Forged By Faith

“But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord — who is the Spirit — makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” 

— 2 Corinthians 3: 16-18

Another school year is upon us, and it would be safe to say that Papillion-LaVista South basketball coach Joel Hueser will have a hard time topping the 2024-25 version.

What with his Titans, for the first time in school history, winning the Class A state title with a gritty poise, toughness and love for each other that certainly reflected their head coach. Hueser is the only Titan coach in school history, starting the program in 2003-2004. Most of his initial assistants are still with him.

But it’s never been about wins and losses for this son of a college basketball coaching legend. Ever.

“They say the joy is in the journey,” Hueser says. “If there is anything I feel good about, it is staying steadfast. To maintain a steadfastness through all that it has be to Jesus and it’s also who you do it with. It’s falling in love with each team and the game and who you do it with.

“Sometimes I get choked up even thinking about that. It’s so important who your relationships are with.”

Camping

The second Nebraska FCA Basketball Camp is near a close for Hueser. Just over 100 campers and coaches at Nebraska-Kearney from Wednesday to last Saturday. As the campers move to their final “huddle” with college leaders and peers, coach and I find a couch in the Fine Arts Building.

Hueser is measured, deliberate in each of his responses. A 20-minute conversation on coaching and faith. Just like an FCA Huddle. The writer is made better because of it.

Camps like this have shaped the coach’s life, even now they lift him up. He grew up running around at his father’s Kearney State basketball camps and traveled the midwest when dad would also work at FCA camps. Jerry Heuser was the coach at Kearney for 26 years and amassed a career record of 519-256.

“Some people ask me when I knew I wanted to get in to coaching,” Joel quips. “I usually answer that I don’t know when I didn’t want to coach. I just grew up a product of my environment. My memories of the old Cushing Coliseum are tremendous. I spent more time there than I did at home.”

The years turned to decades and his upbringing was those camps. On Saturday, Jerry Hueser sits high — in the Health and Sports Center, the arena he helped open — watching his son and grandson oversee this FCA camp. Joel graduated from Kearney High and later played for his father, where the Lopers went 26-8 his junior season.

The Hueser’s raised their family on summer basketball camps. Eventually, Jerry took his family to FCA camps that he would also work. And, then Joel did the same as he had coaching stops in Mankato (KS) and McCook before he started the Titan program. Son Jalen, now the head coach at Fremont, has followed in dad’s footsteps.

“Wendell (Conover) reached out to my dad to lead FCA camps and I have great memories of those camps,” Hueser said. “When I started coaching and had my own boys running around we would go out to those camps. My wife loved going out there, they had a great children’s ministry and it was a good week to get away.”

A few summers ago — in conversation with Kearney High head coach Drake Beranek — the idea formed to return an FCA camp to UNK.

“It was a few years ago when Drake and I were having the conversation and he wondered why FCA didn’t have a camp,” he said. “And, I told him, ‘Well, there used to be..’"

“And we knew Kearney was a great host with leadership and distance camp. It’s been a good fit. I told him if he helped me, I would do it.”

Dream Season

In 37 years of coaching there was never a real thought of a state championship for Joel Hueser. He’d tell you he was a liar though if he didn’t think about it.

Prior to March, he had been to state just nine times in his career (four with Papio South and five at McCook, where his Bison lost in the state finals in 2000 to Lincoln Pius). He impacted lives before PLVS, too. 

He knew the Class A tournament — with no standout teams from a meat grinder of a season — could be anyone’s to win. But, he also knew that his team — with do-everything senior Bryson Bahl and a strong group of seniors — had what it might take to win an elusive state championship. They avenged a loss to crosstown rival Papillon-LaVista in the first round and survived Millard North (61-57) and Westside (61-58) on Friday and Saturday.

Grateful. It was a word that Hueser so often that second weekend in March.

“I have had 36 other years where it didn’t end that way and God allowed it happen this year,” the coach said. “But, our identity is never tied to a championship. Just to have that blessing — they can come in so many different ways — I was thankful because it was amazing to experience with people I cared about so much.”

Like this interview, he is measured in a championship press conference. He boldly discussed his faith. He recites the Titan’s motto for a championship season: “A hammer shatters glass but forges steel.” A lesson that went back to consecutive single possession district final losses in 2023 and 2024.

Things that have all made Joel Hueser a better man. Steadfast.

“You really don’t grow a whole lot if it’s easy,” he said. “There is so much good on the other side of hard. The hammer is the circumstance you can’t control. It’s why sports are such a great thing. On the other side of hard, if you don’t fragment you forge steel.

“The way you respond to things can reflect the Gospel. If you can get past the setback or the hard loss and you continue to trust each other. Then trust becomes love and love can go through a brick wall.”

Not every team experiences that, but this year, by God’s grace, his Titans did.

Out In The World

The short walk from the Fine Arts Building to our vehicles in the Health and Sports Center parking lot was a quick thank you for this writer. Coach (and so many others over the last week) had a positive impact on our Ella, who attended her second FCA camp.

And, Coach Hueser is ready for another school year. Championships will always be secondary.

“This is becoming the point for me that gets me ready,” he says of camp. “You come down off this mountain that has all these resources with you and you hope it gets you refueled. Sometimes as a teacher and a coach it can be, ‘Here we go’ and it goes so fast.

“At the same time it fills our cup as we go into the fall.”

For Joel Hueser and the other coaches and leaders who gave time for these athletes, the payoff came with the simple stats at the end of camp. They weren’t in made baskets and better ball handlers. Sure that was part of it.

But the final numbers were this: 100 Campers. 19 Huddle Leaders. 14 Coaches. Eight first-time decisions for Christ.

A number better than any amount of state championships.

We are able to bring you featured content like this through a partnership with our friends at Striv AV and Striv Education. If your school is looking to upgrade their GameDay experience or get students ready for an introduction into digital media, the Striv team is ready to help.