NAIA team in tournament despite school closure

Just hours before his school was set to shut down for good, Antelope Valley men’s basketball coach Jordan Mast said he was happy the men’s and women’s basketball teams will get the opportunity to finish the year after raising $40,000 to pay for their postseasons.

They will not, however, have a campus to call home when they return.

Despite its school no longer operating after a government order to “cease operation of all degree programs” by a Friday deadline because of financial mismanagement, Antelope Valley’s men’s team is a 6-seed that will face 11-seed Huntington (Indiana) in the first round in Glendale, Arizona, on March 15, following Thursday’s NAIA tournament bracket reveal. The women’s team, which qualified for the NAIA tournament after it won the California Pacific Conference regular-season title, is a 13-seed that will face 4-seed Southern Oregon in Ashland, Oregon, on March 15.

“Unlike most teams this year who might be happy or upset with their seeding or matchup, we are feeling beyond blessed that we even get to compete,” Mast told ESPN. “The players have been through a lot as our school has officially announced it is closing [Friday]. They have still not communicated to any of us or the students what their plans are for helping students find a new school, or housing or finish their degree. The burden has fallen on the students, their families, our staff, and others in the community that care about the well-being of these young men and women.”

Last month, officials at Antelope Valley, a private school in Lancaster, California, told Mast and the other coaches at the school that the teams’ seasons would be canceled because of the pending closure of the campus due to financial difficulties and they wouldn’t be allowed to participate in the NAIA tournament. Mast knew trouble was ahead when he and other staffers received just 25% of their normal paychecks last month.

But the school agreed to allow Mast to raise the money to finish the year for the men’s and women’s teams but advised him that athletes would be removed from their dorms and barred from on-campus athletic facilities, giving some members of the teams just days to scramble and attempt to find housing and a new place to practice.

As Antelope Valley’s predicament went viral last month, Mast’s GoFundMe hit its goal of $40,000 within 72 hours, extending the basketball season for the men’s and women’s teams.

Mast said the basketball teams made a deal to continue practicing in their gym but he is still unsure of the next steps after the school’s official shutdown on Friday. The seasons of other teams on campus were canceled midseason because of the school’s situation. The Antelope Valley baseball team’s season ended this week after a 9-6 start.

Basketball, however, has given the players peace amid the chaos, Mast said.

“Basketball has been a source of normalcy for our teams,” he said. “The court has been a place for them to forget the problems and issues they are facing. It has been a place where their stress and anxiety has been forgotten even if only for a brief moment. So for other teams, the tournament might be a bright spot or a reward for a great season, but for us, it means we get to go on a little while longer. We get to do something we love with the people we love for a few more days or weeks, and we get to be together until we lose or win it all and the reality of our situation truly sets in.”