Leading from the Front: Coach Mendezona’s Call to Christian Coaching

If you’re looking for new Corban men’s basketball coach, Wayne Mendezona, odds are you’ll find him in the gym, planted in front of his new team like the captain of a ship, a 45-pound plate held in both hands in place of a captain’s wheel. Each member of his team also carries a plate, mirroring his movements. Where he goes, they go. When he rests, they rest. And when someone drops a plate, they pick it up and learn from it—how to be patient, to persevere, and to bear the weight.

To the outsider, it may look miserable, but to Coach Mendezona, this is the sweet stuff. This is right where he’s dreamed of being since a call that came back in 1988. “I really got my call from the Lord to be a small college basketball coach at a Christian university,” Coach Mendezona, referred to as Coach Mendo by his players, says. “It was a call to help athletes become godly men, good fathers, good husbands, good leaders, all to the glory of God.”

His journey to Corban has, in fact, been a series of calls, both literal and spiritual. The son of a first-generation Spanish/Basque immigrant, Coach Mendo grew up with little more than a dream of basketball success—a dream even he admits was too audacious at the time.  “We had no money for camps, barely enough for a hoop in the driveway,” he recalls. But that was all he needed, dribbling in the rain and snow day after day, until he reached his dream of becoming one of the top high school basketball players in his home state of Nevada. One dream realized, he was on to the next, playing Division I basketball. He didn’t realize he was dreaming the wrong dreams.

Even in his success, he began to feel empty. “Salvation in Christ alone changed everything,” he says. “It changed my whole trajectory. My dream wasn’t so much to play Division I anymore—it was to play at a Christian college and serve the Lord.”

This led him to Judson Baptist College where he played for head coach Tim Collins, who would eventually go on to helm Corban’s (then Western Baptist College) basketball team for a time and become a key mentor in Mendezona’s life.

After playing overseas, Mendezona pursued his Master of Divinity, looking ahead to full-time ministry. Then Coach Collins called, offering him a coaching role at Tennessee Temple University. “That’s where I began to learn how to coach,” he says. “We took a team that had won eight games the year before and finished with 27 wins, won a national Christian college championship, and repeated again the next year.”

The impact of this early coaching experience profoundly shaped Coach Mendo, and shortly after, in 1988, he experienced what he describes as a profound and inescapable calling of the Lord impressed on his heart. “I felt Him calling me to be a small college basketball coach at a Christian university,” he says. “To help athletes become godly men, good fathers, good husbands, good leaders, all to the glory of God.”

He began applying to Christian colleges but had no answers. “Even back then, for my wife Teresa and me, it was strange, but Corban (then Western Baptist College) was the dream position,” he says. “But we had to wait.” In his waiting, Mendezona took his family overseas to pursue coaching professionally in the Middle East. After just one year, he was tabbed as coach of the Bahrain national team, a feat he attributes to all that he learned under Coach Collins. He led Bahrain to successful appearances in the Asian Games, a qualifier for the Barcelona Olympics, and the Gulf Cup. His success led him to eventually sign a two-year contract in Kuwait, the first real taste of long-term stability his family had experienced since moving to the Middle East.

But the phone rang again—another call from Coach Collins. His former coach had recommended him for the head coaching position at Northwest University. It was a difficult decision that eventually led coach Mendezona and his family back to the states where he coached in the NAIA ranks, leading programs such as Northwest and Simpson University to record win totals, postseason appearances, and program-historic success.

But those opportunities ended, and in some cases, painfully, leaving Mendezona with scars, doubts, and uncertainty over God’s calling on his life. “In those dark moments, all I could say to myself was, ‘God will work. It’s His timing. Be patient, persevere, bear the weight.’”

Mendezona leaned on his family, drawing strength from his wife, Teresa, and trading in his coach’s clipboard for some sideline gear, cheering on his kids Jessica, Tyler, Dominique, and Alexandra, as well as their 13 grandchildren. He pivoted from coaching and instead pursued running Quick Handle, his gospel-integrated skills and development camps, full time. “For someone who never went to a basketball camp, I have probably now run just about as many basketball camps as anyone in the world,” he laughs, thinking back to his early days of dribbling in the rain. “It’s all because of God’s grace. He wanted me to reach people with the gospel. That never would have happened without all that I had to struggle through.”

Even through Quick Handle’s wild success, Mendezona still felt torn apart by the calling he had been given so many years ago. “I prayed, ‘Lord, just desensitize this gift of coaching and just have me focus on Quick Handle,’” he recalls. “I wanted Him to take it away. We were doing great things, growing, touring the world, and sharing the gospel, but there was still that hole.” Mendezona remained patient, he persevered, and he bore the weight.

Then came one more call from Coach Collins. “He asked if I knew that the Corban position had opened up,” Mendezona remembers. “I told him I didn’t even follow the coaching circuit anymore. But he said to me, ‘I believe in my heart you are the right man for this job.’”

As Coach Mendo sat in front of the interview panel, he really only had one statement to make. “I told them I believed this was a calling I had received from the Lord back in 1988,” he says. “It was really only up to them to decide if I was the right man for the job because I already knew my answer.” One final call—he was hired.

“My life is a testimony of trusting God and being patient in His purpose and His timing,” Mendezona says. “We went through a lot of hardship and heartache to get to this point, and God has continued to use me during those times, but now to get back to that original call, and at an institution that was our original dream, it’s hard to comprehend.”

Now, at the helm of the Corban men’s basketball program, Coach Mendo is excited by the opportunity to turn that pain into purpose and to help mold young men into warriors.  On the court, Mendezona says fans should expect a team that plays hard, plays together, and outworks their opponents. “We are embracing a wide-open, creative style of basketball,” he says. “Fans should come and expect athletic plays from a team that plays for each other and for the Lord.” 

But the off-court product is where his heart lies. “I want Corban University to fully exemplify the model of what Christian college athletics can achieve,” Mendezona says. “We want to maximize the team and the individual, and create a system that raises up Davids and slays Goliaths.”

As he leads from the front, lifting the same weight as his players, together they are learning to be patient, to persevere, and to rely on the Lord to help them bear the many weights of life. And his players aren’t dropping plates anymore. “In all my years of coaching, I’ve never seen a team that seems more united,” he says. “We are creating strong warriors of God who are going to compete at the highest level, but more importantly who are going to be exceptional, Spirit-filled fathers and husbands, professionals and leaders, all to His glory.”