David did beat Goliath

Seven years, seven hard fought years, sweating with a mixure of blood, dirt, floor burns and devastating loses that would cause me to ask why for weeks. I was nineteen years old and playing for Canoga Park 2nd Ward with the likes of Dave Haws and Joe Andrews and others. We have suffered defeats in All Church tournament in softball and basketball. We led one year in softball, and we were going into the 5th inning with a 3 run lead and Chula Vista started bunting and we started thumping our heads with errors and suddenly we were behind after that inning and never got the lead back. We came in 3rd place in basketball. We have won all kinds of Sportsmanship Awards, but never the big one.

Now, we are in Oakland and this will be the last time that Dave Haws and the rest of the team will play together because Dave Haws and myself are going on a church mission in 3 weeks. We are in the final four of the Area tournament and this is as far as we can go because the LDS church ceased to have basketball tournaments in Salt Lake. We were playing the Long Beach region 2nd place team and Fresno was playing Long Beach 1st place team . Get the picture, we are playing the 2nd team and Fresno is playing the 1st team. We played first and we squeeked out a 52-48 win. Fresno on the other hand won 104-56. I did not type the score wrong. We were playing a team that I was told always scored in the 100's and they were big with a fast point guard. We watched the game and they were a great team. Their center was 6'7" and our biggest guys was 6'1". The point guard was really fast and could shoot as well as I have ever seen. That night we were pretty low because we were seeing ourselves coming up one game short again. The next morning I asked the coaches, players and family members to come to the Stake Center next to the Oakland Temple 2 hours early (that is where we played our game). Everyone showed up and we had a testimony meeting because I knew we were all going to split up after that night. Everyone poured out their hearts about friendships, love for the Lord, faith the church was true and no one mention the game that we were about to embark on. Tears were flowing. Three non members got baptised in the next two weeks because of it. The Spirit flowed through us all. After we had our testimony meeting which was closed with a prayer. I stated to all my teamates that I would give everything I have on defense to stop the point guard and I promise them if we kept thei score below 60 points we would win. Everyone promised that they would not rest and would give everthing in this game to stop the big man and the point guard. My Dad was the coach and he devised a plan to stop them defensevely. Again we pledged to do everything we could to beat this team. Logically we knew that we did not stand a chance, but something inside me said, "Watch and behold". The game was a hard fought bitter battled. They were mad because no one has ever stayed with them before. I remember countless times taking the lane away from the point guard and his grumbling. We were ahead by 2 points with three minutes to go. While I was in huddle I had a cramp in my leg and Mr. Wendell was rubbing it furiously to get it out. While I was laying there the Holy Ghost came to me and said you will win this game. I do not state this lightly and I am not sure why the feeling came to me in such a strong fashion. I declared to the whole team that we were going to win the game and I knew it. They chastised me for thinking that way with time remaining in the game. By the time the timeout was over my leg was okay and we went into the game for the final thrust. I remember the point guard from the other team and two other guys trying to take the ball away from me as I was dribbling all over the court running time off the clock. The point guard was using foul language, but I just had a confident smile on my face. I hit some freethrows to nail down the game and the jubilation after the game was my greatest sports moment. I leaped over and on everyone on my team. The point guard on the other team came at me with anger and was going to fight me but my Bishop picked me up and swooped me to the other end of the court and was constantly saying,"We did it Jeff, we did it!" The players on the team was Dave Haws, David Colen (Non member), Bob Hardenberg (got baptized), Tim Baucom (Got baptized with all of his family), Joe Andrews, John Bowker, Layton Makinui, Drake Wendell (was baptized a year earlier). The coach was Pinky Briggs, Assistant George Wendell and James Bowker (he also got baptized and went to the temple). Wayne Briggs was a special consultant and helped my Dad with the defense. I always wanted to put this experiece down and I am thankful that I did. We did it, we really did it!!!