Champs: On and Off the Field

"If I really connect, I bet I could hit the ball into the ocean."

From the batter's box, this thought has occurred to virtually every right-handed hitter. It looks possible. The baseball field at Point Loma Nazarene University is one of the most scenic in America, with the left field fence overlooking the Pacific Ocean. But the park had even more attention this season because the PLNU team, the Sea Lions, was the best in the school's history, winning the Golden State Athletic Conference championship for the first time, with a 39-11 record. The team also played the first day game in the history of Petco Park, the Padres' new major league baseball stadium in downtown San Diego, in a game against the University of California, San Diego.

"I have never had a year go by as fast as this one," said Scott Sarver, who is in his fourth year as head coach of the Sea Lions. He joined the team as an assistant coach in 1993, and the next year the team was in the college world series, ending up third in the nation. Sarver, who coached at Concordia College and at California State University at Fullerton before joining PLNU, grew up around baseball since his dad was the athletic director at Biola University in Los Angeles, and his uncle was the school's baseball coach. "I would sprint home from school to shag fly balls for the team from the time I was a little kid," he said. "I have been around Christian college athletes most of my life."

Watching those athletes and living in the area where University of California, Los Angeles's legendary basketball coach John Wooden made history by focusing on character and values influenced Sarver to emphasize character in his own coaching approach. "We will all be far more remembered as people than for anything we did on the baseball field," he said. "Winning takes care of itself."

The emphasis on character caused Sarver to alter his recruiting philosophy three years ago. Instead of trying to talk players into coming to PLNU to play baseball, he tried to talk them out of it. He told them that about stringent "core covenants" that each athlete had to support, such as "Honor God and your teammates in all that you do."

He emphasized the focus on humility, sacrifice, loyalty, and consistency.

Baseball at PLNU was the result of "principled play," he said, and those principles were based on the Old Testament book of Proverbs. "Certain people were just not going to be effective at this school," he said. After telling them about PLNU and the core covenants, Sarver would tell the athletes, "I won't call you—if you want to be part of this, you call me and say 'Yeah, coach, I want to be part of this.' Now our players have a higher tolerance for our values."

He also established prayer partners for each player, asking faculty, staff, and alumni to choose one player and pray daily for that person all season. "I got to thinking about what the pressures were for me when I was playing," Sarver said. "There are a lot of distractions, worries, and temptations when you play college-level baseball, and I wanted the players to know that someone else was asking God to be with them."

Chris Hill, who attends West Hills Church of the Nazarene in Taft, California, and threw a no-hitter this season, said the emphasis on prayer, character, and covenants made a difference in the team. "We all bought into the same values that Coach Sarver based on Proverbs," Hill said. "It was important that we all agreed to live by them, because it united us as a team."

Wayne Scheler, who attends Rancho Hills Community Church of the Nazarene, and hit three home runs in one game, said the values were hard for some of the players to accept. "I saw a couple of guys quit because they didn't buy into them, but two weeks later they were asking to come back," Scheler said. The covenants helped the team realize, Scheler said, that "you can win at all costs, and you can win with character." The most important lesson for him was the Proverb 8:13, "God hates arrogance," he said. "Still, when we went on the field, we expected to win."

The players came up with their own mission statement at the beginning of the season: "By taking full ownership, through hard work and sacrifice, using our talents blessed by God, we will accomplish greatness, and be thankful that today we get to play baseball!"

The Sea Lions finished the season ranked ninth in the nation at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) level, and at one point were ranked fourth. They beat both the Air Force and Navy teams, two National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I teams, and scored an NAIA record 29 runs against Wheaton College.

Actually, no one can hit the ball into the ocean from the Carroll B. Land stadium at PLNU. It's too far. But play baseball in a Christian environment, maintain your values, and win some games? "This isn't rocket science," Sarver said. "God has principles laid out in Scripture. Do those, and you'll be successful in His eyes. If we base what we do on those principles, we'll win some games." It's possible.

PLNU Women's Softball Team Goes National

For the third year in a row, the Point Loma Nazarene University women's softball team competed in the national tournament. This year the team lost a 1-0 heartbreaker in extra innings, leaving them ranked ninth in the nation. In 2003 the team finished fifth in the nation. In 2002 they made it to the finals, losing 1-0 in the national championship game. Head Coach Dave Williams, who has led the team for nine years, said winning is one of the team's priorities, but is only one objective. "We also want to have fun," he said, "and winning seems to be important for a team to have fun. You can learn how to be competitive and laugh at the same time."

But the other priority is the time the teammates spend together sharing, praying, and enjoying Bible Study.

Every day before practice, the women discuss their frustrations, victories, and concerns. Then the team members pray together. "You can't stay mad at a teammate for very long if the two of you are praying with and for each other," Williams noted. This time also helps each player grow as a person, he added. "If we win a championship and don't become better people in the process, then we've only won a bunch of games," he said. "What have we gained if that's all we've done?"

Sophomore Amy Nanson plays first base, attends Scottsdale Family Church of the Nazarene in Arizona, and has been an all conference and all regional player twice, as well as an All-American. She said the time of relationship building and praying together was an important part of the season. "Regardless of how good you are on the field, or how high your batting average is, if you haven't grown spiritually in the process, well then the rest of it just doesn't matter," Nanson said.

Dean Nelson is director of the journalism program at Point Loma Nazarene University.

Holiness Today, July/August 2004

Please note: This article was originally published in 2004. All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at that time but may have since changed.