By Sean McNamara
Times West Virginian, Fairmont
FAIRMONT — When he took over the Fairmont State men’s basketball program following the departure of former head coach Jerrod Calhoun, Joe Mazzulla wanted to make sure that his team avoided the comfortability that could come on the heels of a run to the national championship game in 2016-17.
“One thing we focused on in summer school was not getting complacent with the success of last year -- and, really, the success in general that we’ve had -- then stepping outside of our comfort zone,” he explained.
In an effort to accomplish this, Mazzulla leaned on some of his previous experiences.
During his last two years in Fairmont before going to Maine for a year, Mazzulla went to once-a-week Bible studies at the Pruntytown Correctional Facility.
“I just wanted to be able to give back to others and give back to people who don’t have the same circumstances that you do,” Mazzulla said.
After seeing the positive impact a prison visit had on him, he wanted to impart that same experience on his team.
“It wasn’t a scare tactic, but it was an opportunity for us to give back to them and for them to give us an experience, as well,” Mazzulla explained.
When they heard about the trip their new head coach had planned, the players were not sure what to think.
Redshirt freshman Kenzie Melko-Marshall had taken a field trip to a correctional facility in the past, but even he didn’t know what was going to happen this time around.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Melko-Marshall said. “Normally, when people say ‘we’re going to a prison,’ there’s a negative connotations to it. People think that you’re going to be in danger.”
Once they arrived, the players met and spoke with inmates, and each was impacted in his own way.
For some, like senior guard Caleb Davis, the trip hit close to home.
“It was kind of awkward, because I’ve never been to one of those places before,” Davis said. “To see it from a different person’s perspective was different, too.
“It was different for me, because something actually had just happened to my friend before he told us. So while I was there I was thinking that, ‘This is probably what he’s doing now.’”
Mazzulla opened things up by sharing his testimony with the players and inmates, and then others -- whether they were players or inmates -- took turns speaking and sharing their testimony, as well.
When all was said and done, 14 of the 17 FSU players in attendance got up and spoke, and the experience was mutually beneficial to everyone involved.
When the inmates spoke, they shared their stories about how they ended up where they are, and how they connected with the players on the team.
“It was a different experience, but I thought it was cool to see,” Melko-Marshall said. “They talked about how they watched us play in the Elite Eight last year and how it gave them hope. It was kind of cool that with us just doing what we do we inspired people there in certain situations.”
“You never know who’s watching,” Davis added.
When the players spoke, they remained poised, Melko-Marshall said, but many were out of their comfort zone, just as Mazzulla had hoped.
“We spoke to them like they were normal people,” Melko-Marshall said. “None of us were scared, but I think some of us were on edge not knowing what could happen.”
The message the players delivered gave them an opportunity to open up to strangers and share something about their lives. Outside of the traditional setting of a gym or a locker room, the players spoke differently in a new environment.
“I’ve known some of these kids for three or four years now, and I learned some of the most important things about their lives in the minute and a half they spoke than I did that I’ve been here with them,” Mazzulla said. “That’s because they were outside their comfort zone.
“It was really good to be vulnerable and be in that uncomfortable situation. I think we all grew together for it.”
In addition to getting outside their comfort zone and forming connections with strangers, the trip gave the players an opportunity to see how their actions can have a lasting effect on their lives.
Davis spoke specifically about an inmate he met from Fairmont, and seeing someone from the Friendly City had an impact on both he and Melko-Marshall.
“For me it put a lot of things into perspective,” Melko-Marshall said. “Some of the things that they had done, they might not have meant to. The guy that Caleb was talking about, he was drunk driving and got charged with manslaughter. When he got behind the wheel it wasn’t his intention, but he made a bad decision.
“I think it helped us learn that with the decisions we make we have to be conscious of the consequences.”
That eye-opening experience was exactly what Mazzulla was hoping to accomplish.
“They realized that yes, I’m a teenager and I’m going to do teenage things,” Mazzulla said. “But they realized that one decision can really mess up any opportunity. For a lot of those guys in there, it was only one decision.
“I think it was humbling for them to see that ‘these guys are where I was,’ and this one decision put them in there. I think they grew because they opened up their hearts and were able to share with people when they normally don’t do that.”
The trip to the Pruntytown Correctional facility was just one of many things that Mazzulla and the FSU men’s team have done this offseason to grow as young men and as a team, but may have been the most impactful.
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(c)2017 the Times West Virginian (Fairmont, W. Va.)