David Belfield
Episode 254
11 DEC 2023
He is the head men’s basketball coach at Belmont Abbey College — a Catholic institution. Previously he had been an assistant coach at the United States Military Academy (Army West Point). As a student-athlete he had played collegiately for two seasons at the University of South Carolina-Aiken, before moving into a student-assistant coaching role. He had earned his first coaching position in 2018 at UNC-Charlotte and is a graduate of Charlotte Catholic High School.
Notable guest quotes:
“I was baptized (Catholic) at a young age… as I transitioned my junior year of high school to Charlotte Catholic, that’s when it kind of picked back up for me and I was a member of RCIA.”
“As a junior in high school I was actually in the class with some of the younger children and that’s when I did my first confession, first communion, confirmation, and all that as a high school student.”
“Maybe I was worshipping the game of basketball. I don’t think it was until I got into the coaching side that I put a lot more thought into using basketball as a vehicle.”
“(My dad) saw basketball as a way to help those kids make better decisions, to take them off the street and kind of give them something to strive for. So that was probably one of the big pieces for me early on, seeing that you can use the game to really help people.”
“Thankfully, the two coaches that I worked for first, their faith was really important to them… (they) constantly were connecting faith and basketball, and who they were as a coach kind of was a direct correlation of their faith.”
“I played for two coaches in college who were both Christians.”
“This is a Catholic college. When I interviewed for the job, they didn’t ask me any questions about Xs and Os, what we’re going to do, how I was going to run practice, style of play. It was all about, ‘How are you going to help develop these young men in body, mind, and spirit.’ That’s all they cared about.”
“For us, personally, as a team, obviously we pray before and after a contest. The biggest thing for us, though, with myself and our staff is we just try to pour into our young men on a daily basis and we try to know who they are as people so that we can help them grow in all areas of their life.”
“What I like to tell guys, ‘If you’re faith is important to you, regardless of if you’re Catholic, Muslim, Baptist, whatever it is, this is a place where you can grow’.”
“I feel like I’ve grown the most in my faith when I’m around people who also prioritize their faith.”
“Be thankful for the hard times. It’s easy to be thankful when things are going well.”
Related link:
David’s bio on Belmont Abbey website
