T-BALL Records & Awards

Baylor coach ready for Sweet 16 & a chance to share his faith

HOUSTON (BP)--Scott Drew, Baylor University's arm-waving, ever-smiling, ever-positive head basketball coach, has led his Bears to heights unimaginable, but he says he isn't able to do the miraculous or the mundane without his faith in Jesus Christ.

In an interview with Baptist Press on the eve of the NCAA South Regional this weekend at Houston's Reliant Stadium, Drew said his bold and sometimes public faith has helped to propel Baylor to its first-ever Sweet 16 appearance.

"I wouldn't be in this spot without Him," Drew said as his team prepares to take on St. Mary's Friday night, needing only two wins for a Final Four berth.

"With all the attention this week and last, I know I need to stay in the Scripture and stay humble. I just want to deflect the light on myself or individual players to Whom it belongs, that is God."

As the coach of the nationally ranked team at Baptist-affiliated Baylor in Waco, Texas, Drew knows he has some unique opportunities to impact people for Christ via the nation's sports media.

"The Spirit works differently with different people, but I feel comfortable talking about my faith in public and what Jesus Christ has done in my life.

"When I sit home and watch people like [quarterbacks] Tim Tebow or Colt McCoy or [coach] Tony Dungy being a good role model on TV, it inspires me. You pray for those people to be successful so they can inspire and motivate others."

To help accomplish his spiritual mission at Baylor, Drew joined with his pastor, Mark Wible at Highland Baptist Church in Waco, in a partnership of faith and fellowship.

"I'm just so glad for Scott that the person you see on the sidelines on the weekends is the exact same person I see during the week or at church on Sunday," Wible said.

"He is fired up for his faith and fired up to share it with others."

Drew took the Baylor job in 2003 in the most disastrous of circumstances after one player had killed another on the team, while the school and its former head coach had covered up a drug scandal and NCAA violations.

But when Wible met Drew for the first time and mentioned he would be interested in helping out as the team chaplain, Drew sat straight up in his office chair and proceeded to tell him about his spiritual game plan for his new team.

"He said he wanted a Bible study for the players, a Bible study for the coaches, a regular chance to talk and minister to his players, so finally I had to tell him, 'Coach, this is a volunteer position, I have a full-time job at my church."

But since those humble beginnings, where Baylor wasn't even allowed to play non-conference games as part of its NCAA penalty, Drew has worked to accomplish God's purpose in his life and his team.

"I always want to be open to what the Lord wants me to say and do in my life and how I spread His Word. I prayed about coming here and I felt led to come. When He says 'Go,' you go.

"I know that at a private Christian university, you have a chance to help players keep their spiritual goals along with their goals as a player and a person."

That was clearly proven March 6 when Baylor had its senior day celebration after its game with the University of Texas. Drew added his own touch to the ceremonies, telling the sellout crowd about some of his players going to a recent Baptist basketball camp and seeing 21 people accept Jesus Christ into their hearts. Then Drew led the crowd in a prayer for the seniors that God would bless their lives and touch others in whatever they did.

"We all face challenges daily and we all sin, that's why you have to be daily in the Word and daily in prayer," Drew said about his motivation to publicly share his faith with others.

"We are all around non-Christians and others who may not believe, but your actions will always speak louder than your words."

Wible saw that when Drew called during basketball recruiting season one year and some top players were coming for a visit.

"He just wanted me to come out and meet the players they were recruiting and see if I could meet and interact with them, to help them with any problems they might have," Wible said.

"We always pray about it, but God knows who is going to come here," Drew added.

Drew, who is married with two kids, grew up in a basketball family in Indiana where his dad, Homer, was the head coach at Valparaiso University, the country's largest Lutheran school.

Scott Drew said growing up he was exposed to a faith in Jesus Christ through watching his parents, but joked he was familiar with a lot of denominations because "as a coach, you saw a lot of different churches because you're always being run out of one town and into another."

After one year of succeeding his father as head coach at Valpo, he took the Baylor job in the direst of circumstances, after seeing a vision about what his hard work and others' help could accomplish for God's glory.

"First and foremost I prayed about it, then I talked to the people at Baylor about what we could accomplish with elite sports, academic excellence and being a positive role model.

"We have a chance to do that each and every day now, and we also have a chance to serve."

But despite the fact Baylor could earn its first Final Four berth in more than 60 years and shock the college basketball world this weekend, Wible already knows what kind of coach he will see.

"I will always remember when we lost to Texas two years ago by a single point at home, just a devastating loss, and the next morning I'm walking past the nursery at church and there was Scott, on his knees, playing with the kids as a volunteer worker. Name me one other coach in America who would do that after a gut-wrenching loss.

"Finally, I had to ask him, 'Scott, what are you doing here?' He said, 'I signed up for this and I got responsibilities.'"

Art Stricklin is a Dallas-based sports correspondent for Baptist Press.

Camp Dates Announced!

Dates for the South Titan Basketball Camp have been announced. Boys in grades 9-12 will meet for two weeks, June 8-11 and June 21-24, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Boys in grades 6-8 will meet June 8-11 from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m., and boys in grades 3-5 will meet June 21-24 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm.

The aim of each camp, under the supervision of PL-South head coach Joel Hueser, is to teach and develop fundamental basketball skills, team play and motivation. Registration forms are available at Papillion-LaVista South High School or by clicking here.

Norfolk constantly shooting for a title

NORFOLK, Neb. — Pull open the thick gymnasium doors, fix your eyes on the lone figure inside and start counting.

One, two, three ...

Two weeks ago, more than 2,000 people packed this gym two hours before tipoff to see their Norfolk Panthers, the No. 1 team in the state. But tonight, it's quiet. Tonight the loudest sound is leather passing through nylon.

Four, five, six ...

Swish, swish, swish. Every three seconds.

He's 5-foot-10, 150 pounds, scrawny by Class A basketball standards. His white T-shirt is soaked in sweat.

Official team practice finished with shooting drills an hour ago. Jalen Bradley is still shooting. He won't go home until he makes 1,000 jump shots. Alone.

Seven, eight, nine ...

His shots drop through the net and into a machine called “the gun,” which fires balls back to him on the right wing, just inside the 3-point line. The sophomore catches and reloads.

One day he made 255 straight free throws. Another day he made 105 straight jumpers from 17 feet. Another day he made 43 straight 3s.

“I don't try to go for consecutive shots,” said Bradley, who this season made 51 percent of his 3s and 42 of 43 free throws. “I just kind of let it happen.”

10, 11, 12 ...

Today, Jalen Bradley and Norfolk descend on the Devaney Center, where at 2 p.m. they'll face Grand Island and try for the Panthers' first state tournament win in 23 years.

The Panthers are unique in Class A, not only because of where they come from, but how they got here.

Juggernauts hail almost exclusively from Omaha and Lincoln.

But no team in Omaha or Lincoln shoots like Norfolk: 51 percent from the field, 44 percent from 3-point range, 78 percent from the free-throw line. (The latter two numbers would lead Division I college basketball.)

“They're the best-shooting team in the state, no doubt about it,” Bellevue West coach Doug Woodard said.

“Forty-four percent as a team is unheard of, especially when you shoot as many 3s as they shoot. And 78 percent from the line? They have so many kids that shoot the ball so well.”

13, 14, 15 ...

Not every Panther shoots as well or as much as Bradley. But most nights, you'll find a few staying 15 to 30 minutes after practice. This team and this town share a passion for fundamentals.

And that's Norfolk's edge.

Class A consists of 29 teams, but only six are outside the Omaha metro area and Lincoln. Towns like Fremont and North Platte and Columbus try to keep up. It's getting harder all the time.

From 1987 to 2002, “outstate” Class A teams collectively won 28 state tournament games. Grand Island won the state title in 2002. Since then, outstate teams have won just two games and no titles.

The biggest reason: Those schools are shrinking. Norfolk, 27th in Class A enrollment, has one boy for every two at Creighton Prep, one for every three at Omaha Central.

Yet over the past eight seasons, only five Class A teams have more wins than Norfolk. This year, no one does.

16, 17, 18 ...

Bradley's rituals resemble those performed by another sophomore 16 years ago, Ben Ries. He's now Norfolk's coach.

Ries is one of Nebraska's best-ever high school shooters — he made 88 percent of his career free throws — and one of five prep players since 1980 to garner first- or second-team All-Nebraska honors three straight years.

After he graduated in 1996, Norfolk hit a rough patch. One year, the Panthers went 1-19. Then Ries returned in 2002, the youngest head coach in Class A. He was 24.

He focused his reconstruction on one principle: Build from the bottom.

In Omaha, elementary and middle school kids rarely interact with high school coaches. A fourth-grader living at 60th and Center Streets might plan to go to South High. But by seventh grade, he's headed to Burke. By ninth grade, it's Central.

Often, a high school coach hasn't even met a player until he shows up freshman year.

But in Norfolk, a kid who attends an elementary school will probably go to Norfolk High. So Ries reaches out as soon as possible.

Most coaches run camps in the summer; Ries also orchestrates them in the fall, five Saturdays, first through eighth grade. His high school players instruct and rub elbows with 220 kids.

More unusual: Ries' staff directs club teams, sixth through eighth grade. Bradley's dad, a high school assistant, attends every club practice, where he leads fundamental drills the first hour.

Junior high kids learn the same techniques and concepts the high school varsity utilizes.

The goal is continuity.

“When I talk about ‘our program,' I mean the whole thing,” Ries said. “I mean Norfolk basketball, grades 1 through 12.”

The blueprint requires significant time and energy. But the payoff is consequential.

The sooner kids and parents identify with the basketball team, the more they care. It's no coincidence that Norfolk crowds, home and away, were consistently the largest in Class A this year.

Six years ago, Brady Lollman and Nathan Marsh executed Ries' drills at club team practices.

Dribble, pass, screen and cut.

Now they are Norfolk's two best players. Lollman hits 83 percent at the line, 43 percent from 3. Marsh, a big lefty, hits 58 percent from the floor.

Why so efficient? Repetition.

When the Panthers get a lead in the final minutes, they're tough to beat. They handle pressure, milk clock and hit free throws.

“They're one of the smartest teams I've seen in many years,” Bellevue West's Woodard said.

But will it be enough this week? Since winning Class A in 1987, Norfolk has lost six straight state tournament games.

To win it again, Norfolk must knock off city schools, including either Creighton Prep or Omaha Bryan in Friday's semifinals.

Metro teams don't expect much when they see Norfolk, Lollman said. Not much size or quickness on the Panthers' roster. And no player has dunked in a game in Ries' eight years.

“We'll play anybody in HORSE,” Ries said.

Ries' first few years, players often challenged him to a game. Coach never lost — not once.

Then one day he dueled a hot-shot seventh-grader. Ries buried a jumper, Bradley answered. On and on for about half an hour.

Finally, Ries spun the ball on his finger, bumped it off his head and into the hoop. A Pistol Pete shot, Bradley said. “I never practiced that one.”

H-O-R-S-E.

Ries exhaled, then retired.

“I remember telling myself I'd never play him again,” he said.

Five years ago, another shooting great, Kyle Korver, came to Norfolk and shared his wisdom.

Jalen Bradley listened, and every day since June 9, 2005, he's kept a running count of the jump shots he's made.

On this Monday night, he'll go home and write: 509,500.

But even Jalen misses. After he drains 19 straight from the right wing, the ball comes off his hand a hair too hard. It hits iron — and rattles out.

He doesn't flinch. The gun spits out another ball. Catch, release, leather hits nylon.

A new streak begins.

Beranek biding his time at Nebraska

LINCOLN — Drake Beranek doesn't get to suit up for Nebraska men's basketball games this season. Or sit on the bench. Or travel.

But the transfer from the University of Nebraska at Kearney was required to take part in Wednesday's 5 a.m. practice after a loss to Colorado, and in Friday's 5:30 a.m. practice before the Huskers left for Saturday's regular-season finale at Oklahoma State.

Sound unfair?

Just try to get a complaint out of the senior from Ravenna, Neb., who says he is living a dream since forgoing a scholarship at UNK last summer to walk on with no promises at Nebraska.

“I heard a pretty good quote the other day — life is about minimizing regret,'' Beranek said Friday. “So far, this has been a good decision in minimizing regret.

“It was a tough decision. But things are good, and I hope they continue on into next season.''

Beranek sparkled in Division II basketball for three seasons at UNK. The 6-foot-4, 185-pounder was a three-time all-conference pick and two-time all-region. Last year, he was 11th nationally in scoring at 21.9 points.

Still, the lifelong Nebraska fan wondered how he might do as a Husker, so he got in touch with coach Doc Sadler.

“I didn't know anything about Drake when he showed up,'' Sadler said Friday. “Since he has been here, I've been nothing but impressed.

“He's probably the best thing that has happened to us all year.''

Sadler said Beranek's enthusiasm and ability have helped in practice during a long season at Nebraska (14-16, 2-13).

“He has worked extremely hard,'' Sadler said. “And with not many seniors next year, I'm not for sure he won't be a leader.

“Drake is a lot like Paul Velander. Not to put any pressure on him, but people seem to follow guys like that.''

Velander, a walk-on guard the previous five years, earned the Huskers' most valuable player award in 2008-09 for his 3-point shooting, his dirty work on defense, his smarts and his sunny disposition. He is still on campus taking graduate courses.

“I made a point to meet Paul Velander,'' Beranek said. “I have some buddies who are big Nebraska basketball followers, and I'd hear from them, ‘Man, Paul is stroking the 3 and taking all these charges.'

“That's something I hope I can bring to the team next year. I don't want to say I'm going to be Paul Velander Jr. But I wanted to meet him so I could see how he took those charges and where he got open 3s.''

Husker coaches say Beranek has more than held his own in practice this season.

“I've learned a lot from seeing how hard everybody works,'' Beranek said. “I had heard rumors about, ‘Hey, Doc's a crazy man in practice.'

“We had some pretty intense practices at Kearney, but this is a couple of notches up. That 5 a.m. practice Wednesday was tough, but it was needed. We got some toughness, and everybody responded well.''

Five years from KU, Wayne Simien answers another calling

By J. BRADY McCOLLOUGH
The Kansas City Star

LAWRENCE | Thousands of college basketball players will be honored this week at Senior Night ceremonies across the country. They’ll pose for photos with proud parents, they’ll bask in the fast-fading ovations of fans, and some will be given the opportunity to make a speech.

Many of them will see the future more clearly than ever and believe they know exactly where they’re headed, but they should listen to this story before becoming too assured in their direction, because a lot can happen in five years.

Wayne Simien had been looking forward to his Senior Night at Kansas since he was a boy sitting high up near the rafters of Allen Fieldhouse. He wanted the adulation that came with helping to hang new banners there, and he had worked his whole life to have 16,300 people care enough about him to stick around for an hour after his last college home game to hear him speak.

Still, he never thought he would have so much to say. Of course, there were hundreds of people to thank and memories to relive. But Simien had undergone a personal transformation at KU that needed to be explained. He talked to his pastor, John McDermott, about what to say. How do you make something that happened to you feel real for others? McDermott told Simien to ask the Lord for help.

When Simien took the microphone that night in 2005, he held an entire state captive.

“There was some fear involved,” Simien says now, “because I knew not everyone had the same feelings or beliefs that I did.”

More than 20 minutes had lapsed when Simien finally segued into the real reason he was out there pacing across the court. He had one last thank you to give.

“My king, my heavenly father, and that’s Jesus Christ,” Simien said, “the person who sustains me every day. … He’s changing me from the inside out, giving me a purpose and a sense of destiny. …”

Radios crackled across Simien’s native Kansas, and maybe some turned their dials then. But others kept listening as Simien quoted from the Book of Jeremiah, chapter nine, verses 23 and 24:

“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches,” Simien said, “but let he who glories glory in this: that he knows and understands me, that I am the Lord …”

Simien reflected on the scripture.

“Sum up all the victories here on this court, the championship banners, the one we hung tonight, the accolades,” Simien said, “the one thing I will glory in day in and day out is my relationship with the living God.

“My dream now as a Christian, as a man of God, is to see each and every one of you — all 16,000, everyone listening on the radio, everyone who may see this on TV — experience and have the same love and relationship with Jesus Christ that I do. I love you all.”

And, with that, Simien’s speech was over. All he had to do was live up to it.

•••

Wayne Simien’s first team meeting with the Miami Heat, which drafted him in the first round in 2005 with the 29th overall pick, gave him a pretty good indication of what life would be like in the NBA.

“I remember walking in,” says Simien, a 6-foot-9 power forward. “They were like ‘This dude’s a Christian. Give him two weeks until he’s on South Beach in a strip club with me, give him such and such amount of time until he meets Suzie in LA and does yada yada yada.’ They were taking bets on me, basically, cash-money bets right in front of me as far as how long it would take for me to have a hiccup or whatever.”

Simien was undaunted by the skepticism of veterans like Shaq, Alonzo Mourning and Gary Payton. He did not have the voice he had at Kansas, where he was a two-time All-Big 12 player and an All-American his senior year. So he would have to earn their respect through his actions.

Back in Lawrence, he had his doubters, too. After he had become a Christian on July 12, 2003, entering his junior year, there were plenty of folks who wanted the old Wayne back. They called him “Big Dub,” and he was once the life of the party.

“As soon as I stopped doing drugs, stopped drinking, stopped treating women badly, stopped playing selfishly on the court, that’s when people were like, ‘Hey Wayne, what’s wrong with you? What’s going on? I’m worried about you,’ ” Simien says. “Now you’re worried about me? After I stopped doing all these things?”

Yes, people looked at him differently after he became a Christian, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t living for them anymore.

“I was living a life of fear and insecurity,” says Simien, a Leavenworth native. “I was insecure about how I performed on the court, I was insecure about what people would say about me, what they’d write about me.”

Before long, Simien would join fellow Christian students and minister in the middle of campus at Wescoe Beach. Then, he leaned on a strong support group — made up of people like McDermott, the pastor at Morning Star Church, and former KU football player Dan Coke — and he would have no choice but to lean even harder on the people he trusted during his time with the Heat.

On road trips, to keep himself from going out on the town with his teammates, Simien would make sure he had good influences. When he was on the West Coast, former Lakers forward A.C. Green, known for being a devout Christian who practiced celibacy, would meet up with Simien. There were many others like Green that Simien sought out.

Simien once flew McDermott and his three little boys to meet him for back-to-back games in Chicago and Milwaukee.

“Not to demean them, but his teammates had other things going on,” McDermott says. “Here he was hanging out with me and three boys.”

During that first year in Miami, Simien would meet his wife, Katie, through some mutual friends who shared their beliefs. Wayne and Katie met in August 2005, began dating on New Year’s Eve, became in engaged in February and were married in July. In another statement about the way he was choosing to live, Wayne did not kiss Katie until their wedding day.

“I wasn’t a virgin when I got married,” Simien says, “so it was just another way of wanting to honor my wife, wanting to share that with not only her but also everybody that was at our wedding ceremony.”

Some of his Heat teammates, who along with Simien had just won the 2006 NBA championship, attended the wedding and were blown away that he hadn’t kissed Katie. It was just another reason to believe that Simien was walking the walk.

“They were asking me why I would do that,” Simien says. “Really being able to speak to those guys, to be able to touch an area in their lives that they really hadn’t considered before, I think there was a lot of respect gained from that.”

Certainly, no players had been able to collect on their bets.

After his rookie year, Simien’s NBA career began to fizzle. He missed his second year fighting salmonella and also suffered a knee injury. He was traded to the Timberwolves but never found any traction in Minnesota.

For a few years, he had felt that basketball was becoming second to his faith, but he would make one more go at it playing in Spain. Simien averaged 18 points and eight rebounds during the 2008-09 season and could have signed for more money. It was clear he had at least four to five good years left in him, and there was a chance he could play his way back to the NBA. But that wasn’t his dream anymore.

Simien, surprising even his friends who knew he wanted to be a minister more than a player, decided it was time to retire at the age of 26.

“When you get more excited about helping people, serving others, reading your Bible and preaching than you do dunking on somebody,” Simien says, “it’s probably time to go towards what you’re passionate about.”

•••

In the weeks after Simien’s Senior Night speech, copies were made and sent out to religious organizations all over the state and the country. A first-team All-American’s choice to speak about God resonated with believers and nonbelievers.

“He was just being honest about what he believed,” McDermott says. “That’s what was so powerful about it.”

These days, the speech means even more to those who see Simien every day, practicing what he preached. Last spring, Simien moved from Spain to Lawrence with his young family, which now includes daughters Selah, Rael and newborn son Simon.

Simien is now working full time with his nonprofit organization, Called To Greatness, which holds basketball camps and sports leagues for children and teaches the games from a Biblical perspective. Simien says that last year 614 people participated in CTG events, 211 through scholarships. The goal is to make sure every kid who wants to play sports, regardless of talent, gets the chance.

“He’s coaching three fifth-grade basketball teams,” McDermott says, “and without Wayne taking it upon himself, those 22 kids probably wouldn’t have played basketball this year.”

Simien also takes the time to speak to the current KU team once a week about faith and meets individually with players Tyrel Reed and Jordan Juenemann. On Wednesday night when Sherron Collins delivers his Senior Night speech, Simien will be in the designated team chaplain’s seat behind the KU bench. He is there for anybody who wants to explore his or her spirituality.

Simien hasn’t cashed a check for himself since leaving Spain. He often points out the irony that he “decided to shut it down in the middle of a recession.” But Simien says he doesn’t need the money right now. He is the same guy he was when he left Lawrence five years ago, the guy he professed to be on Senior Night.

“I’m a Kansan,” Simien says. “I’ve got a Ford pickup truck, not a Mercedes. I’ve got a basic house. You don’t see any diamonds or tattoos or any elaborate clothing. That’s just a part of it. Faith and trust in God. If there’s something you’re really passionate about, you can do it for free. That’s what I’ve been doing, and hopefully we’ll be able to do that for a long time.”