Former Coug Haskins lives his faith
COUGARS
A Monday evening in Spokane. It's beautiful. Plus the ride from Pullman wasn't too bad. There's nothing like a day when 195 blends into the surrounding fields, and only the grooves in the snow tell you where to go.
We have a story to share – no, not one of my long-winded from 1987 that bores you to death, but a real story that will appear in the paper tomorrow. It's about former Cougar star Aaron Haskins. At the end of it, I have some blog news from the man in charge. Read on.
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• Here's the story …
PULLMAN – Aaron Haskins knows a little about leadership. And how to exercise it.
Much of what he learned comes from his days playing basketball at Washington State.
"I came off the bench which was something coach (George) Raveling actually asked me to do before our season started our senior year," the former WSU center said this week. "Steve Harriel and I were co-captains. We had dinner over at (Raveling's) house, my wife and I still talk about this, because I remember he served us steak and burnt spaghetti. And at that dinner at his house, he asked me if I would not mind coming off the bench.
"He told me I would probably end up playing more than I would if I was a starter, which ended up actually being the truth."
Aaron Haskins also knows a little about faith. And how to exercise it.
"I committed my life to Christ at a very young age," said Haskins, whose father was a pastor. "What I did not want is to kind of do the hypocritical thing. The path I decided to walk down was the path of just being authentic with people."
So it comes as no surprise to anyone who knew Haskins some 25 years ago when he was starring for the Cougars in the golden era of Raveling's tenure that Haskins has combined both in his life.
"He was a man of faith then, along with his family," said Craig Ehlo, Haskins' WSU teammates and one of four seniors off the 1982-83 NCAA team that was drafted by the NBA. "It was pretty clear even then the field he was going to go into."
And it probably wouldn't surprise Ehlo to learn Haskins is working on a CD of gospel hymns on the saxophone, scheduled to be released in the spring. After all, Haskins and his sax remains burned into Ehlo's mind.
"Aaron was a very talented musician. He did his rendition of the national anthem on his saxophone on senior night against UCLA, the night we beat them on (Bryan) Pollard's tip in," said Ehlo, referring to WSU's 70-68 upset of the sixth-ranked Bruins, propelling the Cougars into the NCAA Tournament. "It was all because of Aaron's rendition of the national anthem. It was beautiful."
"God bless his heart," Haskins responded when informed of Ehlo's comments about that night. "Well, it certainly set the tone, I think."
It also set the tone for the rest of Haskins' basketball career, which turned out to be more about spreading the word than spreading a defense.
Though drafted in the 10th (and last) round of the NBA draft – the 219th of 226 players taken – Haskins shunned the Kansas City Kings and instead hooked up with Athletes in Action's touring team, then one of the world's best amateur squads.
After basketball ended, Haskins returned to WSU, where he worked seven years, helping to develop the university's minority recruitment. Under the guidance of provost Dr. Albert C. Yates, Haskins worked to improve WSU's diversity, traveling to the Seattle-area and speaking at places that would foreshadow his future career.
"I went to place I was familiar with, and that was the churches," Haskins said.
It was in Pullman where Haskins and wife Cheryl's three children, who all played high school basketball, were born. But not his calling.
That came earlier, but took awhile to manifest itself. It emerged after a three-year stint in the banking community.
"Everything I've done in my professional life has been tied to helping people," Haskins said, "and working with leaders, encouraging leaders, training leaders ... getting them to look at things a little different."
Haskins' first true foray into the ministry came with Promises Keepers, the group co-founded by former Colorado football coach Bill McCartney. Its aim is to encourage men to become passionate Christians.
"At the time I didn't know anything about the men's movement," Haskins said. "But we ended up coordinating and being the events manager for the three events in the Kingdome. That was just a blast, that was more than fun."
Always a leader on the court, Haskins then became one in the ministry, joining the Coalition for Community Development and Renewal in 1998, a group that works with pastors around the country, helping them develop skills to transform their communities.
Haskins recently stepped down as CCDR's executive director to focus on his new post as a full-time pastor. For 15 years Haskins served as an associate pastor of The City Church in Kirkland. This year he took over as pastor of the church's new campus in Mountlake Terrace.
Being a pastor is time consuming and hard work, Haskins admitted, but that's not something he shies away from. After all, he played for Raveling.
"One thing I can tell you I learned was the value of perseverance and the value of hard work," Haskins said.
Basketball, however, is on the back burner. His brother, Ed, is in his first year as Garfield High's head coach, and Aaron tries to help when he can.
But playing?
"Oh no," Haskins said, laughing. "I used to say I was a retired player, and my son told me, no, I'm not retired, I'm an ex-player. I don't play anymore."
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• That's it for the story. Now on to the blog news. I passed on a couple of comments to the man in charge and he sent this response to me: "We've heard from several users who say they miss the filtering feature from SportsLink on the old site. We will work on a replacement for the new site. We've got a lot of projects like this at the moment so I hope they can bear with us, but we'll put this one high on the priority list." To summarize, you should soon be able to filter down to Cougar-centric posts on the new SportsLink just like you could on the old one. I hope that's good news for you. … Well, the Cougar basketball team is off until after Christmas, so we're going to take it slower as well. If any WSU news breaks, we'll post it. Otherwise, we'll have something for you prior to the LSU game. Happy Holidays.