Traveling around Europe the last two summers, I knew that the countries I visited liked or loved basketball, but now where I am in Southeast Asia is taking it to whole new level for me. Basketball is not becoming an international sport, it is an international sport. The coaches for Athletes in Action, Head coach Kelly Combs, Asst. Coach Anthony Weston and I put on a basketball clinic for about 20 coaches on Friday.
We went for about four hours giving these guys as much info as we could, probably overwhelming them at times. When we finished, many of these coaches were so thankful that we came all the way to their country to help them (ask me when I get back, and I will tell you where I was. We aren't allowed right now to publicly state where we are because of the type of country we are in and what we are attempting to do with our faith). It is an overwhelming feeling when you think that you are just a high school basketball coach (former) and you can help many of these guys learn or refine their craft.
The coaches were apologetic that more weren't here, but as I have spoken before, you have to start somewhere. Maybe this is one of the beginings as AIA has been here before. It is amazing as a young boy growing up in Henryville shooting on my basketball goal at home, I never thought basketball would take me where it has. Of course, I wanted to play big time college basketball, but that didn't work out for many reasons, I started coaching. The game of basketball has helped me in so many ways in life, family, and travel.
At the coaching clinic, a coach with a Hickory t-shirt on was attending (Hickory is the fictional team from Hoosiers). He knew all about the movie Hoosiers and Indiana basketball. Now that is amazing. When I told him I was a basketball coach from Indiana, it was as if he were meeting someone to be revered. I wonder what he would do if a coach who actually won something were there.
I am missing my family very much, but what I am doing is something greater than myself. I am not just talking about basketball, I have traveled here with AIA and they are a faith based organization. If we can show at least one person how we live our faith using basketball, then I feel I have done my little part in this whole thing. After March 2 (yea, I know you know, the tornado thing) and all the support we got in town, it has become even more obvious how blessed we all are and that we should be giving something back.
