Sister Linda Soler, a member of St. Paul’s Monastery, serves at Hill Murray School as a sports chaplain. Hill Murray School is a Catholic Benedictine prep school and shares a long history with the monastery. Sister Linda’s ministry was recently featured in the Minnesota Star Tribune newspaper:
Sister Linda Soler is the spiritual leader, and loudest cheerleader, for Hill-Murray football
Sister Linda looks on as she stands with the Hill-Murray football team during the national anthem on Sept. 11.
(Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
By Chip Scroggins, The Minnesota Star Tribune, September 22, 2026, at 4:45 AM.
The players position their football helmets in the shape of a triangle and form a huddle around them. Practice just ended. Their season opener is four days away. They are sweaty and tired, but their excitement is high. They have been eagerly awaiting what comes next, a tradition they love. They brace for a jolt of enthusiasm from their biggest fan, who just so happens to be holding a vial of holy water.
“This is going to be a dang good year!” shouts 65-year-old Benedictine Sister Linda Soler. “You are going to be pumped. You are hungry. And we are going to make magic happen.”
With that, Hill-Murray’s players take a knee, interlocking arms, as Sister Linda sprinkles holy water on helmets, players and coaches. She offers a prayer, then finishes with a flourish.
“Boys, I’m so dang proud of you,” she says. “I can’t wait. You ready for this? I want the sisters over at the monastery to hear this.”
She cups her hands to form a megaphone at her mouth and screams, “Saint Benedict!”
Players: “Pray for us.”
The volley of chants lasts a few more seconds before Sister Linda makes a heart shape with her hands above her head and says, “Love ya, boys.”
They love her back. This is evident anytime she’s nearby.
The Pioneers, 2-1 and ranked No. 4 in Class 4A, are loaded with talent, but they believe an integral part of their success is the support and encouragement they receive from their team chaplain, Sister Linda.
“She’s great for the kids,” coach Rob Reeves said. “She’s a little bit of a safe space for them to go to at times when life kind of hits.”
Players know she’s always there to provide comforting words in any situation.
Feeling anxious about something? Go see Sister Linda. Have a relative who died? Go see Sister Linda. Worried about an exam in a class? Go see Sister Linda.
“It’s like going to a grandma — the coziest person ever,” senior lineman Jack Weyandt. “She will always be there.”
There’s no mistaking that Sister Linda answered her call to be a Benedictine Sister. Her compassion is matched only by her exuberance around Hill-Murray’s campus and St. Paul’s Monastery.
Locating Sister Linda at a football game is the easiest thing to do on a Friday night. She’s the one with a loud voice. “I can be rambunctious,” she admitted. “And animated.”
Her voice echoes across the field in four primary cheers devoted to each quarter:
First quarter: Come on, boys. Where do you think you are, the Sleep Number store?
Second quarter: The only thing you should be hungry for is a W, not DoorDash!
Third quarter: What did you do, buy tickets to watch this game? Come on, there’s a football game happening out there!
Fourth quarter: Whose mommy came down singing a lullaby!
“The energy and excitement,” Reeves said, “the kids eat it up.”
Her early life goals painted a different picture. She figured she would get married and find a job as an ophthalmologist assistant.
Raised in St. Paul and schooled at St. Bernard’s, Soler was the fourth of six children to parents who kept their rosary close by and made Sunday Mass mandatory.
Her mother died when she was 8, creating a void that led to an inflection point in her early 20s. She was angry and not going to church. Searching for something to anchor her life, she found a religious community and “knew instantly that’s where I belong.”
She believes her experience losing her mom allows her to connect deeply with young people. “When you lose a parent at an early age, you learn what inner pain is,” she said. “When you can learn that and deal with it as an adult, you gain a greater understanding of the needs within our youth.”
She made her final vows to become a sister in July 1997 and began doing parish work. She got called to serve in a leadership role at St. Paul’s Monastery located next to Hill-Murray.
The school hired her initially to oversee students’ service requirements. Then came an idea from school officials: Create a new role as sports chaplain.
She played softball as a young girl, earning the nickname “Soler Energy” because she could hit the ball hard. She loved football, too. That stood out to former Hill-Murray coach Pete Bercich, former Vikings player and coach and current radio analyst.
“Sister’s priority and her only concern were the kids,” Bercich said. “She loves the school, loves football and first and foremost, she loves those kids and cares for those kids.”
Her relationship with Pioneers football became so impactful that the school expanded her role as chaplain to all sports. She meets with every team once a year to deliver a message and blessing. She tells people that her job description is determined by whatever students need from her. “They always need a safe environment and a safe adult they can talk to,” she said.
The sister keeps an office in the school so students can stop by for counsel. Or a hug. Her hugs are limitless.
“She’s got more energy than a four-year-old,” said Weyandt, the senior football player.
Said Sister Linda: “I’m childlike in many ways. There is an inner child in me.”
One example: She loves Mickey Mouse. She has Mickey Mouse slippers and a Mickey Mouse watch.
The team gave her a present after a recent practice. Sister Linda had trouble with the cap on a water bottle during a game. She drenched herself on a frigid night. Players knew the right gift for her. A Mickey Mouse sippy cup.
“They’re so tender,” she said.
Zooming around campus on her golf cart, Sister Linda knows all the shortcuts. She brakes suddenly every so often because she can’t go 10 feet without a friendly face waving and calling out her name.
“Sister Linda!” a group of students shouts to her.
The build-up to the football opener is filled with good vibes.
Sister Linda gives every player a Saint Benedict medal and sprinkles holy water on their helmets in a traditional blessing.
Players gather in the school’s chapel for a customary pregame meeting with Sister Linda four hours before kickoff. She has news to share. She won’t be at the game, the first one she has missed since taking over as chaplain.
She was invited to speak at the wedding reception of former Hill-Murray player Zach Zarembinski, who had suffered a brain bleed during a game in 2018. Sister Linda supported him throughout his recovery.
Zarembinski met a girl who also had suffered a brain injury while they were in the hospital together. They fell in love and set their wedding for the evening of Hill-Murray’s opener.
Sister Linda shares a video that Zarembinski recorded for them.
“Remember this,” she tells players after the video, “if you’re in need and I’m there for you, I’m not going to abandon you. Never will I abandon you.”
Sister Linda expanded her vocation by becoming a chaplain for the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office last year. She volunteers one weekend each month to do ride-alongs and crisis calls. She ministered to families at the hospital after the Annunciation school shooting.
“That job balances my exuberance with spirituality,” she said.
The game-day chapel service is designed to bring some levity and focus before games. They begin with a contest between three players to see which one can make the toughest, meanest, scariest flexing pose. The one that elicits the loudest cheers wins.
Players are understandably antsy with a new season kicking off in a few hours. Sister Linda asks them to “dial in.”
She reminds them that sports teach lessons and reveal character beyond the final score.
“The scoreboard does not define who you are,” she says.
Players move to the front of the chapel and sit on the floor underneath the cross. They sit in silent reflection and prayer for 10 minutes.
Players then leave in silence, touching a cross that Sister Linda holds at the door as an acknowledgement that any burden they carry is being left there, not brought onto the field.
“She’s always getting our mind right and getting us back to what’s most important,” Weyandt said. “That allows us to play without a lot of fear.”
The Pioneers defeated Chisago Lakes 49-0 that evening. A surprise came with two minutes left in the game when Sister Linda walked onto the field. She had hustled back from the wedding.
“It was almost like a magnet seemed to pull the entire team on the sideline to greet her,” said Lara Juras, a Hill-Murray parent.
The student section began its customary “Sis-ter Lin-da” chant. Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap.
“Just seeing the spontaneous flow of players to surround her in obvious affection and reverence was amazing,” said Paul Juras, Lara’s husband. “A great embodiment of the impact she is making to the Hill-Murray students and larger community.”
