brentwood Academy Dads group is organizing a men’s-only screening on Sept. 29, the night before the opening, for BA fathers and their buddies at a Thouroughbred 20 theater in Cool Springs, said BA’s Mark McFerrin. He asked students to invite their dads and then go back and see it again with him another day with other family and friends as well.

“Because it’s a spiritual movie, there’s a lot of opportunity for things to happen,” McFerrin said. “I’ve seen it and it stirred me up in ways that I didn’t think I needed to be. … When we started talking about this movie I wasn’t aware until Mrs. (Nise) Davies came up and said ‘Did you know my son is in that movie?’ ”

Davies also challenged the BA students to stand up for what’s right and be courageous as well. He told them about a couple of moments that stood out and changed his life when he was at BA – once when Forrest Reynolds sat with a student who was being ridiculed for being alone in the cafeteria. Another time, David Vanderpool stood guard at a dorm room when a student was being mocked during a retreat – so no one could bully him.

“You guys have an enormous responsibility,” Davies said. “… The guys who are gifted in athletics, the people who are popular, the people who are funny, you have a huge impact to those around you. You may not realize it.”

He also told a story about Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Tim Tebow from his days at Florida. Although most of the athletes separated themselves into another room in the cafeteria, Tebow asked a girl in a wheelchair in a corner to sit with her when only she and Davies were in the main room.

“Even if you hate him on the field, as a person the guy is real and legit and someone you could look up to,” Davies said. “… I sat there watching. He didn’t just sit there and ask, ‘Hey, do you want an autograph?’

“He really talked, he listened and he encouraged her the entire time. … He wasn’t doing this for show. He stood up to leave and she asked for an autograph, and he sat back down and wrote her a page of encouragement that only Tim and this one girl know. … I pray that we can all live more courageously in our walk and stand up for what’s right.”

During a short Q&A, Ben said acting is a lot tougher job than it seems. A scene in a clip he showed took 8 hours to finish, with 40 takes including different angles. “That’s sitting out in the sun, and trying to stay emotional and in character and remember your lines, and that’s just one day.”

A gunfight scene required two weeks of filming on a rural asphalt road, with cameras shutting down and rubber soles melting on shoes from the heat, he said.

The audition itself was different than most, he noted. After he ran his lines, the panel from Sherwood Pictures auditioned his own character, asking what he would say at the gates to get into heaven.

Ben is now transferring to Samford where he’ll be on full scholarship with and compete in track with his younger brother, Josh, a 2011 BA graduate. Ben is seeking a hardship transfer to be eligible this year because UGa wouldn’t allow him to pursue his TV/broadcast major due to prerequisites, said his mom Nise, who is a talent agent.

“The Lord was really gracious in giving me the opportunity to go to a school where I was financially secure and I would still be able to pursue track with a great coach in a great environment with my brother,” Ben said. As a Baptist school and with smaller classes, Samford will also give him time off to shoot faith-based films, he said.

Davies will join the BA Dads at the special showing on Sept. 29 and may do a premier in Athens, Ga. On Sept. 30. A world premiere with the cast will take place in Atlanta today.

He encourages everyone to go see the movie the opening weekend because that will determine how long Courageous stays in theaters. For more information, visit www.courageousthemovie.com.