History
Basketball was my life,” says Dave. “I was happy when I played well and miserable when I didn’t. Everything in my life centered around how I performed on the basketball court.”
Dave played basketball at Mead High School in Spokane, Washington and then received an athletic scholarship to join the team at Seattle Pacific University from 1988-1992. It was there that he met team chaplain John Strutz. “He was always encouraging guys on the team to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,“ Dave remembers.
Even though he attended church as a young boy, Dave had never committed himself to Jesus Christ first and foremost. As he began to learn about Christianity, he realized that basketball was ruling his thoughts and actions. He saw how wrong it was to believe that a great performance made you a great person. Onenight during his sophomore year, he went to his dorm room and prayed by himself, confessing that he was a sinner and asking Jesus Christ to be the leader of his life.
In the meantime . . .
In 1991, after playing high school ball in Belvidere, Illinois, Leslie (Pottinger) headed to Northern Illinois University on an athletic scholarship. The team’s assistant coach, Sue Semrau, was the one who shared with her about what it meant to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Leslie says, “Sue was excited about living for God and I wanted to live with the kind of belief and passion. There was a strength in the way she related to people and it went deeper than just wanting players to perform and win games. “
Leslie’s greatest struggle was that as an athlete, you are taught to be strong and in control, to perform and win. But there are so many things in life you can’t control. She began to realize that when a person surrenders to Jesus Christ, they are given strength and passion to be God’s and accomplish His purpose. In December of her freshman year, she too prayed and asked Jesus Christ to be the leader of her life.
Later . . .
In 1995, Dave and Leslie met in Cincinnati, Ohio while training for the Athletes In Action nationwide tour. Dave shared his idea with Leslie about a sports ministry and discussed it at length with his fellow teammates on the tour. They all possessed a similar desire to pass on their experiences, wanting young people to know what it meant to play with a purpose higher than themselves. One of their main concerns was that young athletes did not have access to Christian role models, particularly in the sports environment.
Five years later, Dave & Leslie had married and moved to Tallahassee, Florida. Dave was coaching high school basketball at North Florida Christian High School and Leslie was an assistant with the women’s basketball team at Florida State University. One of the equipment managers for FSU, Chandler Yount, helped launch and direct the first camp in Lawrenceville, GA.
With a vision for influencing youths through the sport of basketball, Halo Hoops Ministries, Inc. continues to provide a quality basketball experience for young people and their families. Over the course of nine years, more than 6,000 players have been encouraged and improved through Halo Hoops!