More Than X’s & O’s: Leadership & the Journey | Zach Hopp — Part 1

What does it take to grow as a basketball coach, a leader, and a follower of Jesus?

In Part 1 of this two-part conversation on Redeeming the Game, Coach Sanders sits down with Zach Hopp, a Division I basketball coach whose journey has taken him through the University of Kansas, Washburn University, Ole Miss, Arkansas State, Athletes in Action, and The Basketball Tournament.

Zach has gained experience in scouting, analytics, strategy, preparation, and coaching at multiple levels of the game. But this conversation goes beyond X’s and O’s.

We explore the journey behind the résumé, the lessons learned through different seasons of coaching, and what separates simply knowing basketball from truly leading people.

Together, we discuss:

• The experiences and opportunities that shaped Zach’s coaching journey.
• How preparation, strategy, and basketball knowledge contribute to leadership.
• What coaches learn through seasons of growth, service, and change.
• How faith in Jesus influences the way we approach our work and the people we lead.
• Why our identity must be rooted in something deeper than our position, accomplishments, or success.

As coaches, it’s easy to become so focused on the next opportunity, the next win, or the next level that we forget to ask who we’re becoming along the way.

Basketball is a gift, but it was never meant to define our worth.

Our goal isn’t simply to become better coaches. It’s to become the kind of leaders who develop people, serve others, and reflect Jesus through the game we love.

The game is the vehicle. People are the mission.

Join us for Part 1 of this conversation with Zach Hopp on Redeeming the Game.

Part 2: Leading the Team, Leading the Family — continuing the conversation around faith, marriage, fatherhood, and leading well both on and off the court.

If could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.

I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”

No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.

If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇

www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

matt@redeemingthegame.com

https://subsplash.com/u/-9XZ3X7/give?frequency=once&next_process_date=08/11/2025&fund_id=58054b9c-b5ff-4d59-bc26-24ad56c3193e

More Than Wins: The Heart of a Leader

What does it really mean to be a successful coach?

Is it championships? Winning seasons? Players moving on to the next level? Awards and recognition?

Or is there something more important happening every day inside the gym?

In this episode of Redeeming the Game, Coach Sanders sits down with a close coaching friend whose journey includes three consecutive state championships in Georgia, a successful college coaching career at Bob Jones University, multiple Coach of the Year honors, regional championships, and recognition as the 2024 National Coach of the Year. He now serves as Athletic Director at High Point Christian Academy in North Carolina.

Together, they discuss the responsibility coaches carry, the character developed through competition, and the role faith plays in shaping the way we lead.

They explore what it means to hold players accountable without reducing them to their mistakes, pursue excellence without tying identity to performance, and measure success by more than what appears on a scoreboard.

Because basketball gives us an opportunity to influence young people in ways that reach far beyond the game.

For coaches who follow Jesus, that influence also presents an opportunity to demonstrate His love, truth, grace, and character through the way we lead.

The question isn’t only, “What kind of team are we building?” It’s also, “What kind of people are we developing?”

The game is a gift. People are the mission.

Welcome to Redeeming the Game.

If could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.

I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”

No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.

If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇

www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

matt@redeemingthegame.com

Books:
"IT'S YOUR SHIP": Captain D. Michael Abrashoff
"Hand Me Another BRICK" : Charles Swindoll

When the Game Isn't Enough/ PT.3 Phil Morrison:

FROM PRO PLAYER TO BASKETBALL MISSIONARY

Phil Morrison has experienced basketball from just about every angle.

🏀 NAIA All-American

🌎 Professional player around the world

🎯 Highly sought-after point guard trainer

✝️ Basketball missionary

But his story isn’t really about what basketball allowed him to accomplish.

It’s about what God has done through basketball.

Phil went from pursuing the game as a player to using the game as a platform to develop players, serve families, travel the globe, and tell people about Jesus.

And somewhere along the way, the question changed:

“How good can I become?”

to:

“How can God use me?”

In this conversation, we talk about the professional game, the transition from player to trainer, identity, purpose, belovedness, and what it looks like to use basketball as a mission field.

Because basketball can give us a career.

It can take us around the world.

It can open doors.

But it was never meant to be our identity.

The game is the vehicle.

People are the mission.

This is When the Game Isn’t Enough — Part 3.

Four men. Four journeys. One greater purpose.

https://www.skool.com/basketball-missions-community-6708/about?ref=c8a5b341f1164e9c99092c6ac2d95da8

If could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.

I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”

No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.

If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇

www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

matt@redeemingthegame.com

https://subsplash.com/u/-9XZ3X7/give?frequency=once&next_process_date=08/11/2025&fund_id=58054b9c-b5ff-4d59-bc26-24ad56c3193e

Why Players Burn Out:
Are We Helping Them Love the Game?

Why do players burn out from a game they once loved?

A basketball player recently shared a story that really challenged me. He said that after a bad practice, he couldn’t simply go back to his dorm and enjoy the rest of his day. He felt like he had to immediately get back to work on his game.

When practice went well, everything felt great.

When practice went poorly, everything felt terrible.

That raises a difficult question for us as coaches:

Are we teaching our players that their performance determines how they should feel about themselves?

Tomorrow we’ll talk through three ways we can help protect our players from burnout:

🏀 Make practice fun — because the game was meant to be enjoyed.

🗣️ Call out the best in your players — develop them without degrading them.

❤️ Love them in the way they need to be loved — helping every player know that they are seen, heard, and loved.

We’ll also talk about the deeper issue underneath performance:

Identity.

Because if a player believes, “I’m only okay when I play well,” then every practice becomes a referendum on their worth.

But when a player knows they are loved before they perform, they can compete with freedom rather than desperation.

The goal isn’t just to keep players from quitting basketball.

The goal is to help them love the game without needing the game to tell them who they are.

If could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.

I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”

No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.

If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇

www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

matt@redeemingthegame.com

https://subsplash.com/u/-9XZ3X7/give?frequency=once&next_process_date=08/11/2025&fund_id=58054b9c-b5ff-4d59-bc26-24ad56c3193e

Welcome back to Redeeming the Game.

We’re continuing our series:

When the Game Isn’t Enough.

Last week, we talked about developing people instead of simply developing players.

Today, we’re going to approach that question from a completely different perspective.

My guest has actually reached the dream that so many young basketball players chase.

He played in the NBA.He played professionally overseas.

And today, he’s still competing at an extremely high level, traveling around the country playing 1-on-1 basketball.

So he’s experienced something most of us haven’t.

He’s experienced what it’s like to make it.

And that’s why I want to ask him a question today:

What happens when you reach the dream?

Because we spend so much time telling young athletes to chase the next level.

Get the scholarship.Make the team.Get recruited.Go overseas.Make the NBA.

And then what?

What happens when you actually get there?

Does it finally tell you who you are?

Or do you discover that your identity has to come from somewhere deeper?

That’s what we’re going to talk about today.

I could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.

I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”

No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.

If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇

www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

matt@redeemingthegame.com

https://subsplash.com/u/-9XZ3X7/give?frequency=once&next_process_date=08/11/2025&fund_id=58054b9c-b5ff-4d59-bc26-24ad56c3193e

Welcome back to Redeeming the Game.
Today, we’re beginning a brand-new series called:

When the Game Isn’t Enough.
Over the next few weeks, I’m sitting down with some incredible friends of mine who have experienced basketball at very different levels.
We’re going to talk about the game.
We’re going to talk about success.
We’re going to talk about identity.
But most importantly, we’re going to ask a deeper question:

What happens when basketball isn’t enough to tell you who you are?
Today’s guest has a unique perspective.
He is one of the most prolific basketball trainers I know.
He has spent years developing players, helping athletes improve their skills, build confidence, and pursue their potential.
But what I love most about his journey isn’t simply what he does for players on the court.
It’s how he sees them off the court.
Because the best trainers don’t just see the athlete in front of them. They see the person.
And that’s where I want to begin today.
Are we simply building better basketball players… or are we helping develop better people?

I could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.
I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”
No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.
If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.
👇 Free download linked below 👇
www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

matt@redeemingthegame.com

https://subsplash.com/u/-9XZ3X7/give?frequency=once&next_process_date=08/11/2025&fund_id=58054b9c-b5ff-4d59-bc26-24ad56c3193e

7 wins. One championship. Two future pastors.

But this story isn’t really about the championship.

It’s about grief.

It’s about personal battles.

It’s about grace.

It’s about redemption.

Two former players. Two very different journeys. One faithful God.

Years later, one is a youth pastor. One is a lead pastor. And both are living proof that your story is never over when Jesus is still writing it.

Maybe the greatest thing God was building wasn’t a championship team.

Maybe He was building two shepherds.

🎙️ Redeeming the Game Podcast
I could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.

I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”

No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.

If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇

www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

https://subsplash.com/u/-9XZ3X7/give?frequency=once&next_process_date=08/11/2025&fund_id=58054b9c-b5ff-4d59-bc26-24ad56c3193e

matt@redeemingthegame.com

They won only seven games… and then won a championship.

Nobody saw it coming.

But years later, I’m realizing the championship wasn’t the greatest part of their story.

These two former players took very different paths. One walked through the devastating loss of his father during his freshman year. The other has faced deeply personal struggles and battles of his own.

But neither man’s story ended there.

Today, both are pastors.

One is a youth pastor. One is a lead pastor.

One is married with a child. The other is preparing for marriage.

And both have discovered something bigger than basketball:

Your struggle is not your identity.

Your past is not your identity.

Your performance is not your identity.

In Christ, you are beloved. And because of Jesus, you are righteous.

This conversation is about an unlikely championship, grief, personal battles, grace, redemption, and two young men who eventually became shepherds.

Maybe God was doing more than building a championship team.

Maybe He was building two shepherds.

🎙️ Redeeming the Game Podcast

Part 1 & Part 2 — coming soon.

If I could go back and talk to my younger self as a coach, these are the 10 things I’d tell him first.

I put them all into a free guide called “10 Things I Wish I Knew as a Young Coach.”

No fluff. No playbooks. Just real lessons from years of coaching, leading, winning, losing, and learning.

If you’re early in your coaching journey, or you want to coach with more purpose and clarity, grab it for free below.

👇 Free download linked below 👇

www.redeemingthegame.com/10things

matt@redeemingthegame.com