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PHOTO/CURTIS WILSON College of Faith hosted baseball tryouts for prospective players earlier this month at Vance High. The Saints field football, men’s and women’s basketball teams and plans to add softball and women’s basketball in the near future.

At College of Faith, second chances are abundant.



The campus, located at Reagan Drive in North Charlotte, has been in existence for three years; the athletic program two. The Division III independent offers football, baseball and men’s and women’s basketball with plans to add women’s softball and volleyball “in the near future,” said Thomas Eaton, the school’s new athletic director and baseball coach.



What it does is give athletes who’ve fallen through the cracks or off the radar of established an opportunity to pursue their dreams.



“We just go out and let them know it gives you a chance to play collegiate athletics,” Eaton said. “We’re giving them a chance to play and making sure you get a good education in the process.”



College of Faith is part of a three-campus school, with the others in Arkansas and Florida. It is a member of the U.S. Collegiate Athletic Association and has designs on joining the American Small College Athletic Association, a league that include Bluefield (W.Va.), Newberry, Johnson & Wales and Voorhees (S.C.). Football was the initial athletic hook, but other sports have been added.



“The football program started a couple of years ago and improved each year and now we’re striving to make the program a whole lot better,” Eaton said.



Dale Richardson, College of Faith’s executive director and football coach, needed someone to run the athletic department. Eaton, who worked at Johnson C. Smith in various capacities, was looking for a new challenge. Richardson’s dad Greg, a former head football coach at Livingstone and a longtime CIAA assistant coach, introduced him to Eaton.



“He wanted me to take a look at the athletic department,” Eaton said. “It gave me something to do at an up and coming school.”



There are more than enough challenges, starting with recruiting. Division III schools don’t give scholarships, so COF offers need-based aid.



College of Faith has earned headlines for lopsided losses to Division I football and basketball programs, including a 56-0 blowout to Davidson football. Eaton is unapologetic about the Saints’ scheduling, but acknowledges they’re working at building more competitive programs.



“We’re not going to take any knocks,” he said. “We’re going to go out there and we’re going to beat them. Most of those schools are well established, but with us we’re going to go out there and play hard from the time the clock starts to the time the clock ends. If we get beat, we just get beat.”



Said Michael Hines, the new men’s basketball coach: “We have one Division I game, six Division II games, a number of junior colleges. The rest are independent schools and Division III.”



Hines, who is familiar with Charlotte athletes as a former softball and assistant boys’ basketball coach at Independence High, sees COF as a calling to reach young people to improve their lot in life.



“My goal is to make these guys better men,” he said.





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