This Moment Means Something

NEWBERG, Ore. -- After a hard-fought matchup against Redlands in the fourth game of the George Fox men’s basketball season, head coach Maco Hamilton and assistant Brendan Jones sat together to watch film.

On the monitor, the two teams lined up tip-off. Both coaches knew what would happen — after all, they had just been at the game — Redlands would get off to a quick start before the Bruins charged back to make a game of it.

But as the game began, both Jones and Hamilton noticed something. Something about their starting five.

For the first time in George Fox men’s basketball history, five African-American players had started a game.

In the summer of 2013, the Bruins’ basketball program was looking for a new coach. Mark Sundquist, who had served as head coach for 13 seasons, stepped away from the university to pursue new opportunities. After a two-month search, the Bruins had found their man.

Maco Hamilton came to Fox from the high school ranks, helping Union High School in Vancouver, Wash. — a school that had just opened in 2007 — to win the Washington 3A State Championship in 2010. He also came with similar backgrounds to other coaches at the university; both Hamilton and the GFU women’s basketball program at the time, Michael Meek, played for coach Art Furman at Eastern Oregon University.

But along with his impressive coaching resume and his connections within the department, he was also tasked with a goal. The year before Hamilton was hired, the Bruins had sported 15 players on the roster; 14 were white. 

“One of the things that was asked of me when I got hired was, ‘Can we enhance the diversity of our men's basketball program?’” Hamilton said, “[It] was one of the big things that they were wanting from me when they hired me 12 years ago.”

Over the course of those 12 years, Hamilton worked on improving the diversity for a sport that is nationally known for its diverse background, bringing in a wider range of athletes; in the 2024-25 season, nine players are black, with one athlete from Hawaii. But beyond race, there’s also diversity throughout the teams in other ways.

“There’s a wide range of demographics that we're looking at,” the Bruin coach said, “Hometown, socioeconomic background, race and ethnicity, and even to faith and spirituality. The journey has always been for me, as a black head coach, wanting to have a program that is all-inclusive.”

This culture is something noticed by Hamilton’s athletes — many of whom would not have come to Fox if not for the men’s basketball team.

For Samuel Stewart IV, one of the five starters in that game against Redlands, George Fox was never on his radar for anything other than basketball. The senior transferred in from Grossmont College in California, and immediately felt out of place at the Predominantly White Institution.

“ I felt very like an outsider [at first], especially because of just my skin tone,” Stewart IV said, “But then, over time, as people started to ask me who I was, and started to get to know me. Then, I actually started to feel included with everybody.  And that's what I respect about George Fox: everybody — staff, students, anybody in the community just walking around — they ask who you are, they give you a smile.”

It’s a similar story for Momo Stokes, the Bruins’ starting guard. Before an All-Region honor in 2023-24 and leading the Northwest Conference in scoring in 2024-25, Stokes was a freshman from San Diego, Calif. in an unfamiliar place.

“My first year here at a predominantly white school was definitely culture shock for me,” Stokes said, “...honestly, I probably wouldn't have gone to George Fox if not for men's basketball, but I'm definitely glad I did come out here.”

While Vanndon Heard would have attended George Fox without basketball thanks to the school’s engineering program, the culture of the team wasn’t something that he could ignore either.

“ We all kind of mingle with each other,” Heard said “We're all cool with each other. We can all have a conversation with each other.”

But it’s not just about the players adapting to the environment — it’s about the university, the campus, and the entire city of Newberg adapting to a strong group of men of color. And there’s no better way to show that than the university’s Serve Day.

Every year since 1999, George Fox University has run a day of service where the entire student body goes out throughout the community to help wherever they can. And while thousands of students make their way throughout the Portland Metro Area, the Bruin men’s basketball team heads over to the southeast side of Newberg and sets up shop at Nut Tree Mobile Estates.

There, the team meets friendly and familiar faces — after all, the group has been going there as a team since 2018. And whether it’s raking up leaves or working on yards, Hamilton’s team provides a new ministry to the community: one that shows the power of diversity.

“ I want to be a buffer for our kids of color to give them exposure and experience in a predominantly white space that some of them may have not been navigating before,” Hamilton said, “That's an important life skill for them. But I also think it's important for our predominantly white community to be able to engage with young men of color and to see the brilliance of who they are.”

While the residents at Nut Tree Mobile come face-to-face with the George Fox men’s basketball team once a year, George Fox Student Care and Student Life Operations Specialist Jere Witherspoon interacts with them once a week.

Witherspoon works with the Bruin Community Pantry, a food pantry on campus seeking to address the real problem of hunger and food insecurity in the Newberg community. And in the 2023-24 season, as the Bruin Athletics programs looked to focus more on community service, Hamilton made an offer she couldn’t refuse — helping Witherspoon unload food and stock the shelves.

“Unloading 1,400 to 2,000 pounds of food a week is exhausting for this 66-year-old mother and one student employee,” Witherspoon said, “Maco's offer changed my life in so many ways.”

What was once a two-hour process now took 20 minutes and allowed the Community Pantry staff to connect with the basketball players and form relationships. Now, Witherspoon attends nearly every home game to cheer the team on, while the players believe in the cause she promotes.

“Jere is a very kind lady,” Stewart IV said, “We help her because she's also helping the school and helping the students.”

That Saturday, as Hamilton and Jones prepped for their game against Redlands, there wasn’t a backstory or agenda on the line. They weren’t thinking about the 12 years of work it has taken, the hours spent at the Community Pantry or the Mobile Estates. They were simply looking for the best five players to take the floor.

And on November 22, 2024, Momo Stokes, Samuel Stewart IV, Vanndon Heard, Chris Nickelberry, and DJ Evans took the court, making George Fox history. Though the Bruins lost the game, they fought hard against a Bulldog team that is currently ranked No. 20 in the nation, rallying from a deficit to take a late lead in a close 97-105 loss. It was a game that was great on the court, but meant so much off.

“If we truly believe that we're all made in God's image,” Hamilton said, “and if we don't want to cookie-cutter what a believer looks like. I think for our institution — for Christian institutions — this moment is a pretty special event that took place.”

“To be part of that history, it's actually big,” Stokes said, “Our ancestors, what they went through, to now, how diverse our group is, how diverse the school is.”

“To be a part of history is great, especially as a group,” Stewart IV said, “... but individually, being able to come back and be like, ‘I was part of something bigger than just myself.’ It was a big moment.”

“ It's pretty important that we were able to get that record,” Heard said, “It shows how we've grown and diversified.”

Some may question if it was a moment that really mattered. Some may wonder what took so long. But for all those questions, Hamilton, who has worked towards this moment for 12 years, makes it clear. The players, who have come in from a variety of locations and circumstances to create a home out of an unfamiliar situation, make it clear. Every person in the Newberg community whose life has been touched by the Bruin basketball athletes makes it clear.

This Moment Means Something