Inland Northwest talent responsible for Vanguard’s success

COSTA MESA, Calif. – For a small college near the Pacific Ocean, traveling to the NAIA tournament in Kansas City, Mo. involved stopping in the Inland Northwest for supplies.

Two former local standouts, Preston Wynne and DeAngelo Jones, played pivotal roles as Vanguard University won its first Golden State Athletic Conference championship, which gave the Lions their first postseason berth since 2006 – and just their second since 1990.        

Coaching Vanguard is Rhett Soliday, a Reardan native who played at Big Bend Community College. At 27-6, the Lions need one more win to tie the school record for single-season victories.        

Sixth-seeded Vanguard plays Life University from Marietta, Ga., in today’s first round of the NAIA tournament. 

“We’ve lost a lot more games than some of the top teams,” said Wynne, who played with Jones at Spokane Community College two seasons ago. “But we have had to battle every single game all season long.        

“We play harder than almost any team in the country, and I can say that with confidence. That will give us a shot in any game.”        

Both players demonstrated similar tenacity in returning to basketball after long breaks.       

Jones spent one season in rehabilitation and another as a redshirt after tearing two ligaments in his right knee in December 2011. Before that injury, the 6-foot-3 junior earned All-Great Northern League and All-State honors at Cheney High School.        

But in his first season with the Lions, Jones started all 33 games, averaged 12.9 points and finished fourth in the GSAC with 51 steals.        

“It’s my first full season back,” Jones said. “The biggest thing for me was just getting my feet under me, getting my confidence back and having my mind right for games.”        

Wynne, 26, achieved more after a longer hiatus.        

After leading the Panorama League in scoring as a junior at Wellpinit High School, Wynne left basketball for six years to care for the two children he fathered out of wedlock and a mother with multiple sclerosis. 

Wynne resumed his career at SCC in 2010. The next season, he set school records for single-game, single-season and career scoring. Last year as a junior, Wynne made the All-GSAC team as a prelude to a monumental senior season.

The 6-foot-1 guard became the GSAC’s player of the year after leading the conference in scoring (19.9 points) – and the nation in free-throw shooting (90.3 percent). He also ranked second in the GSAC in 3-point shots (102) and steals (61). 

But Wynne views being one of 13 members of the GSAC’s All-Academic team as a greater accomplishment.        

“I’ve never been good at school,” he said. “But here, all the professors are just so amazing that it makes school really, really easy. It’s great to be named for something besides just putting a ball through a hoop.”        

Wynne achieved such honors while keeping in long-distance contact with 9-year-old Jameer, 7-year-old Isis, their mother and his mother.        

“I’m on the phone constantly just trying to put in my two cents on how their lives can be easier and better,” said Wynne, a psychology major. “Going from being the main caretaker in the house to just leaving is extremely hard.”        

Yet Jones provides compassionate friendship.        

“Not everybody on the team knows my situation,” Wynne said. “But he’s been through the battle with me for four years, now. He’s somebody I can talk to whenever times are hard – and times get pretty tough.”        

Those times include watching Jameer leave after a visit.     

“The hardest thing I ever had to do was to see him go back on the plane,” said Wynne, who described another month-long visit as “the most amazing experience, ever.”

Soliday’s contacts led Wynne and Jones to Vanguard. SCC coaches Clint Hull and Jeremy Groth played at Concordia University, a GSAC rival, when Soliday was an assistant coach for that team – which won the 2003 NAIA title.

“We were really focused on trying to build a family atmosphere in our program,” Soliday said about his goals at Vanguard, where he is ending his fourth season as the GSAC’s coach of the year. “That was something these guys really embraced. To me, that’s pretty unique.  

“A lot of times in college basketball today, the focus is on what I can get out of the experience. But their approach was, ‘I wanted to go where I can really pour into the place and help make it a great experience, not only for me but for other guys.’ ”        

That experience means “starting a culture change,” Jones said. “We want to start something special and, hopefully, just keep the ball rolling, you know?”        

By discussing their experiences, Hull and Groth motivated Jones and Wynne to become human turning points.        

“They kept talking about how they were a big part of that,” Wynne said about winning at Concordia. “When DeAngelo said he was going to come here, I wanted to be a part of that so we could do it together.

“It’s amazing. Just to live out that dream we had two years ago, there’s nothing that can compare to that.”