Jonas McBride's Men's Basketball Student-Athlete Blog #4

Man its slippery outside. I was just about as tentative walking to the dining commons this morning as I played against Webster. :) As you may have guessed by that comment, things didn't go well in our game against the Gorloks. Fortunately, however, that game marked the end of the first round and left us looking forward to the second half of conference play.

We started the second half of the conference season off with Blackburn who had come out hot in the first half earlier in the season. Not to disappoint, they did the same thing again. We went into halftime down by 8. In the second half, though, we found our footing and came back with a solid finish. Andy hit eight 3's for us...unbelievable! We then looked forward to our only Division 1 opponent of the season at SIUE. We played a good defensive first half and were down by 4 at intermission. We had great hopes of coming up with an upset but a 22-3 run early in the second half put them out of reach for the rest of the game.

It doesn't look like we are going to travel to Eureka tomorrow due to the all the ice so I think we are just going to play them over Skype. There has got to be a way to do that.

Coach has been giving us a variety of lessons and a more recent one has to do with what really brings satisfaction in life. The world tells us that we will find satisfaction in things like wealth, sexual conquests, and athletic success. But real satisfaction is found in relationships, both with God and others. After a tough loss it is hard to believe that a win would not have been more satisfying than having good relationships with your teammates, but the feeling of a win doesn't last long until you have to do the same thing over again. The relationships, however, last.

-Jonas McBride
(about Jonas)

Jonas McBride's Men's Basketball Student-Athlete Blog #3

We are now ending our interterm classes, for those of us who took them, and are preparing to start the Spring semester next week. Just overhearing some of the guys talk about their interterm classes it sounded like a lot of work. I was gladly taking an independent study on athletic training, so although there was still a decent amount of work, I didn't have to spend 3 hours a day in class.

On the court, the last week and a half has had its ups and downs. We felt that we were prepared to play Westminster last Wednesday, but we did not play as well as we would have liked and came up short. Fortunately, I think we grow closer as a team whether we win or lose.

We then played in Fontebonne's nice gym on Saturday. We were surprised at their height. Besides not having a 7-footer, they looked like a Division 1 team to me. We possibly had the worst shooting day of the season, but we made up for it with rebounds and eeked out a win. Just a couple of nights ago we hosted MacMurray knowing that we were both in the middle of the conference in terms of our records. We played a pretty good game and shot well, but they had some 3-point shooters that were lights out in the last 5 minutes. We again eeked out another win. Saturday we have our hands full hosting a hot Webster team. It should be exciting.

It is easy to get caught up in winning and losing, but whether or not we win Saturday we should always be thankful for the gift God has given us of playing college basketball. There is a lot of people who would love to have such an opportunity. We all have different skills and abilities that God has given us. I think being thankful is realizing that we didn't have to be given those things, and realizing that we didn't gain these things by our strength.

1 Corinthians 4:7 says, "What makes you better than anyone else? What do you have that God hasn't given you? And if all you have is from God, why boast as though you have accomplished something on your own?"

-Jonas McBride
(about Jonas)

Rashod Seaton's Men's Basketball Student-Athlete Blog #2

We split our games last week. So Westminster is still perfect in conference play. On the upside, we had a quality win against Fontbonne. We put up a prayer for Coach McKinney after the game. He's such a strong man.

The road for us in the run for the conference tourney only gets tougher, especially since we still have to play the #2 team in the conference, Webster, two times and #1 Westminster once again. It should be fun though.

Keep cheering for us,
Rashod Seaton

Rashod Seaton's Men's Basketball Student-Athlete Blog #1

This week is a big week for us (the Greenville Panthers). We play Westminster and Fontbonne in the same week - away! These are two of the top teams in the conference as of now and as far as the standings are concerned.

Coach is trying to keep us on task, focused and active, especially the guys that are not taking an interterm class. To accomplish this, he has us coming in at 8:30 a.m. in order to put up about 200 shots and some free throws. We call it a class: Basketball 101. We have to have a good practice today (1/11/11) in order to be ready for Westminster tomorrow (1/12/11).

Cheer For Us,
Rashod Seaton

Jonas McBride's Men's Basketball Student-Athlete Blog #2

All the guys got back from their respective parts of the country for Christmas break this last week. Obi planned on visiting family in Nigeria but was delayed for four days in Germany and ended up having to cancel the trip. The rest of us returned from either the West Coast or Midwest. When we got back and had practice on Saturday I was worried we were all going to be completely out of shape, but I was glad to see that we were only slightly out of shape.

We were all anxious to start the rest of the conference season by heading to Louisville on Monday for our Tuesday night matchup against Spalding. We remembered how bad we had played to start the game at Spalding the year before and felt we needed to show ourselves we could play well in this gym. Both teams started out the game hot, but we went into halftime with an 8-point lead. In the second half Spalding stayed hot and we went on a dry spell. We ended up losing to a good Spalding team by 14. We are fighting back mentally right now to stay together after such a frustrating loss. Fortunately, we have a game tonight and on Saturday to help put this game behind us.

Something we are learning as a team and beginning to put into place is praying during the games. Jesus died for us and took our sin on Himself so that our sin would not cause us to be separated from God the Father, and because Jesus did this we can come to the Father with any concern at any time. As Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." Since there are endless opportunities in a basketball game to worry, it just makes sense that we would also pray during games. We try to pray for things like playing to our potential and staying positive through negative situations rather than for a win because that may not be God's will (even though we always think a win is what we want). Sometimes a loss is just what a team needs.

-Jonas McBride
(about Jonas)

Jonas McBride's Men's Basketball Student-Athlete Blog #1

This last week was a tough one. Professors are trying to wrap up their classes with papers, presentations and tests, while we are trying to balance these things with basketball, friends and still trying to have a little time for ourselves. Some of us also have what are called "little brothers" that we mentor in town, and actually there is a Christmas gift exchange and dinner tonight that some of us will attend.

With basketball, we had just come off a 5-game winning streak before heading to Kentucky to play Asbury and Union on Friday and Saturday. It was a long 5 to 6 hour drive, but after arriving at Lexington, Coach Barber introduced us to a former player at the University of Kentucky named Tony Delk who gave us a complete tour of the players' dorm and facilities. We played Asbury later that night but we didn't play the way we know we can. Our big guy Andy Traeger was injured and we had trouble putting the pieces together. The next night we lost another starter to injury, KJ Hilliard, and had similar troubles meshing like we had been doing before this weekend.

Although we lost both games this weekend we were still successful representing Christ through our actions on the court. Coach teaches us about an idea of Frosty Westering called "The Big Time". This philosophy runs in face of the classic view of winning, which says "winning is everything" and if you aren't #1 you are no one. Even though we are a very capable team, we are starting to realize the truth of the quote from the coach on the movie called "Cool Runnings" where he says to his sled captain, "If you are not enough without the Gold Medal, you will never be enough with it." Whether we are winning or losing we will still hold up our hands when we are charged with a foul, and help up our opponent's when they get knocked down. Our team is not just learning a new way of playing basketball, we are learning lessons for a new way of living life.

-Jonas McBride
(about Jonas)

Meet the Winter 2010-11 Bloggers

The following student-athletes will write a blog entry once a week (or thereabout) throughout the winter sport season. We hope you enjoy the insight into the life of Division III student-athletes that their journal will offer.

Women's Basketball
Madison Fischer
Fontbonne University
Sophomore
Tarkio, Mo./Tarkio High School
Major: English and Social Science/Pre-Law
Career Goal: I plan to attend law school and then hope to work in a law firm or open a private practice.
Other Intercollegiate Sports: Golf


Men's Basketball
Jonas McBride
Greenville College
Senior
Perry, Mo.
Major: Physical Education
Career Goal: To serve Jesus Christ.

Cory McClellans's Men's Basketball Student-Athlete Blog #2

As a student at MacMurray College on the week before finals, life is pretty stressful. Along with studying, the Highlanders have been playing a pretty difficult basketball schedule. We are currently on a seven-game losing streak to start the season and are 0-1 in the conference, losing the conference home opener to Eureka.

Also, we lost are starting two guard in the first half of the Eureka game to a knee problem. He had 13 points at that point. Otherwise, we were very balanced in scoring - Randle 12; McClellan 9; Sichting and Robertson both had 8 points. Freshmen Luke Bishop and Brady Slagle chipped in with 8 and 9 respectively.

As a student-athlete the disappointments we have had on the court cannot transfer over to the classroom. Students must keep on task and keep studying for exams, even though the basketball season is not going as successfully as we desire.

C.J. McClellan
(about Cory)

Cory McClellan's Men's Basketball Student-Athlete Blog #1

MacMurray College as a basketball player is very similar to most other schools; it is a constant juggling act between sports and school. At MacMurray the professors work well with the athletes to make sure that they do not fall behind in any of their classes.

We just finished our two exhibition games versus Lewis and Clark and SIUE. We beat Lewis and Clark but failed to pull off the same result versus SIUE, suffering a defeat. One bright spot in the defeat was the play of Jerel Robertson, who shot 9-of-13 from the floor on his way to 20 points. He also led the Highlanders in rebounding with nine rebounds.

With the regular season just around the corner it will begin to get much harder balancing my time with practice, classes and school work. Right now we have a break from games until we open our season on the road versus two-time defending national champion Wash U. At this time classes will be just a month away from final exams, which is the most stressful time for all college students.

C.J. McClellan
(about Cory)

Meet the Bloggers

The following student-athletes will write a blog entry once a week (or thereabout) throughout the basketball season. We hope you enjoy the insight into the life of Division III student-athletes that their journal will offer.


Men's Basketball
Cory McClellan
MacMurray College
Junior
Forsyth, Ill./Maroa Forsyth HS
Major(s): Business Administration
Career Goal: Finance Analysis - focus in stocks
Other Intercollegiate Sports: Men's Golf
Athletic Achievements: Top 5 in conference in assists, steals and assist/turnover ratio (2008-09)


Women's Basketball
Megan Bunch
Spalding University
Senior
Bedford, Ind./North Lawrence HS