Rangers manager talks about his family’s experience at Baylor

Given Baylor’s proximity to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, you’ll find a lot of Texas Rangers fans in the Baylor Family. But, even if your baseball allegiance lies with another team, I think you’ll appreciate what their manager had to say about his family’s experience with Baylor.

Rangers manager Jeff Banister understands firsthand the emotions of a Baylor parent because he is one — his daughter, Alex Banister, is a senior communications major who spent two years on the Baylor volleyball team. Recently, Banister was asked about his daughter’s Baylor experience during an interview with 1660 AM ESPN Central Texas, Baylor’s flagship sports radio station. Banister had this to say:

“Well, first of all, I have to say that Alex has had a tremendous experience at Baylor. It’s been wonderful for us as a family, [and] for her as an athlete. Tremendous university, great people. There are things that obviously have gone on that we can’t walk away from, we can’t turn our back to. There are people that have been hurt, lives [that] have been changed.

“However, when I look at it as a whole, and think about my daughter and her experience, would she go there again? Yes. Would I want her to go there? Yes. Has she had a great experience? Yes. Is she getting a tremendous education? Yes. Has there been community, has there been fellowship, integrity, character, all the things that you want from a college experience? Absolutely. Not one time has she ever felt that she was in a bad place. Protected? Yes. Is there some embarrassment along the way? Absolutely.

“You have to look at it because, you think of the university, everybody there, it is a team, it is a family, and there have been issues within that family that obviously need to be rectified, corrected, acknowledged. Then, you move on, you learn from it. You fix the issue and then you ask for forgiveness and you grow from it. We have talked about that. The thing that I asked her, ‘Hey, at any point have you felt anything other than loved and part of being in a great place?’ She told me, ‘No.’ I take that; she’s very transparent in what she says. She has loved every part of the experience.”

As a big-league manager and a father with a willingness to share about his family’s Baylor experience, we’re thankful to have Jeff (and his family) as a part of the Baylor team.

Sic ’em, Jeff and Alex Banister!

[For more parents’ experiences as part of the Baylor family, check out this blog.]