Gathering at the NABC
First-ever coaches' wives event planned for the NABC Convention.

The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Convention has long been a site of significant ministry. Every year, the weekend is filled with opportunities for coaches to encounter Christ through events such as the opening worship concert, the Legends of the Hardwood Breakfast, the FCA Coaches Luncheon and men’s Bible studies.

You're Invited! If you are a coach’s wife attending this year’s NABC Convention, you are invited to attend the first-ever ministry event designed especially for you! What: The Gathering Where: Marriott Rivercenter, San Antonio When: Friday, April 4, 2008 9:00 - 11:00 a.m.

But a question often asked is, “Where do the wives fit in?”

This year, that question is being answered.

With the support of NABC Executive Director Jim Haney and his wife, Carol, a new event entitled “The Gathering” will be included in the convention’s lineup and will specifically be designed to minister to the coaches’ wives who have made the trip in support of their husbands.

“The NABC Ministry Team (which consists of representatives from five ministries, including FCA) has devoted itself to providing opportunities for coaches and spouses to bathe in the presence of God,” said Haney. “The Gathering provides spouses the opportunity to gather together, share common experiences, renew friendships and be ministered to by the Lord.”

Thoroughly understanding the life of a coach’s wife—her husband played the role of college basketball coach throughout the 1970s and early 80s—Carol Haney knows that the opportunity to reach out to wives at the convention could serve a specific and meaningful purpose.

“The convention is a great opportunity for ministry because of the timing,” she said. “The uncertainty of the future for some wives due to their husbands’ career changes brings opportunity that might not present itself at other times.”

Hosted by women who also have been in the “trenches” of a coach’s spouse, the event will cater to the specific needs and situations of such women. Hostesses of The Gathering include Connie Jarvis, wife of former St. John’s Head Coach Mike Jarvis; Julie McKay, wife of Liberty Head Coach Ritchie McKay; Pamela Haith, wife of Miami Head Coach Frank Haith; and Leona Romar, wife of Washington Head Coach Lorenzo Romar.

“The Gathering will give many wives a better understanding of the importance of focusing on fulfilling the mission that’s before them in an effort to please Christ,” Haith said. “It will allow them to interact with wives who deal with many of the same issues, and it will create an opportunity for them to develop lifetime friends and prayer partners.”

Added Jarvis: “The life and circumstances of being the wife of a coach are very unique. Only another coach’s wife can really understand the pressure that can be involved. When other people’s husbands go to work, they don’t have 12,000 people second guessing their decisions. The younger women could learn a lot from their older counterparts. Wives are naturally relational beings, and this event could be the seed necessary to grow and develop a very special and powerful voice.”

In the world of college basketball, few people are as respected as Jim and Carol Haney. Click here to read a full Q&A with the pair.

RC: How did God prepare you for your time with the NABC?

Jim Haney: We spent 12 years at the University of Oregon, the last five I was a head coach. Subsequently, I worked for three NCAA Division I athletic conferences as an assistant commissioner and commissioner. Through coaching, the Lord provided me the opportunity to experience the life of a coach, on and off the court. As a commissioner, the Lord acquainted me with the governance structure of the NCAA and the business of athletics.

Carol Haney: God has prepared me through so many situations with numerous steps of trust along the way. First, it began in small things which He taught me to trust Him, then, as He does, He moves us to situations which require more and more trust until we reach the point of realizing that we need to just lay it at His feet.

RC: How has being a coach and coach's wife prepared you for your current leadership roles?

JH: My experience as a coach revealed to me the pressures coaches encounter as they fulfill the responsibilities of their jobs, including the pressure to successfully recruit players to the program, the pressure to win, the pressure for one’s student-athletes to perform well in the classroom and the pressure to resist the temptation to cheat. Then, there is the pressure from the job and its influence on the relationship of the coach and his spouse, and their lives lived as public figures. To this day, I can remember the shame that I had let Carol and our son down—the brokenness of all pride in who I thought I was, and the feeling of failure I felt when I resigned my position as head coach. When I reflect back on it now, I know that the experience Carol and I passed through was the best and most significant time of our lives. So many of our coaches are fired, resign or retire under pressure. We feel the compassion of God for our coaches.

CH: Being a coach's wife, you quickly reach a point of knowing that there are so many situations that you cannot, as much as you may want, affect the outcome in the natural. It is only when He leads you to understand that your confessions of His promises and standing on His Word, in spite of what you see or hear, will affect your situation.

RC: Jim, I know you are very involved in the NABC Ministry Team, and as a team, you are very supportive of the outreach event for coaches' wives—“The Gathering”—that will take place during this year’s NABC Convention. Can you tell me why you think this event is important?

JH: Since coming to the NABC in 1992, it has been our hope to encourage coaches to bring their spouses to the NABC Convention. The season has just ended, and the strain and demands on the coach and spouse are emotionally draining. We see the NABC Convention as a vacation opportunity for them. The Ministry Team has devoted itself to providing opportunities for coaches and spouses to bathe in the presence of God as they attend the Ministry Team events. “The Gathering” provides spouses the opportunity to gather together, share common experiences, renew friendships and be ministered to by the Lord. 

RC: Carol, having attended the NABC Convention as a coach's wife in the past, why do you feel this could be a great outreach?

CH: The convention is a great opportunity for ministering to coaches' wives. The timing and the uncertainty of the future for some wives due to their husband's career changes brings opportunity that might not present itself at other times.

RC: What advice would you give other coaches' wives as they seek to best fulfill their God-given role?

CH: Seek out Scriptures and Bible studies to strengthen yourself as a helpmate who is "girded up as on eagles' wings" as you learn to "run and not grow weary, and walk and faint not” (Isaiah 40).