Mike Lightfoot is the greatest coach you’ve never heard of. It was Coach Lightfoot who replaced his mentor and legendary coach Homer Drew at Bethel College in 1987, and since then all he’s done is win.
Need proof? How about becoming the 18th quickest coach in all of basketball to reach 700 wins. How about being honored at the NCAA Final Four in 2014 as one of the Guardians of the Game. How about becoming the all-time winningest basketball coach for the state of Indiana. In his 29 seasons at Bethel College he has led the Pilots to 18 league championships, made 11 NAIA National Tournament appearances and won three NAIA National Titles. In all, he can boast seven national championships as he’s led four teams to NCAA titles.
Surely the reason you’ve never heard of Lightfoot is because he’s a coach with questionable morals. Or maybe he’s found a way to avoid the scrutiny of illegally recruiting since he’s at a small Christian school. Or is it that he’s paying players because nobody believes you can win championship with ‘soft’ Christian athletes? The truth is that none of these assumptions are factual. Coach Lightfoot is a model head coach who’s done it the right way for more than three decades.
In fact, the best part about Coach Lightfoot has nothing to do with basketball. Spend any time on Bethel’s campus and you’ll hear that Coach Lightfoot’s greatest passion is his players’ development off the court as men of God. One former player who now coaches at the University of Illinois described him best: “Coach has impacted so many lives and that includes mine, he uses the game of basketball as a tool for the ultimate impact.”
In his own words, Coach Lightfoot explained his philosophy. “Basketball is a game that so many people around the world love. Sports I feel can impact people like no other entertainment. That is why we take our team on mission trips. Basketball draws people. Through basketball, you gain an instant audience and a platform to share the Good News to a dark and lost world.” Lightfoot continued, “Going through the process of basketball you learn so many things that you can apply to your spiritual life. The discipline of athletics can help us in our spiritual walk and our discipline of our spiritual life can help us in athletics.”
With examples like Coach Lightfoot, why do people believe that athletic excellence and spiritual excellence are mutually exclusive, somehow like they’re oil and water, never able to come together? This was something that I wanted to investigate. I was curious to examine how administrators and coaches, like Coach Lighfoot, viewed the Christ-centered mission of their institution related to achieving athletic success. Did the mission contribute to the athletic departments producing successful athletic programs or was the Christ-centered mission a limitation to coaches in developing championship programs? In investigating these questions I observed the following principles:
In one of the first interviews, I heard a coach share about the integration of sport and spirituality that would be echoed by many of his peers across several campuses. He stated, “I think it is up to every coach, for me the mission does not have a negative impact on developing winning programs because my identity and purpose fall under the vision of our school.” At another institution a coach restated my question: “Would we get a higher caliber of players if we were not a Christian university? I don’t know. I do know that we are a Christian university and the Lord brings in really good, like insanely good, athletes that are attracted to us because of our mission.”
Coach after coach agreed with these sentiments. One veteran coach shared that within his program, which he has led to two National Championships, the institutional mission has been the foundation of his team’s success both on and off the court.
A majority of the institutions I visited would be described as smaller schools, at least in comparison to Power 5 NCAA DI institutions. However, it was clear that the spiritual mission of these schools allowed them to recruit athletes who were also being recruited by more prestigious (at least athletically) NCAA DI institutions.
I heard the story of an all-state cross country runner whose final two hats were that of a NAIA faith-based institution in the South and the University of Florida. Then there was the basketball star deciding between a Wesleyan institution in the Midwest or the University of Indiana. These schools had no business being in contention for these blue-chip athletes, however, it was the spiritual emphasis that allowed them to compete.
It is my belief that the spiritual mission, especially when it’s fully integrated throughout the athletic department, is not a limitation to recruiting but actually a huge advantage. Coaches who boldly proclaim the spiritual mission are more likely to recruit higher caliber athletes as there is a large contingency of students looking for institutions that will provide both spiritual and athletic excellence.
One of the major concerns communicated from an Athletic Director was hiring any coach that lacked conviction of the institutions’ mission. I loved how he put it. “At an institution like ours, where you have a very clear mission statement, if you have a coach that is not willing to lead, then that’s a crumbling foundation. Doing things right does not guarantee athletic success, but I think not being committed to the mission guarantees athletic failure.”
Listening to student-athletes was a major undertaking of this investigation. While it was impressive to hear university administrators describe their organizational culture, I wanted to study the athletes’ experience. Did they believe the spiritual mission enhanced their opportunities to compete for a championship?
In answering this question I initiated countless interviews with student-athletes where I heard universal agreement that the spiritual foundation of their specific institution did indeed advance athletic success. These interviews left me impressed by their maturity as the student-athletes clearly articulated the values of faith integration within their athletic experience.
Here is sampling of comments I collected from the athletes: “I believe our program would suffer athletically if the Christian atmosphere was not emphasized… The lack of a spiritual mission would hurt our program because a lot of what the coaches do on the basketball court is centered on biblical and spiritual principles… Having a coach focused on building a Christ-centered program doesn’t necessarily mean they will bring in better athletes but it definitely means they will bring in better quality of people that want a Christ-centered experience.”
One of the surprising take-a-ways of my research was that institutions did not place an unrealistic value on winning championships. Understand these were some of the most decorated athletic programs in the country with numerous national championships, All American selections and several athletes that are household names in the professional ranks.
However, as I pressed in to learn more about these athletic cultures, wanting to know if the ‘win-at-all-cost’ mentality of intercollegiate athletics was present, the conversations were routinely redirected away from winning as the ‘end-all-be-all’ goal. Instead, the coaches, some of the most competitive individuals I’ve ever met, described their desire to pursue excellence and spiritual mentorship as the ultimate goal.
This was clearly articulated by Coach Scott Brooks’ philosophy on the difference between pursuing championships and pursing your best. “God is not calling us to be the best, God is calling us to do our best and if we truly are in this because we want to change kids’ lives then it is not about winning and losing. It is about going out there and doing your best.”
One of my favorite examples of winning being placed in its proper context occurred when a former student-athlete chose his convictions over a championship. This took place in Panama City at the Men’s Golf National Championship. At the time, Rob Cummings was a junior competing for Southeastern’s golf program. Cummings, the team’s best player, shot one of his best matches of the season with a 72 in the first round of the national tournament. This placed him in contention for an individual National Championship as well as All American status.
In a strange twist the tournament director approached Cummings a few hours after he submitted his scorecard to communicate that his math was off, and he actually scored a 71. Golf rules clearly state that the submitted scorecard is the official score, therefore if errors are detected which reveal a disadvantaged score then the student-athletes keeps the higher score. However, if an error is detected that reveals an advantage to the official score then the student-athlete is disqualified.
One thing I have learned about golfers is that they always know their score, so when Cummings learned that he shot one under par, he did not celebrate a mathematical error because he knew he shot a 72 and something was not adding up. Later in the evening he requested to review his scorecard, examining each of the 18 holes. Intercollegiate golf matches call for the official scorecard to be tallied by their playing partner, so a student-athlete from another institution kept Cumming’s score that afternoon. At the conclusion of any round of golf, the official scorecard is given to the student-athlete to review and sign, then again reviewed and signed by the head coach. It turns out that Cumming’s playing partner inadvertently gave him a birdie on a hole that he earned a par, and then to make matters worse his math for all 18 holes was incorrect but accurate with the score Cummings knew he earned that day, a 72.
Golf is referred to as a gentleman’s game. What I did not know at the time is that the individual hole that listed a birdie which should have been a par, is grounds for disqualification. Remember at this point, Cummings is the only individual who knows about this error. With maturity and without hesitation he communicated to the tournament director his improper score and it was in that moment he chose his convictions over a championship. The tournament director asked Cummings if he knew what this meant; he hung his head because he knew. His score of a 72 was disqualified, his ability to capture an individual National Championship was over, but his day would be defined by choosing an act of integrity versus caving to the win-at-all-cost culture of athletics.
But the story doesn’t end there. In yet another strange twist, the following day the golf team played exceptionally. It was on that Saturday in Panama City, Florida that Southeastern’s golf team would capture the university’s first ever National Championship. While many great athletic accomplishments have taken place at Southeastern since that crowning moment, I like to believe that the foundation for any athletic success is based on a moment of integrity, a moment of conviction, a moment birthed through the mission of the institution, a culture where winning is put in its proper context.