What is your major?  What do you hope to do?

Recreation and Sport Leadership.  I’m taking the business management aspect of it.  I want to start my own rec center or boys or girls club.  There’s a need for it.

What originally made you choose to come to 91¶ÌÊÓƵ?

At first my school choices centered around football, but they did not work out.  I always had 91¶ÌÊÓƵ in the back of my mind, and Coach Kirby (Dean) never gave up on me.  So I called him up, and he let me in.  And I’m glad I did.  I need this place.

What has it been like being a student-athlete while at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ?

It’s been pretty cool.  Usually you’re used to being just an athlete.  I didn’t think about grades as much in high school, but when you get here they make sure you know you’re also a STUDENT and not just an athlete.  So I’m learning to do what I have to do to succeed, so that I can do what I love to – have fun on the court.

What has it been like playing men’s basketball here?

I have learned a lot of things.  The last two years have been so successful.  For me to come in (as an underclassman) and get some playing time and get some wins and go that far has been great.  And now this year, we’re so young.  We’re learning to keep on going.  It’s going to come and we’ll be right back where we were (the last two years).  So I’m learning to keep pushing.

You spent two years as a key sub on the team, but now you have had to quickly transition into being one of the leaders.  Talk about those roles.

It felt good to be the sub.  I knew who I was up against.  I came in behind an All-American (Todd Phillips).  Coach told me what to do, and I did what I had to do.  I would come in and make some plays and get a dunk to get the crowd going – to play my role.  In high school I was the man, but I enjoyed playing my role.  This year I try to teach that to the freshmen.  Even if you sit the bench, you don’t give up.  Just keep pushing hard.  I try to lead by example and throw my body out there.  It’s a good role (to be a leader) and I’m up for it.

What are one or two things you have learned from playing basketball here that you will take with you when you leave?

From my freshman year, it’s probably the will to never give up.  And no matter how successful things are, you can never forget and stop trying.  You always work hard and fight to do what you do to be successful.  I was on academic probation and I was worried for a bit that with my grades they would give up on me.  But I worked hard to get off of academic probation.  So to just have the will to fight.

The student body at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ is about 45 percent Mennonite. So as the only Mennonite on the school’s most popular athletic team, it isn’t hard to figure out why Owen Longacre is a fan favorite at Yoder Arena.

“I stand out a little on the team, obviously,” said Longacre, a junior forward on the squad. “And that’s fine. I love it. It just adds to the experience.”

In many ways, the 6-foot-6, 220-pounder stands outs by not standing out. He isn’t flashy or demonstrative on or off the court. He plays with a reserve that stands in contrast to the running and gunning style that made 91¶ÌÊÓƵ an Old Dominion Athletic Conference power the previous two seasons.

But even as the Telford, Pa., native was fighting for playing time on stacked 91¶ÌÊÓƵ teams led by George Johnson and Todd Phillips – teams that played fast and above the rim and had no shortage of swagger – Longacre was popular with both the fans and his teammates.

“He always fit in really well,” 91¶ÌÊÓƵ coach said. “… He works really, really hard and he does his own thing, but he doesn’t do it in such a way that, because you’re different he thinks less of you, because he doesn’t. That allowed him to really mesh well with those guys.”

Despite being likeable and hardworking, Longacre – a history and education major who enjoys reading mysteries and is learning to play the guitar – still found himself buried on the depth chart behind the Royals’ star players as a freshman and sophomore. He got some minutes but was a role player.

At times, 91¶ÌÊÓƵ has struggled to retain players who didn’t quickly make the starting lineup. At Division III, where players don’t get athletic scholarships, the prospect of paying tuition just to ride the pine often drives people to transfer.

“I don’t think there’s any question that he’s the exception to the rule,” Dean said. “In a society of instant gratification, `I want what I want and I want it right now,’ you just don’t see guys who predominately sit for two years and patiently wait their turn. What a privilege it is to have a kid like that in the program.”

Longacre, from Christopher Dock Mennonite School in suburban Philadelphia, played just over five minutes a game as a freshman at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ – the year the Royals went 25-5 and won three NCAA tournament games before losing to Guilford. A year ago, when the class of Johnson, Phillips, Eli Crawford, D.J. Hinson and Orie Pancione were all seniors, he played just over eight per outing.

This year, he’s a starter and is averaging 8.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game for the young Royals (8-10 overall, 3-6 in the ODAC).

He’s done it all while battling through a bevy of injuries – four concussions, a broken hand, bruised chest and shoulder surgery after his freshman year.

“I don’t really think of my self as tough,” Longacre said, an assessment his coach and teammates disagreed with. “It’s more the mindset of, if you can get out there any way, you’ve got to help your team. I just think if I can get out there, I’m going to try.”

Longacre scored a career-high 15 points in the Royals’ 74-71 win over Randolph on Saturday at Yoder, playing on a painfully sore injured ankle. When he fouled out with just under four minutes to play, the crowd showed its appreciation for one of its own.

“Our women’s soccer coach said, `Man, when Owen fouled out he got the loudest ovation I’ve ever heard in there,'” Dean said.

Among those applauding was Quincy Longacre, Owen’s older brother and a basketball player at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ from 1996-2000. Quincy – who played at 91¶ÌÊÓƵ before it opened Yoder Arena and before it routinely drew crowds of more than 800 people – was a member of the 16-9 Royals squad that had the best record in program history until Dean put together the 2009-10 juggernaut.

Longacre said he was familiar with 91¶ÌÊÓƵ because of Quincy’s time here but didn’t set out to pick a Mennonite college to continue his basketball career. With the Royals, Longacre said he just found the right fit – athletically, academically and socially.

As for being the Mennonite face of the team, Longacre seems to be fine with it.

“I don’t think it puts any extra pressure on him,” Dean said. “I don’t think he feels any differently about it. I think it’s just that, a lot of the kids that go to school here would never be able to identify with Todd Phillips. But they can identify with Owen.”

For his part, Longacre said he enjoys the love he gets from the fans.

“A lot of the guys on the team comment on that, how I have the most fans,” Longacre said. “I guess part of that is I can relate to a lot of different groups on campus. I feel like I can relate a lot with the fans in the stands, relate to the students. I get a lot of razzing from Coach and the other guys but I don’t feel any extra pressure. I just feel even more support.”

Phillips continued to be a problem for opposing defenses as he averaged 20.5 points over the two games, connecting on 57% of his shots. The senior forward was also 4-of-10 from three point range.

Phillips put in 22 points in Wednesday’s 88-79 win at Lynchburg as he was 9-18 from the floor. Saturday, despite getting in foul trouble early in the game, he still tied for the team lead in points by halftime and led all scorers with 19 by the end. He dropped in 8-of-12 shots and added six rebounds in the 85-50 defensive thumping of Randolph.

The All-American is second in the ODAC in scoring at 18.8 per game. Phillips is also in the ODAC’s top ten in free throws, free throw percentage, assists, steals and blocks.

The win over Randolph avenged an earlier loss to the WildCats as 91¶ÌÊÓƵ moved to 7-4 in ODAC play. The men also drew even with both Randolph and Guilford in the loss column.

Eastern Mennonite is at rival Bridgewater this Wednesday night. Game time is 7:00pm.

After the visitors scored the first bucket, the Royals quickly scored the next nine to take over the lead. With the score 13-6, 91¶ÌÊÓƵ pinned down Randolph and rolled into halftime with a 39-16 lead.

The WildCats connected on only three field goals in the first 20 minutes, shooting just 13.6% from the floor. They didn’t get into double figures until 6:56 remained in the half.

For Eastern Mennonite, team defense defined the period as they forced 13 turnovers. The men played most of the half without Todd Phillips (Waynesboro, Va./Waynesboro) who picked up three quick fouls. Five different players had scored six points by halftime.

The second half didn’t have the tension of the first, as the game was never in doubt. 91¶ÌÊÓƵ led by as many as 45 en route to the 85-50 win.

“That’s what we want to do,” said Coach Kirby Dean. “We want to play with that kind of defensive intensity.”

The Runnin Royals held Randolph to just 27.8% shooting in the game including 4-12 from three point range. The WildCats even struggled from the free throw line, connecting on 16-of-27 for 59%.

91¶ÌÊÓƵ was 33-66 from the floor including a blazing 12-of-26 in triples. The men were 7-10 from the stripe.

“I’ve been telling the guys from day one that if we come out with that defensive mentality, then we’re really tough to beat,” Dean said afterwards. “If we come out flat, we’re an OK defensive team, but we’re not going to string together many wins. If we play like this we can make a run.”

Phillips was good for 13 points in the second half and finished with a game high 19 along with six rebounds. D.J. Hinson (Newport News, Va./Menchville) and R.J. Sims (Fort Washington, Md./Friendly) each hit a trio of three pointers and finished with 12.

Freshman Vance Washington (Winchester, Va./Handley) also canned three triples and tied his career high with 11 points. Eli Crawford (Staunton, Va./R.E. Lee) made his mark on the boards, leading all players with 10 rebounds.

91¶ÌÊÓƵ didn’t allow any of the WildCats to score in double figures. Leading scorer Colton Hunt was limited to just five points, 11.5 below his season average.

The Runnin Royals have now won three in a row since losing at Randolph on Jan. 22 and are 16-4 overall and 7-4 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. The WildCats fall to 15-6 and 8-4 in the ODAC. 91¶ÌÊÓƵ is at rival Bridgewater next Wednesday.

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Todd Phillips and the 91¶ÌÊÓƵ men’s basketball team beat Division III’s No. 1 team, Randolph-Macon, 90-67 Wednesday – despite the school’s small $950,000 athletic budget. Photo by Michael Reilly

Even in the modest world of Division III basketball, 91¶ÌÊÓƵ is an underdog. And that has nothing to do with points, rebounds or steals. It has mostly to do with dollars.

91¶ÌÊÓƵ has the smallest endowment of the 11 basketball-playing schools in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference by a large margin, at about $23 million a year. That’s about half of the next lowest school’s funds (Virginia Wesleyan is estimated at about $45 million).

That means less money for scholarships, coaches and recruiting budgets.

Even with those limitations, coach Kirby Dean has guided the men’s basketball team to a No. 18 ranking in this week’s D3hoops.com poll. Wednesday night, the Royals stunned the No. 1-ranked team in D-III, routing Randolph-Macon 90-67 at Yoder Arena in what was probably the biggest win in school history.

“I wouldn’t have bet any amount of money that we could have done what we did last night,” 91¶ÌÊÓƵ President Loren Swartzendruber said Thursday.

Swartzendruber and has wife, as they normally do, attended the game, sitting in the front row at center court as 1,564 fans packed the stands and even lined the indoor track that overlooks the basketball court. They watched as the Royals forced turnovers, created breakaways and threw down vicious, crowd-pleasing jams.

“I couldn’t allow myself to even imagine what was happening until about seven minutes to go in the game,” Swartzendruber said. “And a lot of the credit does go to Kirby. He has energy. He has a great relationship with his players. He knows how to recruit at our level.”

The 39-year-old Dean also knows the community. He’s from Penn Laird, played his high school ball at Spotswood and is a 1992 91¶ÌÊÓƵ graduate.

He learned about recruiting to a hard-sell college as a D-I assistant at VMI before taking the head coaching job at Waynesboro High School in 2002. In 2003, Dean returned to his alma mater, hoping to turn around a program that hasn’t won an ODAC tournament game since 1983.

“It’s a big challenge, but I understood that on the front end,” Dean said Thursday as his team got back to practicing for Saturday’s game against Randolph College. “It’s easy to get hung up on the negatives, because there are numerous ones. The other side of the coin is, we have the best facility in the league. We have a great town. We have a good school that has a good education and good people.”

Dean doesn’t like to discuss the program’s shortcomings. He feels it gives his players an excuse not to succeed.

“We expect to win, regardless of all those things,” Dean said, as his players sprinted through an exhausting five-man weave drill less than 24 hours after their big victory. “We have to do the best we can with what we have.”

What the Royals have is three part-time assistants and a meager recruiting budget of $1,500 – but that’s better than it used to be. Through private donations, athletic director Dave King increased funding to allow assistants to spend more time on the road recruiting during the offseason last year.

King hopes to include similar increases again in the upcoming fiscal year for both the men’s and women’s programs.

91¶ÌÊÓƵs athletic budget for the current school year is about $950,000, Swartzendruber said. By contrast, rival Bridgewater College’s athletic budget is $2.7 million, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

In the end, King said what makes Dean and women’s basketball coach Kevin Griffin successful recruiters has more to do with how much effort they put into the endeavor – including dipping into their own wallets.

“I know they put a lot of their own personal dollars in,” King said by phone from Atlanta, where he was attending an annual NCAA convention. “We have a recruiting vehicle available, but very rarely do I see Kirby or Kevin use it. Very rarely do I see an expense report come through.”

The men’s team is 12-1 overall and in first place in the ODAC at 6-0, while the women’s squad is 10-2.

“We love our school. Kirby and I are both products of this school and we believe in it,” said Griffin, a 1993 91¶ÌÊÓƵ graduate. “We sort of take it like, we know what we’ve got going into and we decide to fight against it.”

Even so, Eastern Mennonite’s administration realizes that money facilitates success in sports. Both Swartzendruber and King said increasing the financial resources of the two basketball programs would give their coaches a chance to sustain their current success.

And both men said that benefits the overall university.

“It certainly raises our profile,” Swartzendruber said. “There were a lot of community people at that game [against Randolph-Macon]. Any time we can get people on our campus to see who we are and what we’re about, that’s valuable.”

91¶ÌÊÓƵ also made a rare appearance at the top of the News-Record sports section Thursday morning, and Dean was a guest on a sports-radio talk show – hosted by Mac McDonald – that airs in much of central and western Virginia, including Richmond.

King said the on-court success helps attract both more student applicants and more potential donors.

“We have not done a real good job making connections. We’re not Notre Dame. We’re not U.Va. We don’t have football,” King said. “But everyone follows a winner.”

So will Eastern Mennonite expand its budget? King hopes so, but Swartzendruber said academics come first – making a major increase in sports funding iffy.

With extra funding, Dean said, 91¶ÌÊÓƵ could go from having a great season to building a great program.

“I hope people realize, we kind of caught lightning in a bottle here,” Dean said. “I don’t want to say we can’t sustain it. But the way things are, I don’t know if, long-term, you can do the things we’re doing right now. If we were on par with everybody else in our league from a financial aid standpoint, we could be in the top two or three every year. Absolutely.”

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