How Baptist Bible College basketball saved its dying athletic department

Dowell Field House runs adjacent to traffic-heavy Kearney Street, but drivers passing by likely spare little thought for what's going on inside the aging, tan building.

The outmoded gymnasium at Baptist Bible College — a private Springfield school with relatively low enrollment — houses a men's basketball program aiming for its third consecutive national title.

National Christian Athletic Association championships garner little attention in a city that features NCAA Division I Missouri State, NCAA Division II Drury, NAIA Evangel, and some of the most hoops-rich high school programs in the state.

Despite competing in the lowest rung of college athletics, BBC's recent string of successes has helped reinvigorate the 73-year-old institution.

The Patriots are beating teams closer to Evangel's weight class, attracting proven local talent, and cultivating enough goodwill for BBC administrators to add sports and partial scholarships. They're aiming for NAIA membership in 2024.

When BBC battled a pair of tradition-heavy programs, Campbellsville and Lindsey Wilson, to the brink at a NAIA holiday tournament in Kentucky last month, referees praised the littlest school in the field.

"This is not your typical Bible school basketball team," they told BBC coach and athletic director Darin Meinders before tipoff. "These dudes can really play."

Men's basketball was the lone sport on the books at BBC when Meinders, a Missouri Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame inductee known for his success at multiple local high schools, took over the floundering program in 2019 on the heels of a 56-game losing streak.

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The once-moribund athletics department has since taken a 180-degree turn.  BBC now offers men's and women's basketball, baseball, volleyball, men's and women's golf and women's cross country, and is also adding men's and women's soccer.

Most of BBC's athletes — 110 of the school's 250 on-campus students play a sport — had standout careers at their respective rural high schools. So did their new coaches.

Ten-year BBC President Mark Milioni said the school hasn't strayed from its mission of God-centered education, but an exceptional group of students and leaders have helped turn the athletics department's fortunes.

"I've never demanded them to win, they just happen to win," Milioni said. "I've been surprised of how well they're playing. They can play with anyone."

Changing the culture

Before Meinders was given the keys to the department in 2019, BBC athletics were on life support.

Losing was common. Several sports programs were scrapped. Coaches weren't around long, and a few athletes, according to Milioni, didn't adhere to the school's Christian mission.

Meinders, who won state championships at Walnut Grove and had an overall record of 512-197 in his various high school stops, was looking at a complete overhaul.

Retooling the men's basketball team was the first chore.

"I could have offered full-ride scholarships, and it still would have been hard to get players from this area," Meinders said.

The longtime coach was able to convince a few high school players he coached to enroll at BBC. They swiftly helped the Patriots to a turnaround 17-9 record before the team's national title runs in 2021 and 2022, going a combined 42-7.

There were just three holdovers from the previous coaching regime, including Tre Minton, the 2018 Arkansas Class 1A Player of the Year who nearly left BBC after his freshman season.

"I wasn't sure if I wanted to be here," said Minton, a former NCCAA Tournament MVP. "I didn't know how (Meinders) was as a coach. So I prayed about it. Talked to my family, and I'm glad I stayed."

Trent McBride, another NCCAA All-Tournament selection, starred at Eminence High School where he beat Meinders' Walnut Grove team in the 2018 Class 1 state title game.

After playing his freshman year at the College of the Ozarks, McBride, the 2018 Missouri Class 1 Player of the Year, was among the figures who joined Meinders' new-look BBC squad.

Familiarity and trust were a big part of assembling the program-changing 2019 squad, but so was the school environment.

"All the teachers are great, super friendly," McBride said. "There's no resentment toward the athletes. It's more of a family vibe than other colleges you would go to."

Success, scholarships and the transfer portal benefit recruiting

Despite its aged aesthetic, Dowell Field House is one of the bigger basketball arenas in the NCCAA ranks and can seat hundreds. Its spacious locker rooms were recently upgraded with personal dressing spaces, flat screen televisions and a team bonding area, better resembling the look of a big school's locker room.

"Our next step is making (Dowell Field House) look good on the outside, when people are driving by it on Kearney," Milioni said.

Athletic scholarships, something the program didn't offer in previous years, have helped boost recruiting at a school whose most popular student-athlete majors are business and elementary education.

"We were able to get scholarships because our school president was impressed with the kind of kids that were coming here," Meinders said.

The trickle-down effect of the NCAA transfer portal has also helped.

With fewer high school players recruited due to the portal — a rule that allows college teams to essentially pluck from other college teams for more physically-ready talent instead of traditionally developing younger players — more talent is available.

Talented players who regularly found themselves on a NCAA Division II, NAIA or national junior college roster a few years ago are now considering even smaller schools.

Dallas Meinders, a BBC assistant coach who also starred at Walnut Grove, said winning has been the best recruiter of small-college talent.

"It's made it a lot easier to recruit," said Dallas, whose brother Dawson is also an assistant coach. "They know who we are now when we contact them."

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"We could have a bigger enrollment, but we would rather have the right students"

Milioni has seen the ugly side of faith-based athletics. He has also seen BBC, where tuition is around $15,000 a year, in dire financial straits.

But the Ohio native didn't want to compromise the school's spiritual health for financial health by bringing in students indifferent to BBC's values. He discussed that philosophy with Meinders during the hiring process, and the coach appears to have bought in.

"A lot of small Christian colleges use athletics to stay alive," Milioni said. "They'll bring in the student-athletes, get them Pell (grants), and help them get loans. Then, a lot of the time, they'll bring them in, and they won't be good students or good people. They're using (the students) to get their government money."

Milioni is happy for BBC's recent athletic success, but doesn't want sports to be the school's primary identifier.

"We could have a bigger enrollment, but we would rather have the right students," Milioni said. "Sports provide a good student-life aspect here."

Like most small private schools, BBC has experienced several peaks and valleys since the school had an enrollment of more than 1,500 in the 1970s and won three consecutive NCCAA men's basketball titles in the 1980s.

Its decline has been steady over the decades, but Milioni said there has been a uptick in Christian college education interest in recent years among parents who don't want their children to attend public universities.

"Families are hungry for what we have here," Milano said. "A lot of parents are very concerned about sending their kids to liberal colleges."

Stepping up to a challenge

When the Patriots aren't taking on other NCCAA members, the team's schedule primarily includes a lengthy Midwest list of NAIA schools often armed with more resources and tradition.

Sometimes BBC wins, and when they don't, they often show they deserve to be in the same gymnasium.

When the Patriots fell 58-55 at William Woods University in Fulton last month, BBC had more fans in the audience. They also posted single-digit losses to solid Kentucky programs Campbellsville and Lindsey Wilson.

BBC has beaten several NAIA members the past two seasons, including Grand View (Iowa).

"We want to play the best schedule possible so when we get to March and it counts, we'll be ready," Darin Meinders said.

With a roster that includes 10 players from Missouri, friends and family are often in attendance.

"Our fans travel better than any school we play," Meinders said. "We have several parents who haven't missed a single game."

Among the most loyal fans is Missouri State women's basketball coaching legend Cheryl Burnett. The former Michigan head coach is Minton's godmother.

Building program with Ozarks talent

BBC's newly added sports — some revived after years of dormancy — also are full of area products.

First-year BBC women's basketball coach Madi Wallace, a former Ash Grove and Evangel guard, has a roster that looks like a Highway 60 All-Star team, led by former Norwood star Josie Sullivan.

Randy Merryman, a longtime Ozarks baseball coaching figure, leads BBC's baseball program, which was paced offensively last season by former Houston High School standout Sterling Jackson.

Former Buffalo standout Juliett Moore heads a volleyball program that is almost exclusively composed of southwest Missouri graduates.

Dallas Meinders, the former Walnut Grove multi-sport standout, leads BBC's men's and women's golf teams. Former Evangel runner Emily Burns is the cross country coach.

Future NAIA membership?

A leap to the NAIA ranks would surely illustrate the growth of BBC athletics.

BBC officials said the school plans to submit its application paperwork to the NAIA with hopes of being placed in the American Midwest Conference in 2024.

The AMC is currently composed of 11 member schools from Missouri and Arkansas, including longtime members Missouri Baptist, Columbia College, and William Woods.

Evangel University, located 2 1/2 miles from BBC, is a longtime member of the Heartland Conference.

Correction: A previous version of this story inferred that BBC had already been accepted to join the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NAIA) in 2024. The school is applying for membership this summer.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: How BBC basketball turned things around for dying athletic department