AdventistHoops

Coach Williams joins the guys to discuss the "fresh start" of this past season after cancelling the 2024-2025 season. This focused on establishing a solid foundation and team identity. The team consisted largely of first-time collegiate players, which created a learning curve for both the athletes and the coaching staff. Culture and Strategy: The program's culture is built on core values: "staying...

Adrian Hargrove shares his experiences growing up as a standout at Oakwood Adventist Academy (OAA), and compares his squad with this year's team. He reflects on his high school experience at OAA, noting that, at the time, they were independent of the Alabama High School Athletic Association because the school lacked its own gym. He likened the program to a modern-day AAU team, traveling extensivel...

New Co-Host! Josh Boyko joins the podcast as a regular fixture. He is a 2024 graduate of Minnesota State University, Moorhead, with a degree in sports broadcasting and journalism, and has been contributing writing to the AdventistHoops blog. At the end of her first school year as the women's head coach at Walla Walla University, Makana Stone, grew up in Coupeville on Whidbey Island, Washington. Sh...

On the 30th anniversary of Southwestern Adventist University’s (SWAU) "Hoops Classic” high school tournament, Dustin Comm visits Keene, Texas, to see the tournament for himself and learn about its history. He’s joined by SWAU’s head men’s basketball coach and athletic director, Tyler Wooldridge, and vice president of student services, James The. The guys discuss the tournament’s origins, which par...

A 6’9” forward from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Ramogi played a season at Division 1 Saint Thomas University in Minnesota before returning home this year to play at the University of Manitoba. Ramogi was a part of two provincial championship teams in high school, although he missed the first title game due to the Sabbath. The provincial athletic association was unwilling to change that first game, but the...

Former Canadian national team member shares what it was like playing with Steve Nash, growing up Seventh-day Adventist in Toronto, and how he navigated the Sabbath throughout his university and professional career that took him around the globe. As one of the creators of SlamBall, Rob shares how that sport opened up opportunities in sports entertainment for him, and led to him represent players as...

The new head coach at Division 1 Grambling State University talks about his Adventist roots, from playing in Adventist church league in Takoma Park, Maryland, to Takoma Academy (TA), to La Sierra University, where he quickly got his first coaching opportunities while still a college student there. Patrick returned home to coach TA for a year before starting as assitant athletic director at then NC...

The media team for the first-ever AdventistHoops All-American Weekend assembles to relive their experience behind the scenes of this historic event. From a fun media day, to filming highlights, to conducting interviews for a documentary film, Jason Meredith, Jared Gonzalez, Kwame Roberts II, and Eleazar Williams share their perspectives on how the experience impacted them. The guys discuss what it...

Recent graduate of Portland Adventist Academy, Dane Petersen, and incoming junior at Mile High Academy, Addy Dodds, join the show to talk about their experience at the first-ever AdventistHoops All-American Weekend. The group discusses their overall experience at the July 31-August 2 weekend, the specifics of the schedule on Thursday and Friday, and analyze the all-star festivities on Saturday nig...

After seeing how his Sabbath observance was honored in high school in Canada, and the potential he saw in Adventist youth around him as an adult, Aldin and his wife started the Basketball Factory in Calgary, Alberta. Their club teams play in high level tournaments across the country, maintain an Adventist code of conduct, and don’t play on the Sabbath. Aldin talks about the logistics of running tr...

Pastor Willis shares how he was inspired to create the Northeast Stingers basketball club through his church in North Carolina, and how it’s grown to include multiple age groups and out-of-state tournaments. Head Coach Reggie Todd shares how they fill their schedule, some of the challegnges of coaching a club, and how the experience has benefitted the kids as athletes and young men. They share the...

Carla shares her basketball journey, from her early days in Maryland playing at Beltsville Adventist School, to a storied high school career at Mesa Grande Academy in California, followed by a challenging college campaign at Pacific Union College. She recounts the horrific, seemingly random shooting she fell victim to while living in Florida that resulted in a spinal cord injury, leaving her...

The founder of a new company called “Advent Sports” talks about his basketball journey from a small Adventist school in Oregon to playing college ball at Union College (now Union Adventist University), coaching at Campion Academy in Colorado, and eventually serving as an assistant for the women’s team at Walla Walla University (WWU). The guys discuss the ideal number of weekly basketball activitie...

La Sierra University’s men’s head coach shares his college basketball coaching journey, which began at the age of 22 under the guidance of his dad at a community college in Southern California. He later joined the staff at Hope International, a top-ranked NAIA program where we worked for five years before getting the opportunity at LSU. Ethan talks about the lasting coaching wisdom from his father...

Lucio is the athletic director and girls head coach at Loma Linda Academy in California, the largest Seventh-day Adventist school in North America. His career in education began at now-closed San Pasqual Academy, where he started their sports program. He spent 15 years at Mesa Grande Academy, and Loma Linda until today. Lucio talks about the challenges of building a program at a boarding academy w...

As a first-year head coach for Andrews University, Jared talks about his vision for the program, which he acknowledges has struggled recently. He talks about his experience with shifting culture and mentality at his prior stops at a Michigan junior college and high school. His father coached at Andrews as a kid, and Jared played for the Cardinals for one season in college, so taking this position...

Why don’t Adventist colleges offer full athletic scholarships? How can we compete with other schools that do? What kind of return on investment do our university administrators need to see to invest more heavily in athletic scholarships? This episode features our first-ever panel as we discuss a topic that many people think about, but may not have the context to fully understand the realities that...

Currently living in Madagascar, Tim played for a local professional club there, and owns a social business called "Tour One Planet" that connects tourists directly to local businesses. He describes his start in basketball as a freshman at Pine Tree Academy in Maine, gaining motivation as he saw individual success at the since-closed Atlantic Union College tournament. He gained experience as a prac...

Kelvin Green is a lifelong Seventh-day Adventist who played 1.5 seasons for Division 1 Coppin State University in Baltimore, Maryland, during which time, he did not have to play on the Sabbath. Kelvin talks about the blessings of his time there, and the tensions that grew because of his Sabbath agreement. Ultimately as Kelvin saw more success, he ended up on ESPN’s Cold Pizza morning show, talking...

The new men's and women’s head coach at Pacific Union College talks about his basketball journey from Takoma Academy (TA), all the way across the country to his current job in Angwin. Along the way he’s played and coached at Southwestern Adventist University, and coached at the high school level at TA and public schools in Arizona. Landon shares his plan for building a foundation for the program a...

Sacramento Adventist Academy’s athletic director and girls head coach talks about how he got into coaching as a student missionary in Micronesia, and how he’s built one of the best Adventist girls basketball programs in the country. The guys discuss the proud tradition of SAA basketball, including joining the state athletic association in 2001, and what the California Inte...

The vice principal and interim athletic director at Takoma Academy in Maryland shares some of the rich history of TA basketball, going back to a 1964 game with Pine Forge Academy. Eventually because of concerns about competition, TA got away from playing other Adventist schools and instead began to play non-Adventist schools. Keith credits Coach Bob Paulson with building a strong interscholastic b...

This daughter-father duo from Chisholm Trail Academy in Texas talk about their team’s success the past couple of seasons, culminating in championships this season at the Southwestern Adventist University Hoops Classic and their state playoffs. Ally reflects on the dynamics of playing for her dad, Dennis gives advice to parents on interacting with their kids in a healthy way, and they tal...

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Tamir grew up as an Orthodox Jew. He fell in love with the game of basketball and excelled to the point where he was the #25 high school prospect in the country as a 17-year-old. His story became a national headline in places like Time Magazine, 60 minutes, and Sports Illustrated, where he was dubbed the “Jewish Jordan.” This budding fame and media attent...

After 19 years at Orangewood Academy as one of the most successful Seventh-day Adventist basketball coaches in the game, Leslie resigned from his position as athletic director and head girls coach on March 22, 2024. Many in the community felt he was unjustly pushed out, resulting in more than a thousand signatures on an online petition in support of the school retaining him. Leslie share...