March 13, 2006

By JON WEINBACH, Special to The Wall Street Journa. on Weinbach

(Copyright (c) 2006, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) - Reprinted with permission.

COSTA MESA, Calif. -- The starting point guard won three state championships in high school. The team's leading scorer is a two-time All-American, and the coach is sponsored by Nike. The school's winning tradition has enticed players to transfer from high-profile universities such as Syracuse and Brigham Young, and die-hard student fans pack home games in a gym called "The Pit."

Welcome to Vanguard University, home to the best women's basketball team you'll never see on ESPN. Hoops fans won't find the squad in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's top 25 rankings, either, because Vanguard isn't even a member of the NCAA. Instead, this tiny Christian school, located next to a fairground in the heart of Orange County, competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, or NAIA, a circuit that's older than the NCAA and includes about 300 four-year schools.

Few teams at any level of college basketball can match Vanguard's recent run of success: The school has won seven conference championships in nine seasons, and is about to make its fifth straight appearance in the NAIA postseason tournament. (The '02-'03 squad made it to the NAIA final four.) Since Coach Russ Davis took the job 10 years ago, the Lions have averaged 25 wins a year, or more than three-quarters of their games. They have a 28-1 record heading into the NAIA tournament, to be held starting Thursday in Jackson, Tenn., and were ranked No. 1 in the NAIA all season.

"It's a good little hidden thing we've got going," says Mr. Davis, a stocky 44-year-old with a buzz cut.

The team has a way to go before it earns comparisons to Connecticut or Tennessee, the Big Two of women's college basketball. Most of Vanguard's NAIA opponents lack the talent or depth of a typical Division I team, and the Lions are hardly supersized: The team's tallest player is listed at 6-foot-3. In contrast, the No. 1 ranked women's team in the NCAA, North Carolina, features eight players over 6-foot-1. The best indicator of the team's ability may be the Massey Ratings, a computerized ranking system that utilizes a host of factors -- including won-lost records, strength of schedule, and offensive and defensive statistics -- to compare teams. According to the latest Massey ratings, Vanguard ranks No. 41 in all of women's college basketball.

"I think our team could compete legitimately in Division I," says Lions point guard Tiari Goold, who played two years at BYU. "Our intensity is the same."

Indeed, Vanguard's emergence is particularly striking because it has attracted top-quality talent with virtually no media exposure, a minuscule athletic budget and a relatively brief history of success.

It costs about $27,000 a year to attend Vanguard, and 90% of students receive some form of financial aid. It is also a deeply religious school. Known as Southern California College until 1999, it is owned by and affiliated with the Assemblies of God, the world's largest evangelical Christian movement. Undergraduates must live by a code of conduct that prohibits premarital sex, smoking and drinking, and requires chapel attendance.

"We don't party at all," says junior Laura Job, a reserve forward on the basketball team who transferred from a junior college in Northern California. Compared with her previous school, Ms. Job says, Vanguard is "so different."

It's also different when you look at funding for its sports teams. The average athletic department budget at Division I schools is about $13 million, according to a 2003 study by the Chronicle of Higher Education. And schools with top-flight football and basketball teams spend far more than that: The University of Michigan's athletic department expects to spend about $64 million on its 26 teams during the current fiscal year, with projected revenue of $73.3 million, including several million from corporate sponsors such as Pepsi and State Farm Insurance.

Vanguard's athletic department, by contrast, spends well under $1 million to maintain 13 varsity teams, none of which bring in much revenue. (The average NAIA athletic budget is about $1.4 million, roughly half that of Division II schools.) One side of Vanguard's tiny gym features ads from real-estate brokers, a hoagie shop and a wax company. All told, those sponsors contribute about $20,000 in cash or in-kind gifts, says Bob Wilson, the school's athletic director and men's basketball coach. "We don't make a profit," he says.

Mr. Wilson says the budget for the women's basketball team "doesn't exceed $70,000," including salaries. He won't divulge Mr. Davis's salary.

Mr. Davis has no full-time assistant coaches, and jokingly brags that his recruiting budget is "about $0." He raises some additional money from a summer tournament he organizes for local high-school club teams. The players also pitch in, selling fireworks around July Fourth. ("It's just the safe and sane stuff," Mr. Davis says.) The team gets appearance fees -- $2,000 to $4,000, depending on the opposition -- for exhibition games against Division I schools. Next year, it's set to play Oregon, New Mexico and Arizona State, whose women's coach, Charli Turner Thorne, calls Vanguard "the best NAIA team in the country."

So how, exactly, does Mr. Davis attract talent? It helps to have connections. He formerly coached a highly regarded high-school team in Irvine, Calif., where he came into contact with Division I coaches who were recruiting his players. Just as important, he still coaches a girls' club team of high-school all-stars from Orange County that is sponsored by Nike Inc. The shoe company organizes showcase tournaments around the country, many of which are must-attend events for top prep players and college coaches. (Neither Nike nor Mr. Davis would say how much he earns from the club team.)

Through the club circuit and his Nike affiliation, Mr. Davis is able to evaluate, in person, dozens of top prospects every year. Another advantage: Unlike the NCAA, the NAIA doesn't impose rules on how often coaches can contact recruits.

"When I see a player, I go and talk to them or their parents without hesitating," Mr. Davis says. That freedom has also helped him befriend leading high-school coaches, which has translated into several recruiting coups.

In the past few years, four players from Oregon City High School, a perennial national power near Portland, have joined the Lions. A major reason: Mr. Davis's relationship with Brad Smith, coach of Oregon City's girls' basketball squad. The first Oregon City player to choose Vanguard was Lacey Mills, a sharp-shooting guard barely recruited by any college program. She wanted to continue playing basketball and attend a Christian school, so with the help of her high-school coach, she chose Vanguard.

Ms. Mills thrived, becoming the school's career leader in three-point shooting. Soon she was joined by another Oregon City alum, point guard Lisa Faulkner, who transferred from the University of California-Irvine. Ms. Faulkner had excelled in that Division I program, but wanted a more religious environment and jumped at the chance to play alongside Ms. Mills, whom she'd known since fourth grade. Ms. Faulkner ended up breaking Vanguard's record for assists, and was the NAIA co-player of the year last season.

Two more Oregon City players transferred to Vanguard this year from larger programs: Jessica Richter, a 5-foot-10 guard who was the second-leading scorer at Syracuse last year; and Ms. Goold, the lefty point guard from BYU. Both consulted with Ms. Faulkner, their former high-school teammate, before transferring. "I put all my trust in Lisa," says Ms. Richter. "I wanted to win again," she adds. "That makes everything better."

To be sure, players don't come to Vanguard for the facilities. The home court is smaller than most high-school venues, and many classroom buildings date from the '60s and early '70s. That said, thanks to an ambitious fund-raising and building campaign, contributions hit $4.7 million last year, nearly triple the level of 2000, and undergraduate enrollment is up 34% to 1,457.

The success of the Lions, says Vanguard President Murray Dempster, only helps broaden the appeal of the school. "There's a buzz on campus," he says.

Two of the biggest fans are a couple of young men who scrimmage with the team at practice. Seniors Jason Hardy and Brad Oliver have become fixtures in the stands at home and road games. "We love those girls," says Mr. Hardy.

If the team wins the NAIA title, Mr. Dempster says, the school will throw a "grand celebration" -- albeit without champagne. "We'll pop the Martinelli," he says. "The cider will be flowing."

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Mr. Weinbach is a staff reporter in The Wall Street Journal's Los Angeles bureau. He can be reached at jonathan.weinbach@wsj.com.

www.wsj.com.