'Who do you play for?' After school closed, Antelope Valley played on
"Win or go home" is a common rallying cry come March. But tor Antelope Valley in the NAIA national tournament, it was far too real.
theathletic.com
Guy sounds like a helluva coach -
Here are the first few paragraphs, the rest is at the Athletic (linked)
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Thirty minutes before Friday’s first-round NAIAnational tournament game, Jordan Mast discussed the scouting report one final time. The University of Antelope Valley coach went through the opposition’s starters. He detailed keys to victory. Mast, 37, paused. Written on the whiteboard behind him in green marker were five words: Who do you play for?
Over the past several weeks, this has been a complex question for Antelope Valley, a private, four-year, for-profit school with an undergraduate enrollment of around 500 in Lancaster, Calif. On March 8, the university closed its campus amid financial strain and lawsuits. There’s no plan for it to reopen, which has produced an avalanche of uncertainty. Antelope Valley’s six seniors will not graduate as planned, at least not at the school that graces their jerseys. The Pioneers’ younger players will not return. The coaching staff, like the rest of the university faculty, will be unemployed. About an hour before tip-off Friday at the Arizona Christian University Events Center, Mast checked his phone to see if his reduced paycheck had come through. It had not.
Just to get to this point, Mast and others raised $49,000 through a GoFundMe for his team, and the women’s basketball team, which also made the national tournament. The sixth-seeded Pioneers (26-4) matched up against 11th-seed Huntington (Ind.) in the Duer Quadrant. Despite the adversity, Mast’s team had closed the season remarkably well, winners of 10 in a row. But the situation had produced hardships. As the Pioneers finished practice Thursday, the University of Saint Katherine Firebirds, a team from the same conference, pulled up to the Arizona Christian gym in a bus. Mast and his team headed to four vehicles spread throughout the parking lot. Instead of renting a bus, the Pioneers spent $1,000 on an eight-passenger van and split the rest of their 18-person party among three cars. “I’m having players drive,” said Mast, who drove from Southern California as well. “Stuff you don’t want to be doing.”
SNIP
Inside the cramped locker room, Mast read the five words. “Who do you play for?” A former walk-on at Gonzaga, the coach wore gray pants and a light blue button-down with a dark tie. His sleeves were rolled up to the elbows. Mast talked in a booming voice, one that could be heard outside. “Every practice, every game, every time we had a meeting, every time we had individual (workouts), it has led you here, to now being a true team,” he said. He told the Pioneers to play for each other. To play for family. To play for the strangers who donated. Without them, there would be no national tournament. “When everybody else said, ‘Your season is over. This cannot happen,’ other people, people you don’t know, stepped up and said, ‘No,'” Mast said. “You know what? We’re still here. We’re not done. We’re going to keep this ride going.".
“That’s who you play for tonight.”
