The path to Geneva for women's soccer player Renae Singh (Mohrbacher) was filled with deep valleys and many tears, but that journey has shaped Renae into the woman she is today.  A highly talented soccer player, she now understands she is so much more than just an athlete.  She's a daughter of the King who has been faithful to her through tribulation, redeeming her tears of pain and turning them into tears of joy.

Renae's family has roots at Geneva.  Her father John played soccer at Geneva, including on the 1994 team that won the NCCAA National Championship, and both her father and her mother, Kristi, also got their master's degrees at Geneva while serving as Resident Directors on campus for multiple years.  Renae's older brother Tyler was born while her parents worked at Geneva, and her mother was pregnant with Renae when the Mohrbachers moved on from Geneva.

Renae also grew up around sports.  Her parents started Skybacher Ministries over 20 years ago, a local organization that uses sports to reach young people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.  That meant Renae grew up in a family where sports were a significant part of her family upbringing.

By the time Renae entered high school at nearby Freedom, she was a standout athlete in both basketball and soccer, but soccer was her favorite sport and she began drawing interest from multiple Division I schools.  As she was sifting through college choices, though, COVID happened, and several of the Division I schools backed off their recruitment with so much uncertainty going on in the world.  Renae knew she wanted to stay local in college, so she reached out to Robert Morris who, after scouting her, eventually offered her a scholarship.

"When I was looking at schools, I admit that I had a Division I or bust mindset," says Renae.  "It wasn't the right way to look at it, but I just felt that throughout high school if I didn't go Division I, it was going to be a failure."

It was also during her senior year of high school that Renae met Gabe Singh at a summer church camp.  Gabe was also a standout soccer player and had decided to attend Geneva in the fall to play on the men's soccer team.  The two eventually began a relationship as they headed off to separate colleges, but Geneva and Robert Morris are close enough that they could maintain their relationship.

Renae made an immediate impact on the women's soccer team at Robert Morris.  She started almost every game during her freshman season, and her sophomore season she led the team in goals and assists.  The team also posted its best record in school history her sophomore year, 12-5-3, while winning its first playoff game in program history.  Renae felt like everything had fallen into place.

Shortly after the season ended, though, Renae was enjoying time with her family over Thanksgiving Break, and in their family Turkey Bowl football game played over the break, she felt a pop in her knee while trying to make a cut, and her knee immediately gave out.  Renae knew it wasn't good.

Tests confirmed that she had torn her ACL and meniscus, requiring her to have surgery and face, at best, a nine-month recovery.  It was a disastrous injury coming off the great high of the season, and it put the following season in jeopardy.

Renae had surgery to repair her injured knee in December of 2023, and after being forced to not put any weight on her leg for two months during the initial stages of recovery, she began to attack her rehab.  During that spring semester, though, her coach at Robert Morris who she had meshed so well with left, and a new coach came in bringing in a lot of uncertainty.

Renae wasn't cleared to begin running until mid-June, less than two months from the start of preseason camp.  She put all she could into her rehab and recovery, even pushing herself beyond what was probably wise, in order to try to give herself the best chance to play in the fall.  However, when camp started in August, she wasn't as far along as she had hoped.  She tried talking with the coach and the trainer, but she didn't feel a lot of support.  Things got even worse when she reinjured her knee a second time just four days into practice, a likely product of pushing herself too soon and too hard in her attempt to get back on the field.  Renae tried to rehab the second injury through physical therapy, but after six weeks without any improvement, she had to have a another surgery knowing it could bring an end to her soccer career.  By the time that semester ended, she knew she needed to make a change.

Renae withdrew from Robert Morris at the end of that fall 2024 semester and tried to figure out what was next.  It was the first time in her life that she found herself questioning whether she even wanted to play soccer anymore.  She had always loved soccer, and now it was only bringing her pain and tears.  Renae knew she wanted to finish her education, but she also knew that if she wanted to continue playing soccer, it couldn't be at the Division I level.  She had experienced the downside that Division I athletes can face, and she didn't want any part of that lifestyle anymore.

Renae's younger sister Julz is an all-conference soccer player at Waynesburg, and it was always Renae's dream growing up to be able to play alongside her sister in college.  But Gabe was at Geneva, and a year earlier they had gotten engaged and were planning their wedding in May of 2025.  There were other schools that also reached out to Renae after she entered the transfer portal, but she knew it would be either Waynesburg or Geneva.

"Ultimately, for me, my marriage became my biggest priority," recalls Renae.  "And so, in some ways it was hard to give up the possibility of playing with my sister, but my heart was with Gabe, and I didn't want to start my marriage at separate colleges on separate schedules.  Also, after I visited with Coach Fitz and the team, the culture at Geneva was everything I wanted and everything I had never really had.  I had never had a group of Christian friends and teammates that I could play soccer with who would love me and support me no matter what, and I quickly knew Geneva was where the Lord wanted me."

The process of returning to play was not an easy one, though, and Renae even let Coach Fitz know through the summer months that she wasn't sure if her body was going to allow her to return to the field.  Renae knew from working with her surgeon that she would never get back to the ability and athleticism she once possessed on the soccer field after having multiple surgeries within 11 months, and she needed some more time to think and pray about things.

"Those summer months involved a lot of prayer, a lot of wrestling, a lot of talking with Gabe and my parents," recalls Renae. "I needed some space to see if this was good for me to try to play again.  There was a lot of mental healing that I needed from my time at Robert Morris.  I had just gotten married, and my whole life had been soccer up to that point.  I felt like the Lord was really working in my heart over those months to remind me that I am so much more than a soccer player.  I am a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend.  I also got to work with kids through my parents' ministry during that time.  It was the first time in my life that my world didn't revolve around soccer."

Ultimately, Renae decided she wanted to give soccer one more chance.  She called Coach Fitz just a week before camp started to let him know she wanted to try to play.  There were no guarantees about how much or how well she could play, because she still wasn't cleared medically to compete yet.  Gabe was also really supportive and encouraged her to give soccer one more chance if she felt up to it.

Renae missed the first ten games of the season while continuing to rehab her injury.  Three days before Geneva's home match against Allegheny on October 4, the doctors cleared her to play.  She told Coach Fitz she wasn't sure how much she could play, but she was ready to make her first appearance.  She subbed into the match 30 minutes into the game, and ten minutes later, magic happened.  A loose ball off a cross fell to Renae's feet in front of the goal, and she quickly slotted the ball into the back of the net setting off an emotional celebration.  After two years of not playing in a soccer match, it took her just ten minutes to find the net.

"As soon as the ball went into the goal, I just started bawling," says Renae.  "I was thinking, 'Look at what the Lord can do!'  My parents were crying in the stands.  My teammates were crying alongside me knowing what I had gone through to get to that point.  It was a moment I will never forget."

Despite playing in just the final eight matches of last season, Renae led the team with four goals, displaying the talent she possesses to find the back of the net as a striker, even if her athleticism isn't what it used to be.

Renae has one year left to play soccer, and she also has one year left of classes before completing her degree in early childhood and special education.  She's still figuring out what will be next after she graduates in May.

"I know the Lord has plans for me in the future," says Renae.  "I'm still figuring that out.  I want to stay involved with my parents' ministry, working with kids while using sports as a way to connect people to the Lord.  But I ultimately just want to be a mom, and I want to homeschool my kids."

She is also looking forward to the upcoming soccer season, which she knows will be her final year of playing competitive soccer after playing the sport since she was three years old.  She doesn't know what the season will hold, or how her leg will handle the demands of a full season, but she is trusting in the Lord's care over her knowing that she is so much more than just a soccer player.

"So much of what the Lord has taught me over the past few years is that my identity can't be in my sport," says Renae.  "It has to be in the Lord.  And I have always known that, but as an athlete, especially as a Division I athlete, it just consumes your life.  But as I look back through all the pain and tears, the Lord has continually reminded me that, first and foremost, I am His daughter, and that's way better than just being a soccer player."