Half-court long shots: Tiny Southern Nevada school playing for championship

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016 | 2 a.m.

As the Word of Life Christian Academy basketball team gets in extra shots after practice on a recent morning, the players face unusual obstacles.

School staffers are transforming the multipurpose room from a basketball gym to a lunchroom, and errant basketballs bounce off of tables and workers.

An hour earlier, the players were dropped off when it still was dark outside. The only time the team can use the room, which converts to a half basketball court with little space to maneuver or strategize, is 5:45 a.m.

Long before school officials decided to field a team, the basketball court was cut in half to create a worship space for teenagers. Space at the northwest Las Vegas school comes at a premium.

“We are teaching life lessons through basketball,” coach Percy Lockett said. “Our situation is perfect for teaching. Have the same work ethic. Stay humble. It’s good to win basketball games. It’s better to develop character.”

Word of Life, a school of just 38 high school students, isn’t letting the circumstances prevent it from having the best season in its four-year history of competition. The Eagles won their first Division-IV Southern League title this season with a 10-0 record and will play this week in Reno in the four-team state tournament. A championship would be the school’s first in any sport.

But first, the team must get there.

Public school teams’ travel is covered by the Clark County School District. And larger private schools, whose backers have deep pockets, likewise don’t worry much about continuing their season. But for Word of Life, a trip to Northern Nevada will cost at least $3,000, so in addition to running plays before the sun rises, the team also worked a car wash fundraiser.

Team members are used to piecing resources together. Home games are hosted at a nearby YMCA, which the team must rent. Road games are played in Alamo, Indian Springs and Tonopah, which translates to rented vans and restaurant meals and trips that often end in the early hours of the next morning.

“We have to work with what we have, and (rely on) our desire and determination,” said Malik Moore, a senior forward.

That determination has fueled a 15-3 season, including a two-point win against perennial league power Pahranagat Valley, which won four consecutive state championships beginning in 2010. Word of Life handled Lund and Tonopah each by about 30 points and limited Indian Springs and Beatty to 14 points and 19 points, respectively. And Saturday, they beat Adelson School in the Division IV Southern League championship game to grab the No. 1 seed for the state tournament.

The most impressive outcome, though, was a loss. Word of Life gave Division-I Bonanza a scare last month, losing 80-78. Bonanza has an enrollment of 2,000 and has more players on its program’s three teams than in the entire Word of Life high school. (Word of Life also has grades K-8.)

Some of the basketball players have been at Word of Life since elementary school. They rehash stories about the program’s first games in the 2012-13 season, when they’d go entire quarters without scoring and frequently lost by the mercy rule of a running clock. But in the final game of that season, the team of six players beat Sandy Valley by double digits in a victory Lockett calls the program’s most significant.

The school still was petitioning the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association for membership and needed to prove that the team was capable of consistently having enough players and being competitive. Earlier in the season, the team had lost by more than 20 points to junior varsity teams in the league.

The improvement shown in the Sandy Valley game proved to the NIAA that Word of Life would be a worthy member.

“A lot of people (here) are dedicated to helping each other,” said Travis Gonzales, a member of the school’s original team. “We have that sense of a family.”

Word of Life also has girls’ volleyball and basketball teams, and will try boys’ and girls’ track this spring.

The boys’ basketball team celebrated its league title by cutting down the net on their one rim. Players are revered by younger students, in part because they are part of a historic basketball season but also because attending Word of Life means doing schoolwide community service and activities with the church community.

McCall is the team’s leading scorer at 15.4 points per game. Elijah Hoye, another four-year player who scores 14 points per game, and Paul Kelker also have had good seasons and will be key in the state tournament. Coaches, though, stress that the successful season isn’t about any of the 13 boys on the roster. It’s about the Word of Life community.

“We hear a lot of chatter about not being a competitive team and only having one good player,” Lockett said. “We use that as motivation.”

Next year, when players arrive early for practice or students eat lunch or teens worship, the hope is the multi-purpose room will have a slightly different look: a state championship banner hanging on the wall.

Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21