ON THE BUS

I’ll always remember watching the 2014 national championship game while we were on the bus to Branson.

The national tournament is a culmination of a lot of hard work and energy over the course of a season.  As a reflective person, I spent the bus ride to Branson thinking about all of the memories that were created during the season.   From a basketball perspective I thought of every preseason workout, every practice, every conference game, every suicide, every film session, every loss, and every win.  Spiritually, I remembered the moments spent in prayer, the moments searching God’s Word, the tears shed and the moments of joy that we shared as teammates.  I wondered how all of this preparation would reveal itself.  

While we were on the bus, the coaching staff decided to play the 2014 Championship game vs. Midland.  As a senior, I felt our team’s belief in each other being ignited while we watched that team come together. We had heard stories about what happened in the 2014 season but we got to see first hand the passion and unity that the team showed while winning the championship.   The members of our team who had been a part of that run got to re-live the moments they were a part of that will go down in IWUHoop’s history books.

It was empowering to see guys like Jordan Weidner, RJ Mahurin, and Garvin Haughey lead the team to a ring. The fearless mentality and IAm3rd attitude that those guys played with was a great reminder of what our program was all about.  It built our faith in each other to see former Wildcats play for each other and leave it all on the court.

Watching the 2014 championship game was what I like to call a “Red Sea moment”. Our team saw what it took to win a championship and everything that was in our way parted to the side as we walked step by step with the Lord.  Seeing the guys who were before us come together empowered us to have that same belief and faith in each other.

I’m looking forward to a day when a future Wildcat team will be riding the bus around Branson watching a group of IAm3 and fearless players win a championship, but this time with a new set of actors—the 2016 Wildcats.

-Josh Mawhorr