If this kid *really* has made a life change, if he has gone from a bad kid to a good kid, if he's charismatic enough to have made a difference in his teammates' lives, perhaps you should consider a different approach to this story.
Rather than making a few obligatory superficial references to his faith, rather than letting the kid prattle on about God this and God that, rather than trying to shoehorn that stuff into a standard-issue 12-inch featurette, how about using a show-don't-tell approach to telling the story and putting it together as a weekend centerpiece?
Spend a day with him. Poke your head inside the team huddle. Listen in the locker room. Capture what you see on the field, on the bus, in the classroom, wherever. See if it's for real. See what kind of effect he has on the people around him. See what kind of effect it's had on him today compared to how he was previously. See if he's truly a spiritual team leader or ethical standard bearer or what have you. Talk to people -- teammates, coaches, parents, neighbors, teachers, etc. Capture a lot of detail. Gather whatever you need to put together a decent magazine-style piece -- one that lets the reader see for himself how religion has affected one teenager's life and his game.
Use your journalism instincts. If you like what you see and hear -- if you believe the transformation is for real and he is enjoying some success on the field as well -- if you truly believe this is a good story -- write it. This could make a truly different feature story, a personality profile, a slice of teenage life that's far beyond the standard fare you'll find in the Sports section.
Here's the bottom line, as I see it: It sounds like religion plays a major role in his life now, so you can't ignore it. If you do, you'll look disingenuous in the eyes of the people who know him. And if you try to put it into an obligatory 12-incher, you'll look like you're just paying lip service before moving on to the "real reason" you're writing the story -- he loves God, but he bends it like Beckham.
You're definitely in a quandary here. It's a soccer story and it's a religion story (strikes 1 and 2). But it could be a really good feature if the elements are right and your approach is right. (Disclaimers: I like soccer but I'm not fanatical about it. Also, I expect to go to heaven someday but I'm not fanatical about that, either.)
Granted, this might not work -- you're much closer to the story than I am. But I wanted to share a different line of thinking from a neutral corner.
For what it's worth, I used to work as assistant sports editor at a major metro daily, overseeing enterprise stories, and if this story is approached as I described and if you're able to find the good material, it's exactly the kind of personality profile I would have scheduled as a Sunday centerpiece. Now I work at a monthly regional magazine, and this is exactly the kind of personality profile I currently schedule for our feature well.
Just a thought.
