March 15, 2010
The season is over. Spring is here. What do we do now?
I would imagine that this will probably be my last post simply because there is no more basketball to write about. We finished the season with an overall record of 26-9 and had a great time in the process.
Both games last week in Branson came down to the wire and lacked nothing in excitement and nail-biting suspense. We won our first game in overtime against Warner Pacific College. Ricardo had a monster game with 30 points and 14 rebounds. It was nice to get a win in our first overtime game of the year. In those tournament games, anything can happen and any team can win or lose depending on how the little "breaks" go.
I described this "sacred geometry of chance" in a post a few weeks ago and we definitely saw it come into play in our last game on Friday. With 9.6 seconds left on the clock, trailing by one point, Derrick Hannon dribbled swiftly up the court. Swarmed by defenders, he managed to get a shot off near the foul line. The ball bounced about three times around the rim before rolling out as the buzzer sounded.
The scoreboard read Bellevue 70 Cedarville 69. We would be going home.
Our season came to a screeching halt and for our five seniors, the end of their collegiate basketball careers as well. The mood in the locker room, as it always is following a season-ending loss, was morose and a little emotional. It is difficult to see the seniors go and it is hard to imagine what it will be like next year without them.
Their five distinctly unique attitudes together brought a conglomeration of fun times, a veritable gumbo of personalities. The beauty of sports is its ability to bring together people from all different backgrounds and unite them towards a common goal (Ugh, my cliché meter is pegged and alarms are sounding).
Our team is relatively homogenous, a white middle-class mirroring of our student body, and it has been awesome getting to know seniors Chris and Ricardo who came to these far-off frozen plains in Ohio to play basketball and share their Jamaican flavor with us. It is beautiful that such a simple game can bring together such different personalities; all with a common love of putting a ball through a net, and create rock-solid friendships.
This next year brings huge changes and new adventures for our seniors. Chris Beals is getting married in May and will be pursuing graduate studies through Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Haddon Anderson is also getting married in June and will also be working towards a master’s degree at the Moody Bible Institute.
Ricardo Alliman may spend his summer with another stint as a member of the Jamaican National basketball team and I’m excited to see where basketball may take him in the future. Chris Walker may also play for his country this summer, provided his knee heals in time and his body allows him to keep playing. Chris has also mentioned the possibility of law school in his future.
Brandon Sok has been student teaching all semester at a local high school and hopes to move into full-time physical education and coaching in the future. Besides solving the plague of childhood obesity, Brandon hopes to be ball hogging his way to a church league championship within the next year and shouting "KOBE" after every contested fade away jumper he shoots.
Whether it was by Providence or chance that we lost, it worked out well for the Estepp family. As we were taxiing to the terminal, coach Estepp got the news that his wife would soon be going into labor and that she was on her way to the hospital. The stewardess was kind enough to block the aisle so that coach could be the first one off the plane so that he could rush to his wife’s side.
We got the news later that night that she gave birth to a baby girl, Merynn Elizabeth, tipping the scales at 7 lbs. 4oz. Congratulations to the whole Estepp family for this new little bundle of joy! We’re all hoping that a new baby girl will soften up coach a little bit, make him a little bit kinder and more compassionate when next season rolls around.....not a chance.
I didn’t want to get overly sentimental in this last post but sometimes it is unavoidable. It has been an awesome year and all the hard work and toil has been worthwhile. I’m not sure how to wrap up this final blog and I can’t really summon the words to describe all of the feelings and emotions that I’ve experienced over the course of the season. I do want to share a verse that I have always cherished and I like to share it with other guys who are at a crossroads in their life.
Ecclesiastes 11:9 says "Rejoice young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things."
I hope that the seniors and my teammates will hear these words and always seek to find joy in life and glorify their Creator in the process. Andrew Carnegie once said, "People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing." Make life fun and it will come easy.
Huge thanks to anyone who helped out the team in any way this season. There are countless people who gave us food, shelter, and sometimes clothed us this year and your service never goes unnoticed.
March 7, 2010
We finally arrived in Branson today (Sunday) and we are settling into the cozy Clarion Hotel. Luckily we got to fly this year so we didn’t have to endure another agonizing 12-hour bus ride. Another benefit of flying was that I was able to spend some time with my family during our four-hour layover in Atlanta. The Reep family residence is only about 20 minutes away from the Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport so my parents, sister Nikki, and little brother Michael woke up and spent their Sunday morning with me for an airport breakfast and fine conversation.
I always love an opportunity to gather around the table with the family, especially for breakfast. Our best conversations occur over breakfast and the topics range everywhere from current films, politics in the Middle East, to the latest backyard prey of the family cat Charles (yesterday it was another bird). Seriously, the cat is a vicious, natural-born killer. He holds no regard for the life of birds, lizards, chipmunks, or any other assorted woodland critters.
Adam Riehle pointed out last night that we should vocalize our team goals for our time here in Branson. Remarks are often made along the lines of "If we stay through the weekend" or that we want to "win a couple games." Our goal, and the reason we are here is to win a National Championship!
The seniors, as well as juniors Matt Harner and myself have been fortunate to make this trip to Branson the last four years in a row. Each year, 31 teams head home in disappointment and each year we have ended our season in the same locker room.
Besides vowing to never step foot in that locker room again, our minds are focused on two things this week. The first is that we need to play our best basketball and make the most of our abilities on the court. The second is that we want to be salt and light for the other teams that we may interact with during the tournament.
Team Chaplain Dr. Scott Dixon shared with us the passage from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5:13-16 and reminded us of our call to "let our light shine before others" so that we may "give glory to [our] Father who is in heaven." We happen to be staying in the same hotel as the team from Walsh University and the squad from the University of Saint Francis and we are hoping for plenty of opportunities to represent Christ in the best way we can.
I can’t finish this blog post without giving a huge shout out to our team sponsor this week, "The Track," a local go-cart raceway. Every year they buy us t-shirts, treat us to a dinner at Lambert’s Café (Google it), and allow us free go carting to our heart’s content. They have been our sponsors for about the last seven years and we always look forward to seeing Craig, Larry, and Mike every year and burning rubber and gas on the track.
Also big thanks to the Neal family, future in-laws of senior Chris Beals, who treated the entire team last week to steaks at The Chophouse and desserts at their home. An excellent meal with excellent people!
March 1, 2010
Spring break. Snow en route to Buffalo.
Over the course of a season, and I’m sure members of other teams can relate to this, our team develops a variety of euphemisms and idioms that wouldn’t make any sense to the casual observer. However, among members of the team, these odd phrases or words make perfect sense.
The evolution of most of our strange customs and silly anecdotes can easily be traced to certain events or people in the last few years. Some of these, however, begin organically and sometimes become a part of our everyday vernacular.
One example I would like to share with you is the origin of the term "burger." This derogatory adjective is used to describe any pair of shoes, which are long past their expiration date. A "burger" is any pair of sneakers that are old, smelly, worn, and probably host to a variety of different fungi and possibly parasites.
The word was first used a couple years back by Brandon Sok to describe a pair of dirty, frayed, and dying pair of black Reebok Classics, which belonged to Chris Walker. Needless to say, the term stuck and has been used ever since.
We are constantly giving grief to Brandon over his shoes, a formerly white, smelly, disintegrating pair of Wal-Mart, Velcro-strapped, Easy Striders. The same shoes you would likely see being worn by most of the residents down at your local nursing home.
While we were in Portsmouth, Ohio for our last regular season game against Shawnee State, these "burgers" of Brandon’s came to the attention of the Bears’ mascot, Shawn E. The muscle-bound bear began gesticulating wildly, pointing at the shoes and throwing his head back in laughter. Realizing what was happening, we all began laughing at Brandon’s nasty kicks and began "high-fiving" the mascot and began to participate in collectively ridiculing Mr. Sok and his disgusting "burgers."
Over the weekend we embarked on a long, treacherous journey to Buffalo, New York to face Daemen College. The roads were very sloppy with snow and the vehicles of lesser drivers riddled the ditches of Route 72 heading out of Cedarville. It took us longer than half an hour to travel the first 10 miles of the journey before we merged onto I-70 East.
The whole drive was very slow and we ended up stopping for the night in Erie, PA because it was taking so long. We finally made it to Buffalo on Saturday afternoon and proceeded to defeat the Wildcats in a game that became a little too close than we would have liked.
On Tuesday, we will play Notre Dame College in the AMC tournament final.
Feb. 22, 2010
Philosophers and musicians alike have, for centuries, compared the passing of time to the flow of a river.
Then, if we’re making analogies, I could compare myself to the clueless city slicker, swept downstream by swift waters after carelessly wading into a swollen river during his annual trip into the back country with his buddies for some granola munching and back-to-nature good times. After his rescue, standing shivering on the riverbank, the lucky fellow mumbles something reflective and profound regarding the current like, "it was faster than I thought."
Well, I can sympathize with the guy, for I am familiar with the feeling. I too stand shivering on the banks of the proverbial raging white water of the 2009-2010 season. I dipped my toe into the flow back around the beginning of October and have been carried head over heels through the torrent and am just now beginning to claw my way up the muddy riverbanks toward the relative comfort of land.
Our regular season is already over and the conference tournament waits around the corner, and by corner, I mean Tuesday. Just this morning, senior Chris Beals remarked that, because of spring break next week, this would be his last week of practice as a "student." The stress of squeezing two hours of practice into every already hectic day is something that will soon be a memory for our seniors.
It has been a great final week of games and it is crucial that we finished out with three more games in the win column. It is essential that we have momentum heading into the conference tourney and that we are firing on all cylinders, tuned up, and playing our best basketball going into the post season.
It is a admittedly a good feeling knowing that the season is drawing to a close, but that is due mostly to the excitement that the post season brings. Tomorrow, or depending on when you read this, today (Feb. 23) we will face the Malone Pioneers in our first game of the American Mideast Conference Tournament.
Depending on the results of our games and the others, we could possibly play up to three games in the next two weeks. I have a pretty good understanding of the workings of the AMC tournament but I will not attempt to explain them here.
The bottom line is that our goal is to win out all our games, win the conference tournament, and ensure us a trip to Branson, Missouri for the NAIA Division II National Tournament.
Feb. 15, 2010
As hard as it is to believe, we’re actually on our last week of regular season basketball. As with almost everything in life upon reflection, the painful memories of hour upon hour of physical toil, the stress of constant traveling, and the emotional blows of defeats tend to be obscured by the joys of team camaraderie and the fond recollections of the season.
This season has slipped by in the blink of an eye and although we hope to still have plenty of post season basketball left, our previous 27 games are a distant memory and we’re focused on the three conference games left as well as the conference tournament in the following weeks.
One major difficulty of playing college basketball is that the long season, which stretches from October to mid-March, consumes most of our Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks.
Furthermore, those of us on the team have never experienced the joys of a spring break and I’m not sure what I would do even if I did have a whole week without school or basketball. Probably shuffle around in a sleepy stupor clutching a basketball, mumbling cryptic phrases like, "rocket up" and "elbow." Or sleep fitfully with visions of screaming coaches only to awake in a cold sweat shouting "FLASH FIVE!" at the top of my lungs only to realize that, it really was just a bad dream, and that it’s Spring Break.
No more basketball for at least 2 weeks until spring workouts start up again. But at least I’m getting paid.....uh no.....actually. That sound you hear is my student loan debt piling up.....a close friend who I will become well acquainted with over the next few decades. But enough of my joking, it really is a privilege to be a part of a team and we are excited and ready for whatever the post season brings.
We were able to walk away from both home games this week with solid AMC victories, putting our overall record at 19-8 and our conference record at 11-2. As I said before, we only have three regular season games left and on Tuesday we will be playing at home against the University of Northwestern Ohio and will be celebrating Senior Night.
Tuesday night will be somewhat bittersweet for me because I came in as a freshman with the five current seniors; Ricardo Alliman, Haddon Anderson, Chris Beals, Brandon Sok, and Chris Walker. I have known these guys the longest and it will be sad to see them go, but I also look forward to another year with my fellow juniors as well as the underclassmen on the squad.
Feb. 8, 2010
Three more games were packed into this last week and we are finally granted a slight reprieve from weeks filled with basketball games. We have, for the first time in about three weeks, a Tuesday without a game and Coach Estepp has given us tomorrow off from practice. Our next four games have fortunately been scheduled to be played on our home court, so no more traveling for a while.
Last Tuesday, we played down the road at Wilberforce University and were able to secure a victory there. The "WU" (pronounced "woooo") is always a tough road game and it’s always nice to have a solid CU fan section at the game as a result of the school’s proximity to Cedarville.
On Thursday, we traveled about 40 minutes to NCAA DII Urbana University and struggled throughout the game, not getting nearly the result we were hoping for. We failed to really hit a rhythm during the game and had some trouble with rebounding and defense.
The game had a slightly different feeling to it, partly because the CU women’s team did not play before our team, thus throwing off our pre-game routines a little bit. Nevertheless, nobody is to blame but ourselves and failing to show up and compete cost us the game. The Urbana Blue Knights dealt us the biggest loss margin we have seen all season.
Saturday we scored a big win against Notre Dame College, who holds the third-best record in our conference. Earlier that day we had the opportunity, as we do every year, to take in the Yellow Jacket alumni game, which is part of Cedarville’s alumni weekend. This game is always good for a few laughs and it’s always fun to see guys who have graduated come back and play some ball.
This year it was Daniel Rose, who graduated last year and who holds the Cedarville record for the most blocked shots in a career, season, and single game. It was good to see big Dan, who got married this past summer, throw down a few big dunks for old times’ sake.
Feb. 1, 2010
It’s been a long week and the team is riding high on a successful week packed with three conference wins. Last Tuesday night at home against 19-1 Walsh was a huge success and the students and fans came out in full force, decked out in blue to support SGA’s Project Haiti.
We played hard, we played well, and the fans were a major contributing factor to our win against the #2 team in the national polls. The Callan gymnasium was absolutely roaring at certain points during the game and when the women’s head coach Kirk Martin walked out to the sideline to lead the students in a J-A-C-K-E-T-S chant the decibel level skyrocketed and senior Brandon Sok remarked after the game that it "gave me chills."
As the buzzer sounded to end the game, students poured onto the court and it was a thrilling moment for everyone as we jumped around in celebration of the upset.
On Thursday, we followed it up with another solid win on the road at "The Garage" versus the University of Northwestern Ohio Racers.
Saturday morning at 7:15 am we departed for another road game against Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As we barreled east on I-70 and the landscape slowly turned from flat pancake plains to undulating hills and valleys, the bus lurched forward as the driver decelerated. The flashing lights of emergency vehicles slowly came into view and I noticed a couple news vans parked on the left shoulder with their cameras pointed ahead towards the commotion.
As we slowly rolled past the scene, the crushed wreckage of a pickup truck lay amidst roadside debris and I saw something that made me shudder. On the grass lay a white sheet with a pair of white athletic shoes poking out from underneath, a sure sign that a truly terrible accident had occurred.
In his book "One Bullet Away," which details events that occurred amongst a platoon of Recon Marines during the Iraq war and other conflicts, the author Nathaniel Fick describes the "sacred geometry of chance." This is the idea that, in battle, death is only an instant away and that mere millimeters can be the difference between a bloody death and a mere flesh wound.
I am always reminded of how precious life is when I see the results of a fatal automobile accident or I read accounts of soldiers in battle. Driving out to play a basketball game, I was reminded of how little athletics mean in this great gift we have called life.
Even Coach Estepp reminded us of this before the game as he reminded us to play for the glory of God and not ourselves. Traumatic scenes such as the crash en route to Pittsburgh serve to remind us of everything God has given to us and how crucial his grace is to our very existence.
Thank God today for his abounding grace and for every breathe you take.
Jan. 25, 2010
Playing at Mount Vernon Nazarene is tough, every year. Combine a small, intimate gym with loud, hostile fans standing along the entire sideline who want nothing more than to see the visiting Yellow Jackets leave with their tail between their legs and you have a high degree of road-game-difficulty.
Two years ago we were blown out at their place. Last year we beat them in a nail-biting, overtime game which, if you can recall, was played with our squad wearing blue Mount Vernon Nazarene Cougars away jerseys because.....well.....we forgot ours.
The Cougar on Cougar match-up was likely one of the most memorable games of last year partly because the fans’ usual cry of "LET’S GO COUGARS" was rendered ineffectual due to the fact that "COUGARS" was stitched loudly in green fabric across the chests of OUR uniforms.
Moving on to this past Tuesday, we bounced back from our devastating loss last Saturday with some defensive tenacity and held them to just 38 percent shooting from the field. One interesting stat from the game was the fact that they did not hit a single shot from behind the three-point line. This is somewhat startling considering Mount Vernon’s tradition of sharpshooting guards. Bottom line, it was a great conference road win.
On Friday morning we left for Rochester, New York to face conference opponent Roberts Wesleyan. On the way up we stopped in Erie, Pennsylvania, a sparkling jewel of the Midwestern rust belt.
This sagging shell of former industrial prosperity is the home of Gannon University who kindly allowed our men’s and women’s basketball teams the use of their gym for our practicing pleasure for about an hour. The stop helped to break up the monotony of an eight-hour bus ride and afforded us the opportunity to just chill once we arrived in Rochester instead of having to practice late at night.
On Saturday, well rested after spending the previous night watching NBA basketball and Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show farewell, we faced the Roberts Wesleyan Raiders. The Roberts Wesleyan gym is actually a wood floor situated in the middle of an expansive field house which also houses their indoor track.
There was not much student support and the atmosphere was somewhat quiet at times during the game. It is extremely difficult to play with passion and intensity when the game-time atmosphere is not very stimulating and exciting. Nevertheless, we managed to dig deep and manufacture the energy we needed and after a back-and-forth game in which we couldn’t seem to hold onto a lead, we finally sealed the win.
We still had a long bus ride home after the game, one which seemed to drag on and I only managed to get about 30 minutes of total sleep. This was due partly to our McDonald’s milkshake stop but is owed mostly to the movie choice for the latter part of the journey.
I’m going on record to say that Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is the loudest, most obnoxious, most mind-numbingly annoying movie I have ever seen. A speaker was mounted conveniently about 12 inches from my head so that I was subjected to ear-splitting explosions, robotic mischief, and moronic dialogue for the entire 2 ½ hour running time of the movie.
When the movie was finally over, I was able to catch a few winks before being awakened by our team’s traditional victory tomahawk chop once we were on the Route 72 homestretch.
Jan. 18, 2010
It has been said that the "highest of highs come after the lowest of lows." We can hope that this mantra will manifest itself sometime during the course of this season as we have truly found ourselves in an emotional trough.
Our team has just walked away from two of the most disheartening losses that I have ever experienced in all my years of basketball heartbreak. We lost two games this past week to non-ranked opponents. In both games, we held comfortable leads until the final minutes where we found ourselves unable to stop our opponents defensively, leading to devastating buzzer-beaters to seal our fate.
Our loss on Saturday night was particularly stunning because it came to such an improbable conclusion. With little over four seconds on the clock we were leading by one point. After a missed free throw on our end, as the seconds ticked down, a Houghton player unleashed a soaring desperation shot from over 50 feet away from their basket. The ball sailed high above the court, banked off the center of the backboard square and buried itself straight into the net as the buzzer sounded. The home crowd hushed as the Houghton players roared in celebration and there was nothing to do but stare wide-eyed in disbelief. I couldn’t believe it.
It was truly a surreal moment. If the ball had just hit the backboard mere inches to the right or left, we would be the ones breathing a sigh of relief instead of hanging our heads in defeat. A high school coach of mine always used to say, "a true test of a man’s character is how he handles adversity." This season has shown us a good measure of adversity and it is up to us to display our strength of character and fight back.
Our season is by no means over and a few tough losses should in no way knock us on our heels, but rather prepare us for even tougher situations that lay ahead.
I’m reminded of a large advertisement I saw recently in the Atlanta airport for the global management firm, Accenture. The ad showed a recently dropped spokesman, Tiger Woods, standing hands-on-hips, at the edge of a cliff looking rather puzzled. Upon closer inspection, I saw that a golf ball was perched on a tiny rocky ledge about a foot down from where he was standing. In large white letters, the ad read, "It’s what you do next that counts."
Now this is ironic considering Woods’ current situation as an ex-spokesman and I’m fairly certain that the ad was up before Tiger’s recent, highly publicized troubles came to the public attention. However, there are no truer words that can be applied to our team right now. It is not the two tough losses to lesser teams this week that will ultimately define our season, but it is how we respond.
Jan. 11, 2010
2010 is in full swing and students here at Cedarville have completed their first week of classes for the new semester and are warming up their brains for the long semester that lies ahead. This is the point in the season when things really start speeding up as we slice into the meaty portion of our conference schedule.
There are 17 games still remaining in our regular season schedule. These 17 games are crammed into only 6 weeks so naturally this is the point when guys on the team start to face some physical breakdowns as well as the mental challenges that come with playing up to three games a week. It can also be increasingly difficult to keep up with academic work when spending significant amounts of time on a bus criss-crossing the Midwest.
Unfortunately, our game at Ohio Dominican that was originally scheduled for last Thursday was cancelled because we received a generous helping of snow that covered the roads and made the short drive to the Columbus area a little too risky. The game was rescheduled for Monday, January 11th and we are more than ready to dive headfirst into a long stretch of tough conference play.
The team has faced our share of adversity this season and we hold a less-than-stellar 9-5 record but we have seen plenty of close games and have found ourselves in more than a few pressure situations and in many of those tight spots we have found ways to win. I think the tough schedule we have played thus far and the battles we have fought will serve us very well in upcoming conference games.
Jan. 4, 2010
In his book, The Treasure, Uri Shulevitz writes, "sometimes one must travel far to discover what is near." This quote particularly resonates with me after returning Monday afternoon from a week long trip to Florida with the team.
It’s these extended trips to far corners of the country where I am reminded how fortunate I am to be a part of a team in which the camaraderie and fellowship amongst its members transcends basketball and the forging of relationships becomes almost a worship experience. This week provided us some opportunities to interact with teammates in a different setting than usual and provided us a nice departure from the monotony of a week spent in Cedarville during Christmas break.
We left for Florida on the afternoon of Monday the 28th and arrived in Orlando late that night. After a satisfying meal at the airport Chick-fil-a, we killed a couple hours playing Balderdash - a riotous game of bluffing and trivia - in the airport while the coaches drove two hours out of the way to save a few dollars on our transport for the week.
When they finally arrived, we embarked on a Southward jaunt towards West Palm Beach where we would play two games over the next two days. We finally checked into our hotel at approximately 3 a.m. (EST) only to play later in the evening.
We also had the opportunity that day to rendezvous with the legendary retired student assistant and 2009 Cedarville graduate Ryan Mosher, who resides in southern Florida with his wife, Rachel.
We lost two tough games at the Northwood University tournament on Tuesday and Wednesday to Bethel College and University of Windsor, respectively. During our time in West Palm Beach, we also had the opportunity to spend about an hour at the beach and had a little time to take in the crystal clear waters of the Atlantic and splash in the rolling waves.
After our game on Wednesday, we headed north to stay for the rest of the week with the family of freshman Mike Mapple. The Mapple family graciously opened their home to an entire team of loud and hungry college guys and his sister Elyssa was even kind enough to surrender her luxurious king-size bed and top-floor room, dubbed the "Bro’s Nest" by its inhabitants, for the entire week.
On Thursday, New Year’s Eve, the CU women’s basketball team, who also played in the Northwood tournament, came to the Mapple’s and joined in the festivities for the night. The night began with some friendly ping-pong matches between members of the two teams, which quickly became cutthroat, win-at-all-costs ping-pong matches.
Minutes before the clock struck Midnight, all but a few members of the men’s squad decided to pack it into the hot tub for a good seat to view the Disney World fireworks on the horizon. When 2010 arrived, the hot tub erupted to raucous cheers and toasts of sparkling cider were made all around. This was then followed by the age-old, team-building practice of jumping into cold water for no reason. Now some of you readers may be thinking to yourselves "but Kenny, you were in Florida, the water can’t be THAT cold." But let me tell you something, you are WRONG. The water was frigid.
The frigid water, however, did not keep some of the guys from climbing into the kayaks the next day and paddling around the lake. From my understanding, everyone who even got in a kayak was tipped into the lake for some reason or another but it took freshman Daniel Hickman five attempts just to merely board his vessel from the dock without immediately capsizing and plunging into the cold water. These clumsy shenanigans prompted Mrs. Mapple to ask her son something along the lines of, "Mike, what’s wrong with that boy?"
A couple of us braved the cold to squeeze in a little waterskiing, wakeboarding, and Jet Ski action. Now usually when you are standing on the dock shivering before you even get into the water, it usually means conditions are less than ideal, but all I could say after returning, fingers numb and teeth chattering, from a sunset wakeboarding adventure was . . . "worth it."
We also had the opportunity to visit The Islands of Adventure theme park on Saturday and had a great time riding roller coasters and visiting the Cat in the Hat’s mind-bending house of Seussical nightmares. Once again, we couldn’t resist the temptation to get cold and wet and decided to hit the log rides and came out more than a little soggy. A few even braved Popeye’s Bilge Rat Barges right before we left the park and had to ride home completely soaked and shivering.
The courage of my teammates was tested as we faced a crisis at Jurassic Park. During our tour of the Park, there was an accident in the carnivore containment paddocks and we narrowly escaped the vicious velociraptors and the gaping jaws of a hungry, savage Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Later that night we were treated to dinner at Texas De Brazil, a traditional Brazilian "churrascaria." The benefactor who treated our entire team to a meal of epic proportions remains anonymous but if you are reading this then I am officially extending a monumental "THANK YOU" on behalf of the entire team.
Waiters trolled the area with massive skewers loaded heavy with delectable cuts of beef, sausage, pork, chicken, and lamb and would carve off a slice onto your plate with simple wave of the hand. Many members of the team exclaimed that it was the best meal they had ever had and the conversation remained minimal as everyone stuffed their bellies with massive quantities of the finest meat, seafood, and hors d’oeuvres.
On our last day in Orlando, we had the opportunity to visit the home of professional golfer Lee Janzen. Janzen is a PGA tour veteran with 9 professional tournament wins including 2 majors, the U.S. Open in 1993 and 1998.
Janzen has a great Christian testimony and is currently competing professionally while still finding time to remain very active in several ministries and charitable organizations. Mr. Janzen took time to share his personal testimony and answered many of our questions about life as a professional athlete, competing at a world-class level, and living out his faith on the golf course. It was a rare opportunity for us to meet such a successful pro athlete who remains a faithful, genuine servant of Christ.
On our very last night in Orlando, we bid farewell to the hospitable Mapple family and checked into the Marriott hotel near the airport. After eating dinner and settling in, eight of us ventured down to the hotel pool. We divided into two teams - upper vs. underclassmen - and played a version of water rugby/football/wrestling that I, and my high school buddies created. It consists of moving a clear water bottle filled with water from one end of the pool to the other by ANY means necessary. It is a game of both deception, cunning, and brute force and we played until the upperclassmen team consisting of myself, Brandon Sok, Haddon Anderson, Adam Riehle, and Chris Beals finally won in a close battle.
We flew home the next day and returned to our beloved wintry weather here in Ohio. On our trip home from the airport, as most of the guys quietly snoozed or read in the beloved CU "short bus," a loud BANG rang out, followed by a horrible shuddering as one of the vehicles’ rear tires blew out. Coach John McGillivray reacted quickly and expertly maneuvered the bus to the shoulder and locked down the situation. Luckily for us, Coach Estepp contacted his friend who graciously picked us up in the Southgate Baptist Church bus and transported us safely back to campus. We finally arrived home, only to prepare for practice a couple hours later.
On behalf of the entire team I would like to give a huge shout-out to the entire Mapple family for opening up their home and showing us such awesome hospitality and an altogether great week. Also big thanks to everyone who helped prepare or provide food this week (Mrs. Estepp’s macaroni and cheese was excellent), provided transportation, or helped us out in any way.
Dec. 21, 2009
Our Christmas break has finally begun. I am currently typing this in my cozy little bedroom in the comfort of our family home down here in the great state of Georgia.
After an entire week of living on a deserted Cedarville campus and four hard days of practice, we finally played our last home game of 2009. After the game, most of the guys scattered and headed towards their respective homes across the country.
It was actually a pretty enjoyable week spent with the good dudes and good moods of the men’s team. We had the opportunity to run a short skills clinic for some of the kids from Cedarville Elementary School for a couple days.
We also spent about an hour at Southgate Baptist Church in Springfield helping out with their annual Christmas food drive. They say "many hands make light work" and our many hands did indeed make quick work of separating cans of green beans from the corn, carefully arranging mountains of foodstuffs onto neat shelves, and taping boxes to be loaded heavy with food for the hungry citizens of Springfield.
Special thanks to senior Chris Beals’ future in-laws, the Neals, for opening their home to us on Thursday and treating us to a formidable feast of BBQ and cheesecake.
Also Thanks must go out to the Harner family for having the team over for our annual Christmas gift exchange. Our entertainment for the evening was watching all the freshmen of the program, including our student-assistants, sing karaoke.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Dec. 14, 2009
Finals week is officially behind us and the team is staring down the barrel of an entire week of practice stuck on campus without much to do besides practice, eat, sleep, and video games.
Coach Beschta was kind enough to plan his wedding on Monday the 14th, thus allowing us the day off practice. Coach Estepp granted us a few days off from basketball and ordered us to evacuate our dormitories because the team budget didn’t feel like feeding us all weekend.
After me and my roommate Haddon Anderson’s plans to travel to Brandon Sok’s home deep within the bluegrass hills of Kentucky were foiled, we were forced to choose an alternative destination. Feeling a little like refugees booted from their homeland, we had to make a decision.
After some thought and deliberation, during the half-time warm-ups of Saturday’s game against Huntington, we decided we would travel the seven hours westward to Haddon’s homestead of Rockford, Illinois. I grew excited in the anticipation of traveling to a new foreign land and visiting the great windy city of Chicago for the first time.
After the game, Haddon and I hustled through our showers, quickly threw some clothes in a duffel bag and set out for the journey. However, during the long slog northward on State Rt. 72 towards the Interstate, we began to reconsider the sensibility of such a journey.
The excitement of such a trip began to fade as we looked ahead to a seven-hour drive and the cost of two full tanks of gasoline. The decision was made to cancel our plans to Rockford and instead turn east towards the home of senior Chris Beals in nearby Westerville, Ohio. Our spirits brightened as we foresaw hours sitting comfortably with the Beals family cats, playing video games instead of driving into the late night on the cold, windswept expanses of Interstate 70.
Our weekend was spent mostly enjoying the cozy confines of former Cedarville JV standout and current senior Joel Walton’s home. Haddon and I spent our nights under the warm hospitable roof of the kindly Waltons, who took us in without prior notice from Joel. We played a cutthroat game of Monopoly on Monday afternoon, which Joel, through shrewd and merciless financial tactics, won handily.
Our weekend was also filled with spirited games of Tiger Woods 06 for the XBOX360. Our thumbs received a vigorous workout over the many hours on the links during the weekend. Haddon simply dominated during stroke play and remained unbeaten until I was able to take away a single win in a vicious skins match.
Our legs and lungs were grateful for the short break from basketball and we returned to campus prepared for a hard week of practice getting ready for the match-up versus Taylor University on Saturday.
Special thanks to the Walton Family for taking us in for the weekend and filling our bellies and for the company of their dear dog "Ruff Ruff" Riley.
Also Congratulations to Assistant Coach Jason Beschta and his new wife, Becca, on their marriage on Monday.
Dec. 7, 2009
With the first week of December also came our first two games of conference play. We were treated to a pleasant visit to the Golden Corral buffet in Canton, Ohio before the game on Tuesday.
Golden Corral is a typical pre-game routine for us before road games but it was our first visit to the establishment this season. Among the veterans of the team, the Corral represents not only the benchmark of pre-game nourishment, but also a place where one can focus his mind on the task ahead and mentally prepare the inner warrior, all while tucking in to a mountain of mashed potatoes or a heaping helping of banana pudding.
After eating our fill, we faced the #3 ranked team in the country, Walsh Cavaliers. Despite a career-high 26 points for senior Chris Beals, we were ultimately foiled by Walsh offensive rebounds and transition buckets.
We faced a tough couple of days practice as we turned our attention toward Malone on Saturday. Playing at Malone is always a tough game and former Cedarville assistant coach Tim Walker now coaches the Pioneers. In my last three years on this team, I cannot think of a single trip to Malone that went smoothly.
We have certainly had our share of lucky breaks while playing in that gym. One particular buzzer-beater to secure a conference championship in 2008 stands out. Former Jacket standout Ryan Short launched a jumper from the left elbow that rolled around the rim for about 3 seconds before dropping through the net as the buzzer sounded.
On Saturday, we were struck with a familiar feeling as we battled for the victory. With the game tied and about 32 seconds on the clock, we worked the ball around the half court looking for a good look at the basket. With the shot clock winding down, senior Chris Beals dribbled hard toward the same spot on the left elbow, pulled up, elevated over his defender, and drained the shot leaving a mere 5.2 seconds on the clock.
The crowd in Malone’s Osborne gymnasium was silenced and the Pioneers barely managed to get a desperation shot off as the buzzer sounded. The rest of us on the bench sprang up triumphantly and shook our heads in disbelief. Heading back to campus, our attention turned to the challenges ahead, Finals Week.
Nov. 30, 2009
The month of November has gone in the blink of an eye and we prepare ourselves mentally tonight for Walsh tomorrow on the eve of our first conference game of the season with a record of 5-2.
This last week we faced Ohio Dominican University at home and emerged with a win. It was a hard-fought game and it was good to kick off our Thanksgiving break with a victory.
We had three full days off from practice for Thanksgiving break which we were all extremely grateful for. We finally had a little time to rest our tired legs, give our brains a break from schoolwork, and fill our bellies to the brim with turkey.
My family traveled all the way North from the great state of Georgia to visit our grandmother in northern Ohio. After flossing through bumper-to-bumper holiday traffic on Wednesday through Columbus, we finally arrived at the Fortress of the Feast, grandma’s cozy home. I can’t speak for all of my teammates, but I’m sure that for most of them their turkey day unfolded in a manner very much like my own. Here is the recap:
- Sleep in as late as possible until the clanging of dishes and the roar of kitchen appliances rouses you from your slumber on the floor in the next room.
- Shuffle bleary-eyed into kitchen. Eat. Narrowly escape potato-peeling duty or other assorted kitchen task.
- Plop down in front of the television with brothers, sisters, and cousins to enjoy the plethora of wholesome, holiday television programming. Sleep some more.
- Wake from nap. Drink lots of water to begin preparing the gastro-intestinal system for maximum intake. Fall asleep on floor again.
- Dinnertime! Eat until satisfied. Eat more.
- Television. Sleep. Dessert. Sleep. Take dog for walk. More Dessert. Bedtime.
Altogether it was another wonderful Thanksgiving and I am always grateful for quality time spent with my family. What makes the Thanksgiving holiday so important to me is not the food or the sleep, but spending time with the people that mean the most to me in this world, my family.
As Americans, we are so fortunate to live in a land where we are afforded the opportunities to worship our God in Heaven without persecution, eat until our bellies can take no more, and enjoy the liberty that comes with American Citizenry. For all of these I give great thanks to God.
We must never take for granted all that we have been given by His grace and mercy. Twenty-five Days until Christmas!
Nov. 23, 2009
Our third week of the season has passed and our third consecutive weekend tournament has come to a successful conclusion as we finished up the 32nd Annual Cedarville Invitational with back-to-back wins. It felt good to win our home tournament and give the Cedarville fans a convincing victory for our home opener on Friday.
Home games are always a pleasure for many reasons. For one, there is no enduring long bus ride and questionable buffet food. Secondly, the fans, pep band, and cheerleaders create an electric atmosphere that is totally unique to that of any away games on our schedule. And last of all, playing at home affords us the opportunity to slip into our white home uniforms which are constructed of a light silky fabric, far more luxurious than our stiff, scratchy, blue away jerseys.
While home courts, screaming fans, and the smooth caress of a freshly-laundered uniform are great, nothing quite compares to walking into our locker room before the game and finding freshly baked goodies provided by our cheerleaders. Now as most of my teammates know, I possess a chronic sweet tooth and nobody loves fresh baked goods more than I, so I am taking this opportunity to officially thank our cheerleaders for the kindness they have bestowed upon our team. So, "Thank You cheerleaders and keep the goodness coming!"
Nov. 16, 2009
Since I have become the official appointed blogger of the men’s basketball team, I am under constant pressure by my teammates and team chaplain, Dr. Scott Dixon, to present insider access to the exploits of our team with poignancy and humor. During the week I am frequently urged to "put that in your blog, dude!"
On the other hand, there are also certain individuals on the team who make it clear to me that they do not want to be mentioned, quoted, or discussed in any manner on this forum. Needless to say, there are a number of events and/or situations that I have to opportunity to narrate for my growing throng of faithful readers. (Hi, Mom!)
However, after the team’s trip to the Chicago area this weekend for a tournament at Trinity Christian College, there is really only one thing that I feel is worthy of focusing all my blogging efforts upon this week. It is something that will forever alter my perception of team transport.
I struggle to control my emotions while reflecting back on the vehicle that carried us West to Palos Heights, Illinois. Call it a legend of locomotion for it was indeed a mighty machine the likes of which had never been seen even amongst the most hardened veterans of the men’s basketball program.
As I shuffled down the sidewalk early Friday morning, mentally preparing for six tortuous hours crammed into a bus seat engineered for someone much smaller in stature than myself, I turned the corner and IT came into view for the first time idling in front of the Callan Athletic Center. Standing tall before me was the towering white and smoked-glass form of our double-decker sleeper bus. My feelings of dread quickly gave way to curiosity and excitement.
As I stepped aboard, I immediately bounded up the staircase to the upper level. I surveyed the scene before me and gasped with excitement, for some of my teammates had already settled in and were lounging comfortably on the soft benches lining the perimeter of the vehicle. We soon discovered that there were also bunks that folded out into position, creating nearly double the sleeping space.
We all giggled with glee as we began to lift the bunks into position and everyone marveled at the comfort and spaciousness of the cabin. The drive to Illinois was remarkably comfortable and the time was passed sleeping, reading, and devouring cookies. Throughout the weekend, members of the team would intermittently proclaim their love and adoration of the bus and expressed their reluctance to even leave the cozy confines of the sleeper bus to eat or play basketball.
As for basketball, the weekend had its positives and negatives, for we lost a tough game on Friday and won convincingly on Saturday. As our weekend came to a close late Saturday night and the behemoth barreled back onto the campus of our beloved Cedarville, we could only hope that we would once again be able to take a journey in the luxury that the Great White Beast afforded us.
Nov. 9, 2009
The first week of scheduled games proved to be fairly exciting for the men’s basketball team. Wednesday marked the unofficial start of our season as we traveled to northeastern Kentucky and into the heart of the Daniel Boone National Forest to take on the Eagles of Morehead State University in an exhibition game.
The Eagles won the 2009 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament which sent them into the NCAA D1 tournament last spring. They defeated Alabama State in the "play-in" game, thus granting them the opportunity to be crushed by the respective #1 overall seed, Louisville, in the first round.
During the exhibition game last Wednesday, some of us had the pleasure of matching up defensively against Eagle standout, Kenneth Faried, who is the nation’s leading returning rebounder in NCAA D1. Now what makes guarding Faried such a pleasure is not the constant threat of being whipped in the face by his long, sweaty dreadlocks, which some of us got a literal taste of, but rather his freakish ability to leap extraordinarily high and far to snag offensive rebounds and cram a basketball through an orange rim with extreme force.
To call Faried athletic is somewhat of an understatement. Faried possesses a 6-foot-8 frame, the legs of a gazelle, and the heart of an assassin. These athletic assets have attracted the interest of NBA scouts nationwide, at least one of which was present at the game Wednesday.
Faried threw down one of the most impressive dunks that these 22-year-old eyes have ever witnessed in a live game. Taking off from what seemed like a step inside the three-point line, he leapt into the air, cranked the ball around in a windmill motion, and then proceeded to stuff it through the rim and return to the ground all in one preposterously fluid motion. But enough about our loss to Morehead, let’s talk about this past weekend.
Friday night we traveled to participate in the Rio Grande Classic to face the University of Cumberlands Patriots and despite a heroic effort in the final minutes, lost our first official game of the season. Senior Ricardo Alliman could barely be contained and muscled his way to a career-high 36 points while also reeling in nine rebounds.
Despite Ric’s beastly performance and some very clutch play from our guards during the final minutes of the game, we fell short and walked away with a record of 0-1. Later that night, after settling into our hotel rooms, we strolled across the road to feed our ravenous appetites and once again challenged the local McDonald’s staff to accurately and efficiently process and prepare the orders of a team of hungry basketball players and coaches.
This late-night visit to Mickey D’s went considerably smoother than the visit I described in my last post. Everyone received their food relatively quickly and after everyone’s hungers had been sufficiently satiated, there still remained an entire tray of extra cheeseburgers, French fries, and one lonely garden salad. All of which were swiftly claimed, eaten, and never seen again. With the exception of the salad, which was swiftly tossed.....into the garbage can.
Saturday proved to be a record setting night for the Cedarville University. We faced the Rio Grande RedStorm on their home court and emerged victorious with the scoreboard reading 157-91 in favor of the visiting Cedarville Yellow Jackets.
Chris Beals came out of the opening tip with fire shooting from his fingertips as he nailed his first five attempts from behind the arc, which set the tone for the rest of the night. Ricardo did not miss a single shot or free throw on the night and finished with a flawless 23 points in only 18 minutes of play.
Six players scored in double digits and all 13 active players scored and contributed to the 157 points. The Rio team struggled defensively which was only compounded by the fact that we shot 66.3% from the field and 71.4% from three for the night.
At night’s end, four school records lay shattered at the feet of our triumphant Yellow Jacket squad including: three-pointers made (20), field goals made (59), assists (38), points scored in a half (83), and most points scored in a single game.
Nov. 4, 2009
It’s the first week of November and our team stands on the brink of another long season filled with bus rides through cornfields and economically depressed Midwestern towns. After a long preseason ripe with 6 a.m. "yoga sessions" and afternoon windsprints, my teammates and I are pumped for the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of a regular season.
This past Saturday morning we journeyed North to the land of Findlay, Ohio to face the 2009 NCAA Division II National Champion, 36-0, Findlay Oilers in a friendly scrimmage. As a team, we struggled a bit defensively in the beginning against their longer, more athletic guards. As we warmed up a little and settled into the game, we ended up giving them a good match-up and the scrimmage served as a pretty good indicator of some of the things we still need to work on as we approach the season.
Our journey to Findlay and back was taken in the University-owned "short bus." Between the water that drips out of the ceiling and the doors that rattle violently at any speed over 25 mph, suffice it to say the bus is not the most luxurious ride.
While we were rattling and dripping down I-75 after the game, our expert driver Mr. Norris Smith pulled off the southbound ramp and pulled into the parking lot of the local Lima, Ohio Panera Bread Company. Loud shouts of disapproval were heard from the rear of the bus from senior Chris Walker saying "man, dat’s a girl store."
Other members of the team lamented the limited and overpriced menu at Panera and the perceived feminine sandwich selection. Senior Brandon Sok volunteered to step up to the plate and act as the team delegate to approach the coaching staff about possibly reconsidering their choice of lunch stops. After some deliberation, Coach Estepp agreed to head down the street to the Burger King.
As the coaches climbed back into their dry, cushy rental car, the team reacted positively to the news of the change and senior Haddon Anderson and junior Adam Riehle began preaching the merits of the BK Double Stackers. We drove down the street to the Burger King and weathered the bewildered stares of the locals as 15 large individuals in matching bright yellow and navy blue travel suits lumbered through the door.
As we stood surveying the menu of delicious flame-broiled treats, someone received a call from one of the coaches saying that they had changed their minds and we would now be eating at McDonald’s across the street. So we all filed back out of the Burger King and dodged traffic - crossing the street only to face once more, the blank stare of the rosy-cheeked McDonald’s staff where smiles are definitely not free.
These visits to fast-food establishments with a team of large, hungry basketball players never, EVER goes smoothly. I’m sure all you readers are familiar with the image of dozens of ravenous vultures on the parched African savannah descending on the carcass of a dead zebra. Picture that, only substitute the stinking zebra flesh, with crisp paper bags filled with steaming French fries and lovingly prepared McChicken sandwiches and the vultures with . . . well . . . vultures.
Kenny Reep is an exercise science major from Peachtree City, Ga. The 6-foot-7 junior forward is in his third season with the Yellow Jackets.
