This is my son, Samuel, holding the New Penn Christian Conference Tournament championship trophy for the ISA Ambassadors three-peating as conference champions during covid in February 2021. Photo by Curt W. Olson
There are jobs, or opportunities, in life where you believe you are equipped and called for the mission.
There are other opportunities you feel you are the only one to do the task. While you feel unprepared, it becomes a rewarding experience.
That happened for me from late August 2020 to June 12, 2023 when I served as athletic director of Bethel Baptist Christian Academy (BBCA), which would become Chautauqua Christian Academy–and because of covid–the International Sports Academy (ISA).
One year ago, I talked to the top coach, Rick Rohlin, and told him because I wouldn’t be teaching in 2023-24 at the school in Jamestown, N.Y., it would be a full departure, including AD.
ISA is a ministry Rohlin started several years ago to use sports as the avenue to reach people with the gospel. It’s located in several countries. A huge soccer, volleyball, and basketball tournament on May 25 in Nairobi, Kenya ended with 52 professions of faith in Jesus Christ. That’s why it’s “more than sports.”
The students at BBCA/CCA and the homeschoolers who joined us experienced incredible basketball success starting in the 2018-2019 season. I count it a privilege to have worked with coaches, parents, and players who were committed to the truth of that slogan.
BBCA was a small Christian school that didn’t have sports when I arrived in 2016-17. It resumed varsity and junior varsity boys basketball in 2017-2018. The JV boys only lost two games all season, the varsity only won two games. With a son who was a freshman, he played a prominent role on JV. On varsity, Samuel created defensive mischief. He also delivered as a role player on offense.
The 2018-19 season marked a significant turnaround as Rohlin joined the program as the varsity boys coach. Also, multiple circumstances led to an infusion of homeschoolers to our program, along with additional students who played.
I was content to be a fan watching us upset Sheffield, Pa High School, 64-60 in early December, win the Christmas tournament of a rival, and win the New Penn Christian Conference as the No. 2 seed defeating the No. 1 seed, Bethel Christian School (BCS) of Erie, Pa.
Scott Olson, a second cousin from Florida, became our AD and physical education teacher in 2019-20. In hosting the conference tournament in late February 2020, 3 weeks before the covid shutdown, BBCA repeated as New Penn champions by defeating Christian Life Academy (CLA) of Oil City, Pa. That season, the girls varsity won their first title, upsetting the No. 1 seed BCS, and the boys JV won their conference title.
Olson returned to Florida following that school year, and I filled the opening. I wish I had done it sooner than August because the kids lost the fall boys soccer and girls volleyball seasons to covid. I would have advocated for sanity, not harming kids more.
This is a photo of Sam and me holding the New Penn Christian Conference championship trophy in February 2021. Photo by Kelly Younger.
There was no way I was letting that happen for basketball my son’s senior year, with the guys seeking a three-peat. They deserved the right to defend their title. Sam stated that summer that if the team had to get creative to play basketball he would be all in. Others agreed.
I called my second cousin and asked for pointers to being a good AD. It’s a thankless job of crafting schedules for multiple sports, getting schedules so refs can be assigned to games, and the countless details of home games–all without covid. Winter also forces constant rescheduling.
An early December 2020 BBCA school board meeting to determine the fate of basketball ended with our teams being homeless. The good news is the kids soon had a new place to practice and play. Additionally, our league allowed us to play as a club team (being creative worked) because the players were from the school and the homeschoolers who joined us.
However, covid prevented other league teams from playing. Our teams had two league opponents, which also limited our schedule, playing eight games from the first game to the conference championship game. Four to six more games that season would have created one or two 1,000-point scorers celebrated in 2022.
Covid compelled some parents to have children not play. The boys varsity had eight players, with three from the school, including my son who was a senior. Sam continued his defensive mischief. While he was not one of the “stars” on offense, his senior “covid season” demanded he contribute. He stepped up.
That short season had memorable games during this run of success. They turned an 18-2 first-quarter deficit into a 57-46 win. They also won a 77-71 shootout. Additionally, the ISA Ambassadors won the conference title game against CLA 50-35 for a three-peat.
The ISA Ambassador girls varsity repeated in a thriller. Because the league didn’t have four teams to seed in the tournament, the teams at Slippery Rock Baptist Church in Slippery Rock, Pa. played on both sides–boys and girls. They were also tournament hosts. Because of the success of its girls team, they were matched against ISA in the title game. Down 1 late, ISA hit a three-pointer for the lead. The potential game-tying shot by Slippery Rock was blocked in the waning seconds, sealing their repeat.
I won’t go into the details of NYS’s face mask stupidity for players, coaches, refs, and fans in fall 2021 for indoor sports. It compelled us to add volleyball to basketball being off site for a second season. The edict compelled me to resign as AD in early September. It was a tribute to coach Scott Lynn, parents, and the players for how they salvaged volleyball. Within a month, I was back as AD as the school board president pleaded with me that “there was no one else who could do it.”
For the 2021-2022 basketball season, players returned from covid. The boys varsity had an amazing season, going 22-1, including an overtime thriller against a team that had a reputation for defeating us easily or in close games. The season also included the 200th win for Coach Rohlin. By the end of the 2022 season, these teams amassed more than 80 wins since the 2018-19 season.
That team won the conference title for a four-peat. The most rewarding part: over the 4 seasons, 2018-19 to 2021-22, the only school in the conference from New York State defeated three Pa teams for titles: BCS, CLA twice, and Crawford Christian Academy in Meadville, Pa. The girls three-peated with a come-from-behind win against CLA.
Multiple factors drove us to step away from that conference in the 2022-23 season, desiring to maintain relationships with those schools. It demanded the program create new ones with other schools. It brought the first basketball games in the school gym since the 2020 New Penn Conference Tournament before covid. That boys varsity team, also with strong senior leadership and talent, had a fifth consecutive winning season, matching or surpassing anything in school history.
This run of basketball success was so memorable and so much fun done with so many great people who always focused on the fact that what was accomplished was always “more than sports.”
