Amazing Greats
Interviews with well known actors, authors, artists, athletes, musicians, and business leaders. Authentic conversations about their lives, careers, and how their faith played an important part. Inspiring and uplifting stories of hope, transformation, and triumph. We dig deep for the powerful life stories from some very amazing guests...truly "souls on fire".
Amazing Greats
The Live Wire: Coach R-Jay Barsh on Faith, Adversity, and Basketball at Gonzaga
When you meet Gonzaga University basketball coach R-Jay Barsh, one thing is clear—he’s a live wire for Jesus. In this inspiring episode of Amazing Greats, we dive deep into the journey of a man whose passion for the game is matched only by his passion for Christ. From his early days in High School and Tacoma Community College to leading college teams across the country and now coaching alongside legends at Gonzaga, R-Jay’s story is a powerful testimony of perseverance, calling, and faith in action.
A devastating back injury ended his playing career and sent him searching for purpose beyond the scoreboard. That’s when God revealed a new game plan—coaching, mentoring, and ministering through basketball. Along the way, R-Jay was profoundly shaped by Fred Crowell, founder of NBC Basketball Camps, whose faith and mentorship sparked ripples that continue to change lives. R-Jay's story is another example of the ripple effect of one man, the late Fred Crowell. Fred’s own powerful journey is captured in Amazing Greats episode 10 and another “Fred ripple” can be heard in episode 78 with Indiana Pacers VP Ryan Carr.
With his trademark energy and authenticity, Coach Barsh shares how adversity deepened his faith, how he lives out his calling on and off the court, and why every practice, huddle, and halftime can become a place of ministry. Whether you love basketball or just need a reminder of what it means to live on fire for God, this conversation will move and motivate you.
"Amazing Greats" is a library of interviews with highly successful people who have amazing career and life stories and who share how God has impacted their journey. Hosted by broadcaster Ric Hansen & produced by Klem Daniels. Available on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Google and our YouTube Channel.
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We are live and write with a new friend. It is RJ Barsh, coach at one of the coaching team at Gonzaga University. That's our guest on Amazing Greats. Not only is a passionate basketball guru, but on top of that, he's a he's a live wire follower of Jesus Christ. And we're going to talk about that and the basketball career and all things that make up RJ Barsh. So let's get started. RJ, thank you for being here today.
SPEAKER_02:I'm excited to be here. Um I I like the term live wire. There's something special about that, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't get to touch a live wire and not be changed.
SPEAKER_03:That's right. So I got to tell you a quick little story, and that is that you know, I have this jealousy kind of relationship with basketball players. Because when I was in high school, uh, you'd go to a Friday night basketball game and the stands would be crowded with people and there'd be cheerleaders, and it'd be a big, big event. Well, it just so happens that I was a five foot seven wrestler. And so when you go to a wrestling match at a high school, and there's like 12 people in the stand, and usually they're just moms and dads, right?
SPEAKER_04:So yes.
SPEAKER_03:So we always relish the idea of having an actual stadium full of people. Uh, and you got that for years and still do. So that's great.
SPEAKER_02:That is, it didn't know it wasn't always that way. No, yeah. The the career started off in some places where it only could fit 300 people in the gym and maybe 100 showed up. Okay. All right.
SPEAKER_03:Well, that's now let's get started right there because um you are the the whole story of RJ Bars seems to be from a guy from the outside looking at your resume, which I have right here. Um it looks like uh a career of nothing but winning all the way down. Like you started out uh a Lincoln High School basketball player back in the day, and and they were red hot when you were playing uh with that team. Then you went on to Tacoma Community College. Uh, and Tacoma Community College says right here, uh, you won three Western regional titles in four seasons, and then an NWAACC championship in 2012. Then you moved on to Lakeland, Florida, where you spent seven years. And over those seven years, you led SEU, that is Southeastern University, the first three NAA N AIA, Division II national tournaments, on and on we go. Then you're off to Boise State, then to to uh Florida State, and now you're here in Washington State at Gonzaga University, a school that is um you know respected and successful and has been for years, and now you're a part of that coaching team. So, wow, and then on top of all of that, somewhere along the line, I read where you said um one of the things that you like to teach new players is how to uh face adversity. And I'm wondering how you got to that when it doesn't seem like you've had adversity.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you know, um there should be a section on the resume of trial and error. Okay. So people so so people can see the steps it took to be in those places. Um I believe I faced adversity as a player. You know, when I was at Central Washington University Division II school, I broke my back. Wow. Breaking my back, I was the one guy when coaches always tell their players, you never know when you play your last game. Oh I did not know when I played my last game, but I also played with a certain level of energy and enthusiasm that I was thankful with the way I left the floor. So I didn't play another college basketball game after that. So I was faced really early in life between the ages of 20 and 21 of which direction in which I would go. And you know, that was kind of my bridge to coaching because I was still fresh in the basketball scene, and it's what I knew. It seemed to be the place I felt the most comfortable to correct and to encourage and to teach. And so threw myself in all the way to basketball as a as a as a teacher. And so that was a lot of adversity because uh, you know, my friends are talking about you know their highlights and their stats, and I have no, I have not nothing to give in those moments.
SPEAKER_03:So back when you're in high school, uh prior to to all of that, uh were you um just to kind of trace this back, were you a Christian at that point?
SPEAKER_02:Did you know Jesus? I went to I went to Pialp High School, uh, I was born and raised uh in the ways of uh of the faith by my parents. My dad was a pastor and and and a preacher, and my mom was mom is is a diligent prayer warrior. Uh the Bible is front and center in our family. And uh so I would it was modeled throughout my entire life of what it looked like to be a follower of Christ. Um I would say I was always vocal about those things growing up. It just naturally was uh who I was and who I am. That adversity of the back made me double down on my faith because I needed to be carried. And up until that point, I think I was living on the faith that I was borrowing from my parents and from my pastors. My faith was tested in that moment. It wasn't, you know, the temptations that most human face at that age for whatever purposes, God had graced me to not have those. But that failure of now I have to have a different dream, a different direction, made me find my prayer life. But in high school, I I definitely also I wore my my faith on my sleeve.
SPEAKER_03:I did not know that about your story, the back issue. And and so that was a kind of a change of identity at that point because you were a player and that's what you intended to be and wanted to be. And all of a sudden you're not that. So, how did you make that pivot? I mean, was it an automatic kind of oh well, I'll do this then?
SPEAKER_02:Or well, for me, um growing up, I always, in the way my parents raised me, did wanted to be seen as more than just what I was doing as a basketball player. So uh a high-level academic, um, loved to read, loved to write. And so I always in the back of my mind knew the ball would get flat. I just remember, I'm not sure which coach it was, but I heard this story, and maybe John Thompson, but I could and maybe, maybe not, where he had a knife and he put it into a basketball during a talk with one of his players to let his players know that eventually the ball goes flat, and you better have something in your life you can lean on professionally, spiritually, vocationally, because not a lot of you know 45-year-old basketball players, right? So you gotta figure out a different path. So I've always been thinking about that part of my life and what that would look like. I always enjoyed being around people and coaching people, so I knew it would be somewhere in that capacity, and so but yeah, that losing the identity of now I can't chase something that's so tangible was was was a high level frustration.
SPEAKER_03:And prayers at that point were significant, and that's kind of where you made your pivot from uh growing up as a Christian and becoming a real follower of Jesus on a whole different level. Is that right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I definitely would say on a different level. I don't know if the realness necessarily changed as much, but uh the depths of my relationship with God went to a different level because I understood like in the back, I mean God was was yelling, I was yelling why. Yeah, yeah, and so um, and up until that point the prayers were pretty modest.
SPEAKER_03:And did you get did you get an answer to the why? Yes, I did, yeah, yeah, and and that and was that answer uh because I have new direction for you.
SPEAKER_02:Well, the answer was more of uh I've equipped you to help others find reach their goal. So are you okay pushing someone else? And so I was like in my head, I'm thinking like, okay, I always heard the quotes, you know, we're standing on the shoulders of those before us. And so I was thinking, okay, I guess in coaching you can encourage and motivate. So I just started motivating people to chase their dreams, and I got so much um momentum in my heart from that.
SPEAKER_03:And when did you hook up then with uh NBC camps? Was that uh earlier on?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and that's a big part of the faith journey too. I was about 13 years old when I started going to NBC camps, and uh my best friend Jacob Washburn uh invited me and took me to camp. And I couldn't afford camp the first month, first year. And so Fred Crow, uh Roger Smith, they allowed me to be a junior counselor in Auburn. So I was able to like clean up the gym during camp and then attend camp the next day. So I ended up doing that for eight weeks, a summer, 13 all the way till I went to college. And so at 15 and 16 years old, I was coaching the eight-year-old's coaching division. And by the time I was 20, me and Fred were traveling the country running camps together.
SPEAKER_03:You're listening to Amazing Greats. Today's guest, RJ Barsh, isn't just a basketball coach, he's a man on a mission to use the game as a platform for faith, for purpose, and for transformation. Okay, quickly out because I don't know how many of our listeners have heard the Fred Kroll story, but he was one of our guests back in uh it's been a couple years ago now, because he's he's passed. Uh, but uh his story was incredible. And so NBC Camps is Northwest basketball camp. Uh, it started here in the Northwest, but it's all over the place now. And so I'm just using this as a kind of description for those listeners who aren't up to date. And so we can talk about Fred, who is an enigma all of his own, uh, just an amazing individual. Tell us, tell us your take on Fred Kroll.
SPEAKER_02:Fred Krohl was an anchor for me. He allowed me to run wild but not get too far.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:He allowed me to, you know, express my creativity in basketball and coaching, and I felt safe to chase to chase some of those dreams as a head coach very young because he had done those things when he was in Alaska. Um I wasn't scared of a pivot in my career because he pivoted from Samford to being a counselor to running the greatest camps in the world. Um and he held me accountable. His son Jay and I became really good friends, and it gave me a community. Being close to Fred gave me a community of men that were living in a way I could admire and I could I could mirror. Um, but there was an accountability factor with Fred that was a little more intense. Um so I think the thing that was special about my story, because I can't tell my story without talking about Fred, is um all men crave a sense of accountability and a sense of coaching. And that's what I got from from Fred was that coaching.
SPEAKER_03:Is he the one that modeled the idea of um bringing uh Jesus to the basketball court? Because that's exactly what his whole camp was set up for that purpose. Is he wanted to preach the gospel but do it in a in a real tangible way through basketball?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I would definitely say that was a big part of it. Um I think spiritually I've always made sure the gospel was where I was at. So I don't see basketball as anything separate than me going to 7-Eleven. If if if there's people there, then my spirit enters the same way. Uh basketball just happens to be the vehicle in which I am feeding my family, and there's people around, and so they're gonna get that live wire.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. And so along the way during this career path, then, was the was the um administration totally comfortable with your integrating uh Christianity into the um into the basketball court with your teams? Was that an okay thing and worked well?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I had really, really strong bosses or I would say head coaches who I worked for early in my career. And then there's something about if you're I always would tell myself this the you know, before I preach something or do anything, to check the box of high-level competency so they can trust my decision making. So if um I'm excellent in that area, then this area will be accepted as that's just part of his excellence and not um just something he's doing just to do.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I didn't ever make it a uh standalone situation. It was in the flow of life of coaching. Like I don't, I didn't have chapels, I didn't have Bible studies, it was one-on-one with players, and then the flow of my life, and then all of a sudden we got five guys and we're praying because something happened. Uh so since I think I've seamlessly done it that way, I think I've been blessed. I would say the second thing is I'm very loud on social media with who I am. So wherever I've worked, I've always made sure they they grasp that part's not changing. When I was a junior college assistant, I did have some coaches tell me I would need to change that to become a division one coach. Um, and then I just said, okay, then I won't be a division one coach. Like I it would be very hard for me to all of a sudden put that in a in a in a in a separate corner of my life.
SPEAKER_03:So Okay, so back to the uh just quickly jump back again to the NBC camps. Was there uh a story out of that period when you were were coaching younger people, young kids, uh, that you saw some real change in people, maybe a specific situation where you said this guy was going down the wrong path and and and Jesus changed him.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, there's a coach um um who came over from the islands in Hawaii, and uh I guess some people would say he he maybe had a little bit of an attitude and and and it was tougher to coach. And for me, he he just reminded me uh uh the inner city guys I grew up around. And and so me and him stroke up a great relationship. And he thought in the beginning I was just being a camp coach with high energy and it wasn't real, and you're not gonna care by the third day. And now we're 15 years into our friendship, our relationship, and he's a high-level uh trainer in California. He's had multiple guys make it to the next level. Um and I definitely could say in our relationship, there's been conversations where he could have gone left, he could have gone right, and before he made any decisions, he prayed. And um, and we often remember the NBC camp days because he was like, you know, watching me was able to for was a great example for him because he saw it could be real. Like I wasn't being phony. He just he just thought all people like that are fake, like they're not like that all the time. And because you know, if I'm having a day where where there's some tensions and there's some struggles, I'm okay sharing that with my team. The reason I share them that is because I also want to share why I can lift myself up. Exactly. So I think in the past I I've seen people just share the lifting up part, and uh, players would see God or Jesus or Christianity as Santa Claus delivering only gifts versus like someone who can carry you through your tough seasons, but also someone when you're at the highest of highs lets you understand how to use that that moment. In my in my language of coaching, I and this is just a natural, I don't use a lot of religious overtones, and that's not by choice or by design, that's just how and how I speak. And so guys often ask me, Coach, what are you are you talking about? And then I'm able to go right into what I'm talking about. Um, and I think that's just just being surrounded by basketball my whole life. I speak their language that way.
SPEAKER_03:Are you still associated with NBC camps at all to this day?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I'll be associated with NBC camps till the end of time. So um the school in which I used to coach at in Florida, the Division II school, still hosts NBC camps. I have, I would say, seven or eight former players who are running and who are part of running NBC camps, who are directors of NBC camps. Um, there's a fraternity of young men who uh introduced to NBC camps that uh are sending their kids now to NBC camps.
SPEAKER_03:Back in the uh day when you when Fred was alive and and a part of your uh daily life, he had a lot of uh phrases that he used uh that people remember long term. What was your favorite Fred Kroll phrase?
SPEAKER_02:Uh so there's two um piss on pity. Okay, and and that one would be because I got to a place where my pro if my biggest problem was we lost a game, and that's what I'm calling complaining about, then he just like get over it. Don't be don't sit in that, don't look for pity from anybody, get over it, go be a leader. So and those are I I can't believe I I shared that one because those are in our like private conversations where he would just come on, RJ, you you you know, you know, have the you know how the spirit of fear, you know, you know, piss on pity, you know.
SPEAKER_03:I love it. And what was the other one that you're gonna mention?
SPEAKER_02:Uh RPE, relentless pursuit of excellence. Okay, and and sometimes I'll change the E, the relentless pursuit of energy, the relentless pursuit of everyone, you know, the relentless pursuit of an enemy to not make him an enemy anymore. Like so that that RPE one to me um resonates deeply. Okay, because you have to pursue something relentlessly. Like there's a level of pursuit that you have to have if you want to change something or be or become that thing. Um, and I want to make sure that I that I do that in in few areas, not all areas, cannot be relentless. And so I choose those relentless areas very wisely. And so that that came from from Fred. And you know, I had a nice one is PMA positive mental attitude. And the reason I like that one is because if you start your day by recognizing where your attitude is at, you can course correct and put it into a positive mental space. And I've been able to use that one in every in secular environments where you can walk in and talk about God. I'm able to use that one, but they know in which I'm where I'm coming from with that phrase.
SPEAKER_03:Because they know who you are, because you 100%. Yeah, yeah. That's the the the the glory of it is is that um as when you're wearing that on your sleeve and everybody knows it, then what you say and what you do naturally points to Jesus, uh, whether you talk about it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and fortunately, I think sometimes or unfortunately, the light shines the most when the organization is going through tough times. Because they can see, like, okay, something sustaining him. What is that? And it takes over, and after you're with someone longer than a year and coaching, and you see that, then those that that's when the questions start happening. Yeah, questions don't happen when you're winning because everyone's smile. It's when something hits the program, either outside or inside, to where you're like, okay, what do we do? And that's when I stand really, really strong on the faith part.
SPEAKER_03:Very good. From winning records in Florida to the elite coaching team of Gonzaga University, RJ Barsh's journey is one of perseverance, passion, and a deep love for Jesus on amazing greats. What about um the transitions between one job and another, between one a career move and another? Uh, was that uh a guidance of the Holy Spirit? Was that something um that you you you took direction from God uh in those choices?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so when I was um at the junior college and we had just won the championship, uh I went on a on a fast. And during that fast, it was uh I graduated from the University of Puget Sound, and there was always a phrase of if you're in business, if you're in you know professional setting, to know if you're really good, you probably should go far away from home early to test your theories. And if you get a good report, then maybe you can duplicate your product. But if you never leave home and you keep having success at home, eventually you're gonna have a ceiling. And so when I was at the junior college and we won that championship, I just looked at a map and saw the place furthest away from Washington State was Florida. And um, I I prayed about it for about a minute, and then I think sometimes you don't need to pray about things because you've been praying about the thing that just showed up, so God's answering you and the thing that showed up. Yeah, and so I uh had a friend who was the campus pastor because it was assemblies of God school in Florida, and so he was like, Man, this fits your personality. We could use someone with your youthful energy and your coaching pedigree, and the school had not necessarily won as much gone into this next uh division that they were headed into. So there were a lot of guys who didn't want the job, and so um I decided to take that jump. People call it a leap of faith, but I mean you're going from assistant coach to a head coach of a four-year at 26-27. That was a massive opportunity to see if I could go far from home and duplicate the process. And so that was strategic. The other transitions, I wanted to make sure that I stayed in a place long enough to where the community and the place I was in as a head coach, there was an identity for the program. Um, I didn't want to have a career where it was like one year, one year, one year, one year, and it looked like I was climbing rings on a ladder. So I stayed there seven years, and some of the things that came to me in mentorship from certain people were like for me to be successful and to keep my identity in the way I want, there's only very few head coaches I could work for. And so once I kind of identified who they were, um it was, you know, coaches who have been coaching a long time, had tenured assistants, and my personality, my energy would not come would not be competing with theirs because they were safe in their own person. And so um that left very few coaches I could work for.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Florida State was an exception to your longevity. That was a that was just a one-season situation.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, it it it will it will look like that on the resume.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02:Um, but my first year at Southeastern University on the drive from Tacoma, Washington to Lakeland, Florida, I called as many Division I and Division II schools in Florida to introduce myself. Very few coaches called back. The coaching staff at Florida State called back and interacted with me my first year in Florida as a lowest level of college basketball NAI basketball coach. And said, anything you need, let us know. And for me, Coach Leonard Hamilton was is what the person who I looked up to the most in coaching as far as how he's done it, because he's also been a civil servant, the way he served his community, the less fortunate, he the where he where he's came from. And then also being a black head coach, I wanted to make sure I had somebody I could identify with that way. So he brought me in just like Fred brought me in when I was 13. Coach Hamilton brought me in in 2013, and I was close to the program from then. Two players I trained went and played there. I hired one of his former assistants as my assistant coach. We played against him twice. I mean, you're talking about a small NAI school playing against an ACCT.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So my relationship with him goes way further than that. And he's a big time believer. He he owns a gospel recording label.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, really?
SPEAKER_02:Me and him connected on that before basketball, and then basketball ended up being like, Oh, okay, let's talk basketball. And when I took the boise state job, he said, You'll be there until I need you. And so I literally was not leaving Boise State until Coach Hamilton called.
SPEAKER_03:And so uh, did you have a recording career in mind? None at all. I wish.
SPEAKER_02:Um, I I I I have one prayer that by the age of 50, God turns this raspiness, raspy voice into a worship leader voice. Um, we'll see if that happens. But uh, but no, I was definitely in I I I love the business side of the music industry because it also puts you in different rooms where you can showcase your faith. And so me and him always uh you know, um saw eye to eye on that part. That it was that basketball was fun, but it's just basketball. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:How many years till you're 50? How many years do we have to wait until you come out with your first album?
SPEAKER_02:Uh I will be 43 in March. So okay, we got seven years to go. Yeah, close.
SPEAKER_03:That's excellent. All right. So tell me, yeah, uh along the way, we we heard about the adversity regarding your your back, breaking your back, which is huge, but also along the way, is were there other things that came up that you had to walk through?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, my my uh first year as a head coach, um we lost, I think, seven games in a row. Um I had to have a couple of jobs outside of coaching to financially secure my family, and so I there was many days where I felt I may have made a selfish and wrong decision. So it and the only time I didn't feel that way is when I was in my word. So I I had to make the word basically it's what I would call the Bible became a speed bump to where like I put speed bumps where the word would be around me so that I would remind myself okay, I prayed, I listened, I responded. What does this situation tell me right now? I'm here for a purpose. It's bigger than basketball. And so that was some adversity in that part. Yeah, and then the ministry that I had at South. Was I took a lot of division one and division two transfers who were kicked out of school for whatever reason, whether academics or you know, something to do with off the court and was able to walk alongside them to rehab their careers. Uh, in my institution, Ken Ingo, Drew Watson, they allowed me to do that with players. So there was a lot of success stories of players showing up and then leaving a different way. We got more than 10 pastors, two senior pastors of churches in California, one in Atlanta, one in Florida, you know, several athletic directors, um, one NBA player. So there's there's it was that part where I realized we after realizing that adversity, where I was like, okay, why am I here? My team never went on a mission trip. And people would always say, Why is your team not going over? Because the mission trip to me was investing so much in my players that wherever they went, they would be on a mission field. And so we get and so and I and I would tell them that like we're not raising money to do it. That's I don't feel like that's what I'm called to do. I feel like if I can make you, if I can help you get to a certain place, wherever you go, you're gonna be in that field. Um, and that was some adversity in my community uh when I made that decision, but that was a prayerful decision, and thankful I made that one as well.
SPEAKER_03:Whether he's coaching elite college athletes or mentoring young players, RJ Barsh on Amazing Greats brings the same message: faith first, love always, and excellence through Christ. Most of my interviews like to get because everybody has kind of a different way they hear God's voice. Some audibly, others not so much. It's just a thought or a knowing. Uh, can you identify how you know when you're being directed by God?
SPEAKER_02:The way that I like to answer that is I don't want to identify because I don't want to close a door that could open that I haven't seen or heard yet. And I don't want to be looking for it in places because I heard it there before. So uh I just know this. If I am if I am disciplined in the word, it's always going to speak.
SPEAKER_03:How did the transition to Gonzaga go down?
SPEAKER_02:So Coach Hamilton and Coach Few, obviously two Hall of Fame legendary coaches, um were on a coach's board for the NCAA together. And my name came up for a couple different things, and Coach Hamilton was speaking about what I was bringing to his program uh while we were struggling at Florida State. We did not have a good year, X's and uh wins and loss squads. But I also knew you know that was a great opportunity to be in the highest level I've ever been and still not make it just about basketball. When I was at the Division II, we played against a team called Valprazo. Uh the assistant coach on that team was a young man named Roger Powell, who's now the head coach at Valprazo. Uh, he was the assistant that left Gonzaga to go become the head coach.
SPEAKER_03:And that's where you got an opening.
SPEAKER_02:And Coach Fu and it, I mean, it's obvious one of his highest skill sets is he knows how to assemble the right people around the his team, whether it's personnel, whether it's recruiting, whether it's staffing, he knows what his program's going to need tomorrow. And so um he was getting ready to do the Olympics. I had had coaching experience and a lot of juice when I'm in the gym, and he felt like that was a great fit. And we got on the phone. Obviously, we had met before, just being Northwest uh uh basketball guys, and we had a short talk, and on to Spokane, I went. And it was very interesting because the year before that I was in Spokane for uh Fred's funeral. Okay, and so I spoke at the funeral. There was a couple of air and situations where I was able to speak to a group, and so I felt like I was coming home in a sense as Fred was just had went home.
SPEAKER_03:Well, Gonzaga is a uh legendary school. I mean, the basketball is like um it's it's to drool over. I mean, yes, and and and uh Mark Pugh is a a legend himself. What can you tell us about Mark that we don't know?
SPEAKER_02:He comes from uh his parents, his dad's a pastor. He grew up in the in in the sanctuary. He's very diligent in his disciplines and how he lives his life with his children. His children are so present, and that's the thing that got gave me so much peace when I came on my visit and took the job. Here is it was a normal Tuesday, and he's playing pickleball with his wife on one side, and his other two kids are in the weight room, and then his daughter walks through and says hello, and I'm thinking to myself, this is two national championship game, title game appearances. This is and his family loves him. If in 20 years that can be me, I'm okay with that. He's a no-fluff, meaning if it doesn't matter to the bottom line, he doesn't spend a lot of time spending his wills on it, and he hires people and he surrounds himself around people who I might say make him better, but just are truth tellers.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, he's not yes men, but truth tellers.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and there and there's certain there's a certain level of respect where a yes man is required, but he uh puts you in position to have convictions. And if you don't have them, it will be hard to exist here. And that's why I think we're so successful is because we we even recruit that way. He on the recruiting visits, he wants to see if the player really trusts themselves to be excellent. And if there's a backpedal in a player, we're not taking them.
SPEAKER_03:Are you a father yourself? I am, yes.
SPEAKER_02:Uh and uh Carson and Grayson. Carson is uh 27 and Grayson is six years old. Oh my gosh, a little spread. So Carson Carson was was through my my previous partner. I adopted him when he was uh 11. Um, and he's a phenomenal young man, lives in Tallahassee, looks like a superhero, disciplined weightlifter, and physical trainer, and runs a gym and is doing very well for himself. And I speaking of Coach Few, the way in which this organization is run, I'm able to take my son to school every single day. I'll leave practice and come back to practice to go and pick him up, and he'll go sit in the stands. And my son's school is literally two blocks from my office.
SPEAKER_03:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:So there's a there's a reason this place stays special, is because I believe it stays unique and intimate. Whereas a lot of places would have started hanging their trophies and becoming sticking their chests out, and that's just not who he is. And I I think a lot of that comes from his faith.
SPEAKER_03:Excellent. So there's a thing online that I saw, it's called Sky Motivation. Is that still around? And what is what is that? It's it's you founded that. Yes, tell us about it.
SPEAKER_02:So Sky Motivation is uh there's a record label in Tacoma called Sky Movement that had several artists make it to the big time. And I wanted to find a way to be in the room, talk about God without having to use the language that certain individuals would then close their ears to. So sky, look up to the sky as God, and then motivation. So sky motivation became my hashtag, in a sense, to talk about my faith in a way into which others would also talk about it. And so it's still a thing today. I would say there's a tangible like business model to it. It's it's nothing I've profited off of. It's literally me taking the Bible, using quotes, and starting conversations off of those phrases, and then hashtag and sky motivation and using that as the language to the masses.
SPEAKER_03:So good because you know, sometimes uh just the word Christianity scares people away. Um, and so when you can model it and um integrate it without being uh forceful or pushy, uh what a great opportunity to share the gospel.
SPEAKER_02:And I think there's, I mean, you you you you witness in your personality. So if someone else is forceful and pushy, but that is who they are, that's their that's how they negotiate their lives, then I think it works. For me, this is how I I just I like that it's coach in front of my name and that pastor because coaches, I can walk in any room and young men are going to listen.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So um, those are conscious decisions I made through prayer.
SPEAKER_03:All right, final question for you. And we we've this has been you've given me a good chunk of your time, and I appreciate that. Uh, is can you share with us your uh spiritual disciplines on a day-to-day basis? I mean, is there is there a uh a discipline that you stick to regularly?
SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah, you 100%. Um I call it the aim. So it's uh affirmation, it's uh imagination, and then it's you know a meditative on the scripture. So before I go to bed, I'll take a water bottle and I'll take the label off it. And I started doing this about 14 years ago. When I take the label off, I take the label off just because I don't want to label anyone and I don't want to be labeled. Then I'll take a marker and I'll write a word on that bottle. It's usually a word from scripture. Um, I've been studying the Hebrew, so I'll use a Hebrew word. The word yesterday was imuna, but means a conviction through faith and trial, like you know why you believe what you believe. I'll write that on the water bottle and I'll put that water bottle right in front of my phone. So right when my alarm goes off, the first thing that I do is I see that word on the water, and I will drink the bottle water, which you gotta drink some water. Then I will imagine in myself becoming that in my day, and then either some worship music or quietness or straight to my devotion for the day for three or four minutes, and that's the mindfulness or meditative part. And the acronym is AIM, because I feel like if I aim in the morning, then it's really hard not to have a phenomenal, phenomenal day. When I say phenomenal, it doesn't mean lack of adversity, but one on which I open the door up for God to enter that day before I jump on the treadmill of worry, doubt, comparison, and envy that happens to be my cell phone. So that that's that's one that I do no matter what.
SPEAKER_03:All right. You're a live out of the line. We're gonna title this podcast episode is The Live Wire.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you so much for having for having me on and doing and doing what you do, and you never know uh who's gonna be listening, why they're listening, and uh I'm just thankful I was on this platform.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you so much. Have a great day, RJ. You too. Well, from community college courts to the national spotlight, Coach RJ Farsh has shown that the victory isn't necessarily on the scoreboard, but in living boldly for Jesus and shaping lives through love and purpose. His journey reminds us that when faith drives the mission, every moment on and off the court can become a ministry. Thanks for joining us once again on Amazing Great. God bless. We'll see you next time.
