CIU Today Fall 2016

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CIU Ram Makes an
Impact on Youth
Damian Hurta Becomes Coach
for a Week
By Bob Holmes
Damian Hurta now understands what he
puts his basketball coach through when he
doesn’t follow directions. The Columbia
International University Rams sophomore
guard/forward became a coach for a
week when he took a leadership role
in the “One Died for All” basketball
camp sponsored by Urban Discoveries
Ministries. About 70 boys from ages 12-16
took part in the camp held on the CIU
campus this summer.
“I was telling (CIU) Coach (Marshall)
Teague, ‘I feel your pain, when you ask us
to do something and we don’t do it right,
and it frustrates you,’” Hurta said during
an interview after a couple of days of
coaching the youngsters.
According to Urban Discoveries the goal of the camp was
“to provide a way of glorifying our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, through the game of basketball.” CIU’s Men’s Assistant
Basketball Coach Danny Reese was the co-camp director.
The campers were broken up into teams, with Hurta saying his
team needed to learn teamwork because they weren’t passing
the ball and were losing. Hurta, a Sports Management major,
blames the pros in the NBA for setting a ball-hogging bad
example.
“They watch the NBA. That just brainwashes them,” Hurta
lamented.
That concern carries over to the spiritual side, something
central to the ministry of Urban Discovery Executive Director
Ronnie McAdoo and his wife Janet who assists him. They
played basketball at Old Dominion in the late ‘70s and early
‘80s. And that’s why their son, James Michael McAdoo of the
NBA’s Western Conference Champion Golden State Warriors,
was asked to drop by and speak to the campers.
He told them that as a freshman basketball player at the
University of North Carolina, he put idols in his life ahead of
God.
“I started partying. I started drinking. I started having sex. All of
that. I loved to party,” the younger McAdoo told the campers
seated in front of him on the CIU gym floor. “Partying was one
of my idols.”
But after his parents confronted him about his lifestyle,
McAdoo told God he “blew it.”
“The world is going to put these idols in our lives that are
going to steer us away from the Lord,” McAdoo continued.
“But realize you are on this earth for a bigger purpose, and
that’s to serve God.”
Meanwhile, Hurta
was glad to see
a big name like
James Michael
McAdoo set an
example for the
campers.
“I like the way that
he was down to
earth and didn’t
think that he was
better than anyone
else,” Hurta said.
Hurta himself had
the whole week
to set an example
to the youngsters.
If he had one
message for them,
what would it be?
“As much as we love winning, it’s not all about winning,” Hurta
said. “In everything that you do, and in everything that you
have, give all the glory to God, because without Him you have
nothing.”
James Michael McAdoo of the NBA’s
Western Conference Champion Golden State
Warriors spoke to the campers.
CIU Rams sophomore Damian Hurta reviews the results of a free throw
contest with a camper at the “One Died for All” basketball camp.
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