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The ���Ĵ�ý �����’s basketball 2023- 24 team had a storybook season. They went 34-2, won the regular season and postseason tournament for the Crossroads League, ranked No. 1 in the NAIA for most of the year, and made it to the final four. 

Behind the glory of wins, awards, and trophies is a much deeper story. A story of relationship and spiritual growth. A story not about the blocks, rebounds, and slam dunks, but of three players and a coach getting dunked in water, declaring death to self and life in Christ. 

Every year, the �����’s basketball team kicks off its season with a fall retreat. The weekend in late September is full of team bonding and shenanigans, but the final night concludes with a heartfelt bonfire talk. Seniors share about their growth over the past three years and the impact the program has had on their lives. They give words of encouragement and advice to the incoming freshmen, who also are given a chance to share their stories. 

“The team had been essentially the same for the past three years, so we had really gotten to know the guys on a deeper level,” said Associate Head Coach Stephen Halstead (BS 18, MSHE 22). 

As they sat around the fire that night, Brycen Graber, a junior at the time, brought up the topic of baptism. He and a smaller group of players began discussing where their teammates were at spiritually, figuring a few had not taken that step in their walk with Christ and needed some encouragement to do so. When Halstead asked the group who had not been baptized, juniors Carter Stoltzfus and Cole Beck raised their hands. 

“Even before the bonfire, I was starting to think about baptism,” said Stoltzfus. “My mom asked me if I wanted to get baptized my senior year of high school, but I wasn’t feeling called to do it, and I didn’t want to get baptized just for the sake of it.” 

For Beck, it was a matter of timing. 

“I was always waiting for the perfect moment and inspiration,” said Beck. “I thought I had to be at the right church with the right pastor, and all these specific people needed to be there. I wanted the stars to align, basically.” 

After a few weeks of team practices, Halstead prepared a devotional about baptism to give before a Saturday practice in October. He gave the talk and didn’t think much of it. But it planted a seed. 

“It was not the typical devotional you have before a practice or a game,” said Beck. “It wasn’t the pump-up speech. It wasn’t the ‘hard work, dedication, do it as unto the Lord’ talk. So it stuck out.” 

It struck a chord for a few who had been baptized at a young age as well. 

“Halstead’s devotional really got me thinking about getting re-baptized,” said team manager Elijah Osborn. “I got baptized when I was 9 just because that was the thing to do growing up in a Christian home. So I started thinking about the meaning behind it — the importance of professing that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.” 

Head Coach Scott Moore (BS 08) found himself in a similar place. “Steve’s devotional was really good, and it just kind of stuck with me,” said Moore. “I had been baptized when I was a child, but the thing I could not get out of my head was, ‘I talk a lot about being a Christian, but I have to be about it — not just for them, but for my sake. Baptism is a declaration to my team and others. Even if none of my guys are gonna do it, I’m going to.’” 

In the middle of the team’s record-breaking season, on Sunday, Feb. 11, Moore was baptized at First Church of God in Columbia City, Indiana. The entire team showed up in support of their coach, bearing witness to his public profession of faith and his union with Christ. 

Little did Moore know that the following week would put this declaration to the test.

Going into his baptism weekend, the team was 24-0. “I thought we couldn’t lose,” said Moore. “Imagine the feeling. You really do start to believe it.” 

The very next game, the team lost to Huntington.

“I often say, I don’t think God cares if we win or lose games, but I do think He cares how we win or lose games,” said Moore. “I had just talked about following Christ. I get baptized, and then we get drilled. It was a good lesson for me because I could have taken my witness and thrown it away. I would have missed the opportunity to follow my own words.” 

The team took the loss as a learning opportunity and continued in their season. Even more, the testimony of Moore’s baptism remained influential. For Stoltzfus, Beck, and Osborn, this was the final push they needed. 

“It was cool seeing Coach Moore be an example for us,” said Beck. “It made me want to be an example for my team, my friends at ���Ĵ�ý, and the third-grade small group I led at Mission Point. I needed to obey the Scriptures and outwardly express my love for Christ and my commitment to follow Him.” 

On Sunday, April 28, the team gathered again, this time at Mission Point Community Church, to witness the baptism of Stoltzfus, Beck, and Osborn. Stoltzfus and Beck asked Halstead to baptize them. According to Stoltzfus, it all comes back to relationship. 

“If the coaching staff didn’t have a relationship with us, then the devo wouldn’t have connected,” he said. “We’d have looked at Coach Moore’s baptism and thought it’s a really cool thing, but it wouldn’t have hit home. When we see our coaches following Christ, we look at things differently and respond differently because of how they live.”

Prioritizing relationships has been a part of the DNA of ���Ĵ�ý’s �����’s basketball program, spanning back to Coach Jim Kessler’s (BS 70) 42-year run as head coach. Having both played under Kessler, Moore and Halstead invest in players the way they were invested in when they wore ���Ĵ�ý jerseys. 

“You don’t recognize how much of an impact a coach can have on you in the moment, but when I look back, there was always someone I could go to despite the circumstances, and I appreciated that,” Halstead reflected. “Now that I’m a coach, I try to get to know players personally and help them grow in every area of their life.” 

But the secret sauce to the program’s success doesn’t stop with the coach’s investment. According to Halstead, the program strives to create a playerled culture where the seniors pour into the freshmen even more than the coaches pour into them.

“We are really competitive, and we care about what is happening on the basketball floor, but I want to impact these freshmen like coaches and former players impacted me,” said Stoltzfus. “When I came to ���Ĵ�ý, all I cared about was basketball, but I didn’t realize how much it would affect my outlook on life and my journey in my faith.” 

This is why Stoltzfus hopes to become a college basketball coach one day. 

Now in his sixth year as head coach and his 16th year overall in coaching, Moore acknowledges that the trophies on his shelf pale in comparison to the reward of investing in his players.

“My heart belongs to the men up on the wall,” he said, looking at his office wall covered with pictures of his players. “Those are my trophies. I am much more fulfilled going home and thinking about them than about how many times we have won and lost or how many titles we have.” 

Over the past year, �����’s basketball is not the only team to witness player baptisms. 

Blake Burns (BA 24) baptized his teammate, Frederik Christmann of Reichenbach-Steegan, Germany, on Sunday, April 7 after sharing the Gospel with him and mentoring him throughout the year. Jasmin Slump, a sophomore wo�����’s soccer player from the Netherlands, was baptized at ���Ĵ�ý Community Church in Goshen, Indiana, on Sunday, Sept. 15. 

“We may be on different teams, but we’re really on the same team,” said Moore. “Every time one of the coaches talks about one of their kids getting baptized or accepting Christ, there is the ultimate win. Everything we’re worried about here, competing and stuff, just goes away.” 

“It says a lot about ���Ĵ�ý as a whole to see that these things happen organically,” said Stoltzfus. “It’s what ���Ĵ�ý is all about — growing in your faith. Sports are just a platform to use to connect with people. I think that it’s cool that these things are happening on different teams and across different cultures, but it all comes back to one Person.”

Are you looking for Christian colleges with basketball programs? 

Learn more about and basketball at ���Ĵ�ý. 

Read Cassadi Colbert’s story to see another example of how athletics at ���Ĵ�ý have helped our athletes mature in their faith.