Our Next Adventure

When you take a new job and move to a new place we don’t often refer to it as an adventure.  It’s simply a part of life.  However, when you take a new job and move to a new place while you are following the Lord’s leading and fully trusting He is in control... THAT, is always an adventure!

Our new adventure will be in Glendive, Montana!

Joe will be the next Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Dawson Community College in Glendive, Montana. (Check out this press release.) 

I will be recruiting, training the team, overseeing their academics, fundraising for the program, promoting and doing everything else associated with running a college basketball program.  From my teenage years, I have had the dream of being a head college basketball coach.  I pursued that dream for 5 years after I graduated college (coaching at two NCAA Division I schools), but gave it up when I felt God call me to Kenya in 2003.  At the time, I knew I might be giving up my dream forever. It’s difficult to get back into any profession once you’ve left for many years, but it’s often especially challenging re-entering the coaching world.  When we returned back to America last year, I didn’t think I would get back into coaching. The life-style at the higher levels of collegiate sports is not ideal for a family. I told Daneen and others that I might consider coaching only if it were the right school and the right situation; ideally having the ability to lead my own team. When my former coach at Dawson retired the same week as we began looking for jobs, we had a feeling this would be a good fit for us.

We both really enjoy working with college-aged students.  We believe the college years are some of the best years of a person’s life and also some of the most influential. It’s the time when young adults are figuring out who they truly are, learning to become independent and many are searching for what life is all about and how they fit into this world. Some of our favorite times together in Kenya were interacting with CGA Alumni when they were home from college.

We are excited about the opportunity to be a positive role model for these students. Joe desires to build a basketball program which does much more than win championships. He sees his role of Head Coach as a mentor to 15 young men and hopes to teach them about work ethic, attitude, character and, when God opens the doors, the Gospel. Daneen is excited about being the Team Mom! We look forward to interacting with our men’s basketball team and hopefully the members of the other sports teams as well as the other students.  There is also a strong possibility for Daneen to work at the college. (Stay tuned for details.)

Glendive is a small town of approximately 5,000 people nestled among the rolling hills and badlands of Eastern Montana. Learn more about and check out some pictures of Glendive here. The college has around 400 students and 5 NJCCA sports; men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball and rodeo.  Coach Mast (the recently retired head coach) was my coach when I played at DCC back in the 90’s and has been the head basketball coach at DCC for the past 25 years.  He has the most wins of any college coach in Montana, so I am replacing a legend (read more).  Our conference includes mostly North Dakota schools and we will also play some non-conference games in Montana, Wyoming and possibly even Nebraska, Colorado and South Dakota. Check out some pictures from around the DCC campus here. 

Joe has already started working, especially trying to recruit players to fill out the roster and create a competitive team for next year.  This week we are heading to Louisiana to be the FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) speakers at a basketball team camp with over 1,000 players.  We will have the opportunity to share our testimony and allow God to use that in the lives of these high school athletes.  And maybe... I’ll find a great player or two who wants to come to Montana.

We are currently looking at houses in Glendive and hope to move to Montana in early/mid July.  The school year starts towards the end of August. 

Our new adventure awaits and we’re excited!!!