A Program Takes Shape, All in the Name of Hope

The center is 29 years old and from Curacao. The coach just turned 24. It is not yet light outside, a few minutes before 6 in the morning when the Hope International men’s basketball team gathers at the door of the Brea Community Center. Welcome to another side of college basketball.

There is plenty of yawning and rubbing of eyes. These are college students, after all, and it is unlikely they were in bed much before midnight.

If a poll were taken, the players would probably not choose to practice at 6 a.m. in a community center 10 miles from their Fullerton campus. But when you are a small, NAIA school with no athletic facilities and your choice is between practicing at 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., well, says the 29-year-old center, Axel Margaritha, “I’d rather be here now instead of midnight, you know?”

Jason Lowery was 23 when he was hired last summer to be a college coach. He turned 24 two weeks ago.

“I was the youngest college coach in the nation I was told,” Lowery says. “I think I might still be.”

Hard to imagine that he isn’t.

Lowery is wide awake at this hour. The Brea Community Center opens at 6 and the team is first through the doors.

Not only is Lowery one of the youngest coaches in the country, he is also the Hope International sports information director, as well as the teacher of three courses on campus--sports psychology, lifetime health and fitness, and weight training. Lowery also is spending as much time as possible helping the school raise money for a campus gym, something he desperately wants, for he hopes--expects really--the Royals, new members of the Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC), with athletically accomplished schools like Azusa Pacific and Biola, to be competitive. And soon.

Oh, and in his free time? Lowery is a newlywed. His wife, Melissa, is a student.

“I try to go home in the afternoons sometimes to catch a nap,” Lowery says. “But it’s a pretty hectic pace.”

We know all about the 35-year-old college coaches who have guaranteed contracts and live in Marina del Rey and who maybe got the big job too soon.

Then there’s Jason Lowery.

For as long as he can remember--while he was growing up in Portland, Ore., while he was playing college ball at Pomona-Pitzer, a 6-foot-3 guard of somewhat limited speed but plenty of heart--Lowery has only wanted to be a coach.

“I’ve done everything fast,” he says. “I started college when I was 17, graduated when I was 21, got married when I was 22.”

He took an assistant’s job at Redlands and then, last spring, saw a newspaper ad for the Hope job.

“My boss, Gary Smith, told me I should apply,” Lowery says. “So I did.”

On a board in the corner of the Brea gym, Lowery writes “Victory Favors The Team That Makes The Fewest Errors” --Bobby Knight.

From that quotation come Lowery’s opening remarks. He talks to the team about making too many unforced errors in their last loss and says that no matter how hard the team plays, and how much they all have learned in a year, unforced errors make it impossible to win.

The team is 9-20 going into its final three games. Last year, the Royals won seven games, so, without a chance to recruit, Lowery has made some improvements.

Margaritha says he has been impressed with Lowery.

“Coach knows his stuff,” Margaritha says. “I think he’s going to be a very good coach.”

A senior, Margaritha had landed at Hope International, an unaffiliated religious college, when some soccer scouts stumbled across a basketball game instead of soccer. Margaritha, who is 6-10 and second in NAIA Division I in rebounding, averaging 12.1 a game, knew nothing about Hope International when he arrived in Fullerton.

Not many people do.

Lowery finds that most recruits have never heard of the school.

“We offer nine sports,” Lowery says. “And we have no athletic facilities at all. Our fall sports teams went 0-32. We’ve got a ways to go but I believe we’ll get there.”

Lowery is the only men’s basketball coach in the GSAC who also operates the sports information office. He has two unpaid assistants. The Royals play all their home games at Cal State Fullerton.

“Fullerton has been great to us,” Lowery says. “But there is nothing like having your own gym.”

Lowery has a sophomore forward named Wagner Moreno from Brazil. His only recruit, Tiante Tims of Portland, who has known Lowery’s family “forever,” according to Tims, is the second-leading scorer. That bodes well for the future.

“You don’t even think of Jason as being so young,” Tims says. “He knows what he wants to do and where he wants to go. He’s a good role model.”

Practice is over now and the Royals are stuffing gear into gym bags and jogging out to their cars. The sun is up and classes start soon. For the Royals, though, the hard part of the day is over. For the coach, nap time. Soon, please.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com.