Head Coach Preston Spradlin of the Morehead State Eagles, a No. 14-seeded team in the March Madness tournament, spoke before his team played No. 3 seed Illinois (a game the Eagles lost) on Thursday, March 21, in Omaha, Nebraska, about coaching and faith.
Particularly, Coach Spradlin said that the group of guys he coaches are “unbelievable” and that “they’re a faithful bunch,” something important to him because of his Christian faith. He said, “We have an unbelievable group of guys … They’re a faithful bunch. Their chemistry is very real. Their connection is very strong, and that’s evident when we play.”
The focus on faith in the pre-game press conference on Wednesday, March 20, makes sense for Coach Spradlin. He’s known to emphasize his faith, such as in his bio on X, in which he says, “Husband, Father, Christian and Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Morehead State University #GodStrong”
Similarly, in a 2020 Easter post on Twitter, he wrote, “Happy Easter from our home to yours! Missing our family a little extra today, but thankful to slow down and reflect on this special day that is the foundation of our FAITH! He is risen!”
But this recent conference was far from the first time Coach Spradlin brought up his faith. In a 2021 interview with Sports Spectrum, for example, he said that he aims to put his faith “on display” during games and that faith helped guide him through different times through is life.
He said, speaking about his faith journey, “I grew up in church, grew up in and out like most people. I had different times in my life where I was certainly more faithful than others, more reliant on my relationship and communication with God than other times. And I think when I got into my interim season, four games into the year the head coach resigns and I take over, and I just really dove into my faith at that time.”
Continuing, he explained that he got over his roller-coaster type of faith by growing in it and becoming steadier, saying, “… The way I got through that was really growing in my faith.” He also said, “That’s what got me through that really tough year. It was being able to focus on my faith, making it about the players, not thinking about myself.”
Further, he commented on trying to put his faith more on display through his coaching so that players learn about and think well of Christianity, saying, “I wanted to do a better job of putting my faith on display through my coaching, so that when someone comes into practice or they see us at a game or they see me anywhere because I’m always the coach, they walk away and they say, ‘That guy is different. He’s faith-driven. He’s a believer.’ I didn’t always feel like I’d done a great job with that, and I wanted to be more intentional.”
Featured image credit: Coach Preston Spradlin on X