By Ed Piper
Chad Bickley, the head basketball coach at Santa Fe Christian, takes a little different approach than others. The private school, in Solana Beach, is faith-based. It all comes from there.
"We (as a team) go on a mission trip every other year," the coach said, talking while driving to Santa Fe Christian's second-round Division 3 football playoff game at Monte Vista. (The Eagles won, 27-17.) "We're going to go to Uganda this (next) summer. We're going to build two basketball courts."
"My dad was my high school coach, so I think it started with him. We went on a lot of mission trips. We went to Australia, Mexico, Brazil. And that taught me how to use my passion to honor the Lord. So it was from there.
"Then I went to a college where we took a lot of mission trips. That led to what we do here at Santa Fe Christian.
"Two years ago we went to Taiwan. We've been to Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic."
The 2018-19 edition of the basketball team is undergoing a major overhaul after winning the CIF Division 1 title last March.
Asked what is something new in his program this year, Bickley laughed and said, "Well, I think everything. We lost our starting five from last year, so we have a kid who moved from Virginia who is a senior and brings a lot of maturity to our team." The transfer is 6'2" Chase Pagon.
"We usually play four or five guard outside, so he'll be one of those," said the coach. "He won't be a post player. (Pagon) brings a lot of versatility.
"He's a senior, so that kind of stinks (that he will graduate after only one season at Santa Fe Christian). He just landed in our lap."
Other key players for the revamped Eagles include sophomore Trevan Martin and senior Griffin Morris. "(Trevan) was our sixth man last year. He was a key man to our championship run."
Morris, 6'5", brings a lot of experience to the team.
Bickley uses what he calls a "buy-in piece" of motivation for his players. He bases it on biblical values in line with the school's overt teaching from a Christian worldview.
"Every year we have what we call Level 6," he explained. "We have six levels of core values that we use. They all build to level 6." The levels, from one to six, include attitude, commitment, work ethic, accountability, trust, then love.
On the Friday a reporter visited the school to make contact with the coach, the Santa Fe Christian Schools complex was a beehive of activity. Traffic in and out of the school on Academy Drive was stopped bumper-to-bumper, not moving, as high school students drove themselves home after the every-Friday early dismissal at 2 p.m. and family members came to pick up younger students.
Young children waited in an area up the driveway of the western entrance by the stadium, as a supervisor used a walkie-talkie to coordinate pickups by their moms. Meanwhile, the ribbon of cars edged its way up the hill behind the football field to parking spots and around the end zone toward school buildings.
In the gym, Bickley was already 20 minutes into the preseason workout with his players after the visitor dealt with the traffic jam by parking outside on the street. A giant white curtain split the main court at the half-court line so that a girls team could practice simultaneously on the other side.
The Eagles were running a five-on-five scrimmage, as Bickley was aided by two younger assistants. One, Justin, welcomed the reporter and informed him that the winner of the Santa Fe Christian-La Jolla game Thurs., Nov. 15, in the opening round of the San Diego Tip-off Classic would likely face Sierra Canyon (ranked fifth in the nation) the following day at Montgomery High in the South Bay. That was an interesting note.
Bickley soon moved his team to half-court offense to further develop options in the attack. The team members struck the observer as homogeneous, fitting the general population of the Solana Beach school.
"We graduated 13 seniors last year," the assistant said. The team was scheduled to scrimmage Mission Hills the next day, during the three-day Veterans Day holiday weekend.
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