Redoubtable Thomas : Forward Finds Fulfillment at Master’s College After Transfer

Gerald Thomas learns a lesson about life every time he opens his closet.

Life, after all, often comes down to the choices one makes. And for Thomas, every day is judgment day as he peers at the more than 30 neckties he keeps in his Master’s College dormitory room.

The colorful inventory represents just a fraction of the neckwear that Thomas has accumulated since developing a sartorial streak upon graduation from high school in 1985.

“The way you dress reflects your personality,” said Thomas, who favors polka dots. “I choose a tie depending on what kind of statement I’m trying to make.”

If Thomas was allowed to wear a tie on the court for The Master’s basketball team, he would no doubt choose a power tie.

At 6 feet, 5 inches, 230 pounds, Thomas is a thumper. The gregarious personality and toothy grin he displays when discussing anything from the Bible to unforgiving play under the backboard all but disappear on the court. The meek might inherit the earth, but not basketballs off the glass.

“Every night I get the opportunity to play, that’s a blessing,” said Thomas, who graduated from Faith Baptist High in Canoga Park. “That’s an opportunity to witness. That’s an opportunity to dunk on some guy’s face.”

Thomas, a senior, transferred last spring to Master’s from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., where he spent most of the previous 2 1/2 seasons on the bench. He is is averaging 9 points and 6.6 rebounds for the Mustangs (4-7), who play host to Cal State Hayward at 7:30 tonight.

“When I called (Master’s) Coach (Mal) Hankinson from Virginia and told him I wanted to transfer, he said I should stay and work it out if I could,” Thomas said. “He said he didn’t want to make the decision for me.”

Thomas has always been comfortable making his own decisions, and he credits his mother, Darlene Foreman--”the hardest-working person I know”--for instilling in him the confidence to make them. Foreman, an accountant, moved Gerald and his sister Tisha to Canoga Park 10 years ago to escape the growing gang activity and violence in Inglewood.

“That’s the best thing that ever happened to us,” said Tisha, 18. “We would probably not be alive today if we had stayed in Inglewood.”

Thomas said that he was in eighth

grade when he began playing basketball with a pastor’s son whose father “led him to the Lord.”

Soon after, Thomas’ new-found faith also led him to Faith Baptist rather than other Valley-area high schools with established athletic traditions.

“It was tough for me because, athletically, I wanted to go to Cleveland or Montclair Prep,” Thomas said. “It made me look at things a little bit differently because when you’re dealing with spiritual matters, let’s face it, we’re talking long term.”

Thomas was a big man on the small K-12 campus and helped the school establish a truer identification with its Contenders nickname. He was a two-time All-Southern Section selection in football, a three-time All-Southern Section choice in basketball and won 9 individual league titles in track and field.

He was named the most valuable player in the Delphic League his senior year after playing quarterback and leading the Contenders to the Southern Section 8-Man Large Schools Division championship in 1985.

He also averaged 17 points and 15 rebounds for the basketball team, which competed at the 1-A level his senior year and advanced to the third round of the playoffs.

Washington State recruited Thomas to play football, but he chose instead to concentrate on basketball.

After dismissing the interest of several secular schools, Thomas narrowed his choices to Biola, Tennessee Temple and Liberty University.

“Why go to a lions’ den when you can go where the Lord wants you to go,” Thomas said in 1985.

He chose Liberty, a fundamentalist Christian university, and soaked up the atmosphere in Lynchburg, which prides itself on being a “City of Churches.”

In recent years, Lynchburg has gained prominence as the home of Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Thomas Road Baptist Church, which boasts a congregation of more than 21,000. It was Falwell who, in 1971, fulfilled a personal dream by establishing Liberty University.

Thomas, however, said that he was unable to realize his dreams under Liberty Coach Jeff Meyer. After starting for a time as a freshman, Thomas played sparingly his sophomore year and at the beginning of his junior season.

“It was hard for me to get the big DNP (Did Not Play).” Thomas said. “I kept telling myself I’m not a quitter, it’ll get better, things will work out.

“In the middle of my junior year it got to the point where you can only get bit so much and you finally say, ‘Ow, that hurts.’ I finally woke up and said, ‘Hey, things are not getting better.’ ”

Five games into last season, Thomas told Meyer he was leaving. Later, he called Hankinson, who told Thomas not to transfer.

“I’ve coached on the college level for 20 years,” said Hankinson, who is in his first season as a coach at Master’s. “In every case that a fellow transfers, he suffers because he has to make an adjustment academically and to a new coach.

“I told Gerald, ‘If you can work things out there, you’re better off to stay.’ His reply was, ‘Now I know I want to come.’ ”

Thus far, both player and coach are delighted with Thomas’ decision.

Hankinson said that Thomas is a hard-working, experienced leader who will help a young Mustang team mature as the season progresses.

Thomas said he feels at home now that he’s closer to his family.

“I was out at Faith Baptist one day and an old AAU coach came up to me and said, ‘Gee, a lot of your friends are at D-1 (Division I schools) and look at you’, “ Thomas said. “He was trying to rag me and I said, ‘You know, I look at all of us and I bet we’re all happy because we’re where we want to be.’ This is where I want to be.”