As a school disappears, its teams do not.
Adversity in a surreal situation in rural California
There is a LOT to be said about for-profit schools, mostly negative. In the last year or so, it’s hard to miss a story among the many documenting the problems and peril facing these schools, but nothing is quite at the level of the University of Antelope Valley (UAV), a private for-profit school in California which has recently announced its closure.
Yes. The school is closing, its campus is in foreclosure, and its employees are not being paid. But this is a Good News missive, and in the midst of this in the span of less than a day, the men’s team won and earned a spot in the Cal Pac championship game and UAV’s women’s team also advanced to its conference title game.
So, in answer to the surreal question of whether a University’s basketball team can succeed if the University is a failure is a heartening YES!
So? How did we get here?
It’s a long story involving the Genius Group, a shady company out of Singapore who purchased the University is a widely scrutinized deal. Rightly so it seems, Genius Group's stock price quickly collapsed and soon enough the company was missing payments for the school’s campus.
Jim Mast is the men’s coach, and he recently led a successful GoFundMe to cement his team’s chance to play in the postseason. As the situation deteriorated further it seemed to reach a nadir on Sunday when students were told they had to leave the dorms with no alternative housing offered.
The neighborhood and related businesses rallied to the cause, and Mast ultimately raised more than $40,000, which he said will be sufficient for both teams to travel throughout the postseason. And it’s going to be immediately needed! As mentioned above with an 84-75 win over La Sierra University on Tuesday, the UAV men's basketball team has sealed the Cal Pac Conference championship and automatic bid to the NAIA national tournament.
The women’s team quickly followed that success by earning their own spot in its conference title game, taking place Tuesday.
This is a laudable tale of success in the face of adversity. Mast sums it up nicely:
"Through all of this going on, the people that are really important are our players and our young men. We've told them everything we can, and I just said, 'Hey, look guys, I can't promise anything, but this is kind of a microcosm of life.' I promised them that I'm going to give them everything I've got to make this happen."
Perseverance in the face of adversity. Success against the odds. Small town basketball team overcomes long odds.
There are a lot of tropes here that inspire.
That’s good.