Damian Long is from Spokane, Washington, and graduated from Mead High School in 1996, and Harvard University in 2000.

While at Harvard Damian was captain of the basketball team. During his senior year he sunk 72 three-pointers, one short of the school record.

Q: What was it like to play basketball for Harvard?

Damian: I had a great time. It was a challenging career but rewarding; not as successful as I would have liked it to be early on.
The challenge of being a student and an athlete took awhile. I had grown up in a gym my whole life, being a coach’s kid. I love the game of basketball.
In some ways I studied better during the season because my life was more structured.

(After college Damian played for Athletes in Action, and in the European Leagues)

Q: The Ivies don’t give athletic scholarships. Was that hard?

Damian: It was harder on my parents than me. As a kid you don’t see and feel and touch the money. You get a glimpse of what it will cost but you don’t really understand. And, there is that pride in being a full scholarshiped athlete that you don’t get at a place like Harvard. People associate nonscholarship colleges with a lower level of athletic ability, which is not true. During my four years there we regularly beat scholarshiped schools.

Q: Ivy League schools are often portrayed as elitist or removed in movies such as A Beautiful Mind and Legally Blonde. Is this accurate?

Damian: I haven’t seen Legally Blonde. Beautiful Mind is outside my time frame. That good ole boy motif doesn’t exist anymore. Harvard is spoofed in almost every movie.

Q: On the CD you mentioned Dr. Robert Kiely.

Damian: He was so genuine. What he was talking about and lecturing over he had a personal stake in. It wasn’t just a job description. He was communicating in a way that was so sincere that I was moved by it and I know the rest of the class was too. He had a course on classic Christian literature in which I really looked forward to the reading assignments. He was willing to look at spiritual scholarship as worth investigating. Those things made him unique. He is a passionate communicator and a wonderful person.

Q: What advice do you have for those still in college?

Damian: It seemed like most of my time, energy and anxiety was allocated towards papers, tests, even preparing for events like basketball games. When I look back on college those things tend to escape me. I can’t remember most classes I took or the topics of most papers I wrote even though those did occupy a lot of my energy or anxiety. That isn’t to say they aren’t important or don’t need to be done. But the true impact of my college experiences came from the relationships I had with roommates, teammates and professors. The people whose lives I invested in and who I spent time with. They changed me in ways that I will never be able to express. I also learned to live for Christ.
People make a huge difference in your college experience.

Q: You talked about being a Christian. What steps would you suggest in checking out Christ?

Damian: There is too much at stake not to make a thorough investigation of who He is, what He claimed and whether those claims are true. There are things that are very unique about Jesus Christ. A lot of people make decisions about Christ based upon an incomplete perspective of who He is and what is unique about Him. Look at him with an open mind.

I would suggest reading the New Testament, starting with the fourth book, John. A lot of growth, whether in the spiritual or other areas, is being willing to grow – letting down your stubbornness and being willing to be humble enough to learn and grow. We have to be willing to have our misconceptions blown away. Seeking is the first step and I think you have to grow with intentionality.

Q: What is that dance you do on the CD?

Damian: It is called the Samoan slap dance; a dance that Samoan warriors would do in preparation for battle. It was to teach them coordination and discipline but also pain tolerance from slapping yourself. The warriors would do it together to get their timing and balance right. My roommate in college is Hawaiian and has taught it to a lot of folks here.