Craig Pinley
RALEIGH, NC (December 27, 2000) – It’s a rare person who gets to mix business, pleasure and God into the same job, but Mike Hollis is one of those rare people.
A charter member of Redeemer Covenant Church in Cary, North Carolina, Hollis is living a basketball junkie’s dream, although what is heavenly to him is being able to combine the language of heaven with hoops.
The 41-year-old Hollis is president of NetWorks Basketball, a non-profit organization founded on Christian principles based in Raleigh, North Carolina. In the basketball-crazy area known as The Triangle (encompassing college towns Chapel Hill and Durham and the state capital of Raleigh), NetWorks Basketball is the place to go if your child is serious about the sport.
The 41-year-old Hollis is president of NetWorks Basketball, a non-profit organization founded on Christian principles based in Raleigh, North Carolina. In the basketball-crazy area known as The Triangle (encompassing college towns Chapel Hill and Durham and the state capital of Raleigh), NetWorks Basketball is the place to go if your child is serious about the sport.
Currently, some three-dozen NetWorks Basketball students are playing college basketball, according to Hollis. Young women like 6-foot-5 Courtney Nyborg (at left in accompanying photo) of Elon College are playing in Division I programs.
“You come to us because you have some goals in the game, everything from just having fun to becoming ‘the best player I can be’,” said Hollis. “Therefore, I can work with someone in a personal ball handling coaching clinic, or I can work with an invitational league with 32 high school players, or I can work with an individual player such as Shavlik Randolph, who is the number one junior (prep basketball player) in the country. (Randolph is at right in accompanying photo.) One day last week, I was working with 10-year-olds on how to break a press and later on I compared notes on better post play with Steve Wojciechowski (an assistant coach at nationally ranked Duke University).”
Growing up in Jacksonville, Florida, Hollis personified the term “gym rat” in pursuit of becoming a good basketball player. In fact, the local police convinced the principal of Hollis’ high school to give Hollis a key to the gym because the 5-foot-9 guard kept breaking in to play basketball after School hours.
Growing up in Jacksonville, Florida, Hollis personified the term “gym rat” in pursuit of becoming a good basketball player. In fact, the local police convinced the principal of Hollis’ high school to give Hollis a key to the gym because the 5-foot-9 guard kept breaking in to play basketball after School hours.
The hard work paid off in a big way as Hollis earned a scholarship to Liberty University in Virginia. Though he hoped to become a pastor/evangelist after college, Hollis said, “I couldn’t get away from the impact God had made on me through a game.” His passion led him to teaching and coaching at the high school level, then to the college coaching level.
Hollis eventually landed in Nancy, France, as head coach for a professional French team. There, he realized that his passion for God and basketball weren’t melding together as he had hoped. After moving back to the United States, Hollis rededicated himself to using his basketball coaching skills to make a difference for the Lord. He finally found a way to do it, but it took a while.
“I came back from France thinking that I had credentials and I could easily get a job,” said Hollis. “Then I got turned down for 29 different coaching positions and my wife Beth was pregnant at the time. I wound up as a part-time assistant to the assistant at an athletic department in a parks and recreational program (in Cary, North Carolina). I had coached at every level of basketball and here I was organizing a geriatric tennis program.”
Hollis eventually secured a basketball coaching spot at a high school and 140 people tried out for his team. The prospect of having to cut 128 in order to organize his roster bothered him, however. He wanted to help all 140 who were interested in basketball.
“I wanted to be a Christian who coaches, so I had to ask how my Christianity factored into coaching,” Hollis said. “I had defined myself by my coaching, so the bigger question I needed to ask was how my coaching factored into my Christianity.”
Hollis gave up his coaching job and began organizing his own basketball program, using the game as a means to impact individuals’ lifestyles. He started five separate programs, each tailored to helping an individual achieve personal goals. Summer basketball camps, one-day clinics and individual workout sessions were among the elements of NetWorks Basketball. Word spread that the program was making a difference. It still is.
If Hollis watches a prep game in the area, chances are good that both teams have NetWorks Basketball products on the roster. He estimates that 220 athletes are playing for area middle school and high school programs. The best of the bunch may be Randolph, a 6-foot-10 center who was ranked as the top junior prep player in the country. Randolph, who averages nearly 30 points per game, was recently mentioned in ESPN magazine and he’s the subject of a recent article (available by visiting www.hoopstv.com.
Hollis is excited about getting a chance to work with quality players like Randolph. “It’s like tinkering under the hood of a Maserati,” he said. But he makes it clear to people that he doesn’t teach to set up a basketball factory for colleges. He does all he can to make sure his pupils become better players, but he’s more than willing to share what drives his desire to teach. That’s why it’s perfectly natural for Randolph and him to attend a worship service at Redeemer Covenant Church and then go through an extended workout hours later.
“Our whole program is based on relationships – it’s about God and these kids,” said Hollis. “We’re meeting people at the place of their desires and we’re serving those desires. And in due time God gives us the opportunity to be His hands, to be his arms, to be his voice into their life. That is very satisfying to know that it is not about NetWorks. It is about people that He created. It’s about every day wondering what God is going to get you into today.”
In 1994, God created a unique opportunity for Hollis to teach basketball to kids in Dublin, Ireland. Friends helped him make inroads with a school in Dublin and he taught more than 200 through a church camp and a camp designed for the school’s basketball program. The school invited him back in 1995 – he’s gone eight more times, even helping the Irish Basketball Federation.
In recent years, Hollis has gotten Redeemer Covenant Church involved in Missions in Reverse, a project organized by fellow Redeemer Covenant member Jan Kempe. The church hosted 15 Irish basketball players for two weeks. In all, some 50 kids have traveled from Ireland to the United States for basketball camps.
One Irish player in particular, 6-foot-10 center Conor Grace, has benefited from the camps. He recently played for his country’s 16-and-under national team. Others, like Gillian Clarges, reaped benefits spiritually, coming to know Jesus Christ in a personal way and growing in her faith through a transatlantic Bible study with Kempe.
“They started calling and inviting themselves back,” said Hollis. “Then some of the kids went home and became Christians. Kids said to us, ‘you came in, you taught us to play better basketball and you remembered our names, so when it came time for you to explain it (faith) we thought it was coming from a friend’,” he said.
NetWorks Basketball hopes to finance a trip to Ireland next fall, but if the trip doesn’t pan out, Hollis will have plenty to do in Raleigh. Besides the teaching he and his assistants will do for more than 1,200 students this year, Hollis hopes to raise money to help defray costs for kids who lack the resources to pay yearly fees. Last year, NetWorks Basketball raised $30,000 for that purpose.
“We’ll spend over $100,000 on facility rentals, and for $750 annually these kids will get 300 to 400 hours of instruction,” said Hollis. “I do basketball 365 days a year and I’m having more fun than a man has a right to. Working with kids to meet their goals is an opportunity I have to join God in relationship and service. If we come in open-handed, we’ll help kids achieve their goals . . . and at some point in the process, they’ll see the face of God.”
For more information on Networks Basketball, contact Hollis by email at www.net-works.org or by telephone at 919-233-8801.
Copyright © 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.