Twine Helps Lead Eastern Mennonite Program Revival

HARRISONBURG – Despite tearing the ACL in his right knee Feb. 15 against Virginian Wesleyan, former Cougar Austin Twine has helped lead a huge turnaround for the Eastern Mennonite University men’s basketball team.

The 6'0", 175 lb senior is a former standout on the PCHS basketball team, where he earned River Ridge District Player of the Year and Second Team All-State in 2005.

After his senior season, Twine made the choice to attend Eastern Mennonite for many reasons.

“I decided to go to EMU because coach Dean recruited me,” Twine said. “He was not only the kind of coach I had just played for in coach Hanks but was the same kind of guy. He was so much more than a coach on the court.”

Since coming aboard, Twine has helped contribute to the Royals improvement. The team is three years removed from a 7-17 record and 3-15 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC).

However, a steady rise has occurred over the last few years. Following that season, the Royals improved from 9-17, 5-13 in conference in 2008 to 15-11, 9-7 last season.

Twine, who is a business administration major, credits last year’s junior class as the spark that helped ignite the fire for the Royals.

“I would say that the turnaround came about last year,” Twine said. “We have an incredible junior class and I just tried to fit in and be the glue of the team and do whatever needed to be done to help get victories.”

The remarkable turnaround continued this season, when Eastern Mennonite finished with a 21-3 overall record and 14-2 in ODAC play. The team also handed Guilford, who was the top-ranked team in the country at the time, an embarrassing 90-63 defeat.

For Twine though, the season has not only been rewarding, but enjoyable along the way:

“This past year has been the most fun I have had playing basketball,” Twine said. “The environment on campus has changed tremendously as we have started packing the gym game-in and game-out. Just being apart of a winning team and seeing the support we have from the community is something I couldn't have imagined.”

This season's performance earned them their first ODAC regular season championship since 1980 and only their second ever ODAC championship ever. The Royals were also as high as No. 7 in the NCAA Division III polls and currently sit at the No. 12 spot.

The Royals are just a few steps away from truly completing the program’s comeback, however, the first of which is the school’s first ODAC tournament championship.

Despite the fact that Twine can no longer play, he is going to try to keep his team focused on the real prize:

“The plans for us as a team in the ODAC tournament is to just keep on track and play the way we know how,” Twine said. “We can't take a step back now that we have accomplished one goal. We have worked hard to reach our goal. That goal is to get three championships: the ODAC regular season championship, ODAC tournament championship, and then we hope to get to the NCAA championship. Our focus has not changed.”

By CODY DALTON
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