Living Water boys basketball aims for respect one victory at a time---PART I
Chris Miller The Jacksonville Daily News
Trever Hardin has turned the Living Water Christian School basketball team into a competitive team. He enters his fourth season as head coach of the Warriors.
In a season-long schedule of games, names and scores can run together. But for the Living Water Christian boys basketball team and their coach, Trever Hardin, it was easy to pick out a season ago when the Warriors knew what they were made of, and where they're going.
It was Feb. 17 when the Warriors lost 88-77 at Washington.
This was the rare occasion in which the opponent wasn't another tiny, religious school like itself, or a selective prep academy. No, this was Washington, a well-respected and talented public school team in the NCHSAA.
“It was a proud moment for our program to hang with them. They had just taken down powerhouse Kinston," Hardin said recently. "So we knew going into that game how good they were. It was nice to know we do compete with 2-A schools with us having such a small school.”
Hardin, a Swansboro native, is not afraid of challenges as he continues to build the program at Living Water, the K-12 private school two miles from Jacksonville High on Gum Branch Road.
The fourth-year coach again has scheduled Washington and Greenfield School of Wilson. His Warriors are set to play in a New Bern jamboree, a national showcase tournament in Fayetteville and Spring Creek’s holiday tournament.
Hardin tells his players that challenging schedule, which includes teams with NCAA Division I talent, will help them and the program grow.
At the local level, Living Water again played in this summer's ECI camp, holding their own against Jacksonville before falling 67-58, and also beating Southwest 66-41.
“Living Water started as a fill-in, but they were competitive and we invited them back,” ECI Director and Ashley coach Wells Gulledge said. “In the future, they are going to be invited back again.”
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But Hardin wants competition against Onslow County’s NCHSAA teams to go beyond summer scrimmages.
“We are small, but we travel really well and there would be some good games,” said Hardin, whose team opens its season Tuesday night vs. the Pitt County Pacers homeschool team.
“Wilmington Christian is accepted in their community and they play the likes of Laney. When I played at Swansboro, Wilmington Christian would come down to the holiday tournament we had. So it’s not a crazy idea.”
The Warriors are 67-17 the last three seasons, falling to New Bern Christian Academy in last season’s league tournament final. The Living Water girls' team has won the last two tournament titles.
Yet Hardin feels his program has been stigmatized by some in the local community because it takes advantage being in the N.C. Christian Athletic Conference, which includes small schools that allow middle-school athletes on varsity rosters, resulting in inflated win totals and statistics.
He also hears the accusations of recruiting.
“If we didn’t have a jersey that said Living Water Christian, but one that instead said ‘This Onslow County public school’ you wouldn’t notice a difference,” Hardin said.
Trever Hardin played basketball and football and ran for the track and field team while at Swansboro High.
Before the beard and specs
The 33-year-old Hardin stands out, with thick glasses and a long beard he said he shaves off after every basketball season.
Before he became coach, Hardin was a three-sport athlete at Swansboro. He played basketball and ran track, but most knew him as the football team’s quarterback.
Some of Hardin’s favorite Swansboro memories came from playing against two of Onslow County’s greatest athletes in Southwest’s Kendric Burney and White Oak’s Deunta Williams – both of whom went on to star at North Carolina.
In high school, Hardin felt he would either be a physical education teacher or go into law enforcement. Former Swansboro football coach Tim Laspada remembered Hardin showing coaching traits as a teenager.
“Trever was a tough kid who worked hard in the weight room to get the most out of his ability,” Laspada said. “He was always committed to making others around him better. He would lead by example in all the drills we did.”
After graduating in 2007, Hardin attended UNC-Pembroke to play for the football team that was resurrected after 57 years. He left after the first semester, enrolled at Cape Fear Community College and later graduated from Fayetteville State with a major in criminal justice.
Two years after playing in a small arena football league, Hardin in 2013 signed a contract with the Bor Golden Bears, a semi-professional team in Serbia that paid for his travel expenses.
Chris Miller The Jacksonville Daily News
Trever Hardin has turned the Living Water Christian School basketball team into a competitive team. He enters his fourth season as head coach of the Warriors.
In a season-long schedule of games, names and scores can run together. But for the Living Water Christian boys basketball team and their coach, Trever Hardin, it was easy to pick out a season ago when the Warriors knew what they were made of, and where they're going.
It was Feb. 17 when the Warriors lost 88-77 at Washington.
This was the rare occasion in which the opponent wasn't another tiny, religious school like itself, or a selective prep academy. No, this was Washington, a well-respected and talented public school team in the NCHSAA.
“It was a proud moment for our program to hang with them. They had just taken down powerhouse Kinston," Hardin said recently. "So we knew going into that game how good they were. It was nice to know we do compete with 2-A schools with us having such a small school.”
Hardin, a Swansboro native, is not afraid of challenges as he continues to build the program at Living Water, the K-12 private school two miles from Jacksonville High on Gum Branch Road.
The fourth-year coach again has scheduled Washington and Greenfield School of Wilson. His Warriors are set to play in a New Bern jamboree, a national showcase tournament in Fayetteville and Spring Creek’s holiday tournament.
Hardin tells his players that challenging schedule, which includes teams with NCAA Division I talent, will help them and the program grow.
At the local level, Living Water again played in this summer's ECI camp, holding their own against Jacksonville before falling 67-58, and also beating Southwest 66-41.
“Living Water started as a fill-in, but they were competitive and we invited them back,” ECI Director and Ashley coach Wells Gulledge said. “In the future, they are going to be invited back again.”
Your stories live here.
Fuel your hometown passion and plug into the stories that define it.
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But Hardin wants competition against Onslow County’s NCHSAA teams to go beyond summer scrimmages.
“We are small, but we travel really well and there would be some good games,” said Hardin, whose team opens its season Tuesday night vs. the Pitt County Pacers homeschool team.
“Wilmington Christian is accepted in their community and they play the likes of Laney. When I played at Swansboro, Wilmington Christian would come down to the holiday tournament we had. So it’s not a crazy idea.”
The Warriors are 67-17 the last three seasons, falling to New Bern Christian Academy in last season’s league tournament final. The Living Water girls' team has won the last two tournament titles.
Yet Hardin feels his program has been stigmatized by some in the local community because it takes advantage being in the N.C. Christian Athletic Conference, which includes small schools that allow middle-school athletes on varsity rosters, resulting in inflated win totals and statistics.
He also hears the accusations of recruiting.
“If we didn’t have a jersey that said Living Water Christian, but one that instead said ‘This Onslow County public school’ you wouldn’t notice a difference,” Hardin said.
Trever Hardin played basketball and football and ran for the track and field team while at Swansboro High.
Before the beard and specs
The 33-year-old Hardin stands out, with thick glasses and a long beard he said he shaves off after every basketball season.
Before he became coach, Hardin was a three-sport athlete at Swansboro. He played basketball and ran track, but most knew him as the football team’s quarterback.
Some of Hardin’s favorite Swansboro memories came from playing against two of Onslow County’s greatest athletes in Southwest’s Kendric Burney and White Oak’s Deunta Williams – both of whom went on to star at North Carolina.
In high school, Hardin felt he would either be a physical education teacher or go into law enforcement. Former Swansboro football coach Tim Laspada remembered Hardin showing coaching traits as a teenager.
“Trever was a tough kid who worked hard in the weight room to get the most out of his ability,” Laspada said. “He was always committed to making others around him better. He would lead by example in all the drills we did.”
After graduating in 2007, Hardin attended UNC-Pembroke to play for the football team that was resurrected after 57 years. He left after the first semester, enrolled at Cape Fear Community College and later graduated from Fayetteville State with a major in criminal justice.
Two years after playing in a small arena football league, Hardin in 2013 signed a contract with the Bor Golden Bears, a semi-professional team in Serbia that paid for his travel expenses.
