Tommy Kyle, a member of Decatur’s Autumnwood Baptist Church and a former north Alabama high school basketball coach, is trying to revive the original meaning of “nothing but net.”
“Basketball was invented to bring young men to Christ,” Kyle said. “No other sport can say that.”
Basketball was born in 1891 at the International Training School of the Young Men’s Christian Association in Springfield, Mass.
The father of the game, James Naismith, devised it as a witnessing tool. When applying for the job of the school’s gym teacher, Naismith stated that his main function was “to win men for the Master through the gym.”
Kyle couldn’t agree more.
So in 2007, he gave in to his long-held passion for sports-based discipleship and accepted the job of executive director of Nations of Coaches, a Decatur-based national Christian ministry aimed at reclaiming God’s sport one player at a time by one coach at a time.
The organization was founded in 2005 by Jim Haney, whom, as the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, Kyle calls “the most powerful man in college basketball.”
After meeting and praying with Haney, Kyle knew they were on the same team.
“Nations of Coaches is basically equipping coaches to build a legacy of excellence. … If we can get coaches on God’s game plan and to coach from a biblical perspective, then we’ll change the sport,” he said.
The ministry already is. This year, a Valentine’s Day game between Auburn and Mississippi State, two teams with established “character coaches,” ended with an Auburn upset and what looked to be the start of a fight.
In a way, it kind of was. “Both teams knelt down together,” said Kyle, the Bulldogs’ character coach. “I’ve got a recording of the radio broadcast. The guy goes, ‘I think they’re praying. I think they’re praying.’”
Kyle, who travels nearly three hours to Starkville twice a month to hold a Bible study for Mississippi State players and coaches, said such scenes, though common in football, are rare in basketball.
Jack Lovelace thinks he knows why.
“With basketball and even other minor sports like tennis, golf and baseball, there’s not a lot happening (in the way of Christian mentoring) because they don’t have the money to pay for a character coach,” said Lovelace, who became Nations of Coaches’ vice president of administration and development Jan. 1 after about four years as pastor of First Baptist Church, Selma. He currently serves as interim pastor of First Baptist Church, Holly Pond.
“When they can’t hire a guy to come in there, what we’re trying to do is to get the local church involved,” he said.
Lovelace said the ministry’s strategy is twofold. “Our primary job is to assist the coaches professionally and spiritually, and our desire is to have a character coach on every (college) basketball team in America,” he said. “It’s basically missions work in local churches: getting the people off the pews and into the most influential place a person can be with student athletes.”
For more information, visit www.nationsofcoaches.com.
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