Well, how about that. The new Wink hit the virtual newsstands this week, containing inside it all sorts of Spring fashions. For women. But, hey, all is not lost fellas. Like we did in the first issue, we went calling on Carolina athletics again for a good story.

This one is about Jack Easterby, head of the USC Fellowship of Christian Athletes and an advisor to the Gamecock men’s basketball team. It, eh, it ain’t bad. Check in on Page 22.

Wednesday night, the USC men’s basketball team upset Florida to try to set the team up for an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament. One person, who is not listed as an official coach for Carolina, is Jack Easterby. He’s the director of the South Carolina chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He also counsels the team, and has been doing so for several years. We were fortunate enough to be able to interview him for the latest edition of Wink, Columbia’s local Web-based magazine.

Unfortunately, not everything we talked to Easterby about could be in our story. It wasn’t about the content — Easterby seems to us like a really good guy who works hard to make sure the players develop their potential not just as players, but as people. There’s just not enough space sometimes.

We were interested in his opinion of former Carolina player Mike Boynton, the leader of the 2003-2004 team that was the last to make it to the Big Dance. Boynton never scored that much during the regular season, but was obviously the most valuable player because of his leadership. During the SEC Tournament, Boynton regularly led the team in scoring, because he had to. There was also the matter of Tré Kelley, who did an amazing job as a guard for the Gamecocks.

Talking about Boynton, who is now an assistant coach for the team, Easterby said:

Mike was almost born to coach.

[...]

That’s what’s so impressive to me about Mike Boynton. He just knows what kids need. He’s not trying to manipulate or do anything. He knows exactly what they need, when they need it, how they need it. He stays real patient.

[...]

Mike Boynton is truly going to be a great head coach very soon. He’s maybe a year or so, or even less, away from being a tremendous head coach. More so, just being a great people person.

As for Kelley, he’s playing ball in China these days. But, when he was still in Columbia, Easterby helped him out. You see, Kelley was a long way from his home in D.C. And that’s not the problem. Nineteen years ago, his uncle died in a murder related to drugs, and his aunt died in a drug overdose. Five years later, his mother was murdered by the man she had become involved with after separating from Kelley’s father.

About the situation, he said to a sports and faith Web site, “I saw a lot of negativity around me with friends. Once I grew up, I saw my friends go in other directions that wouldn’t make me a good person, that wouldn’t make me a successful person. At age 11, basketball was beginning to be what I did best. I met a lot of people who really helped me get along. They didn’t help me get over it — I’ll probably never get over it — but they helped me move in the right direction.”

At the time, Kelley’s grandmother stepped in and provided him with a safe home and the love and support he needed. He was still dealing with his problems when after his freshman year with the Gamecocks, Kelley went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic that changed his life.

While his time in the NBA didn’t go as expected, he’s doing some amazing things in the Chinese Basketball Association.

“I talked to him this morning,” Easterby said of Kelley on Wednesday. “It’s a 13-hour time difference, so it’s a little different. Tré’s been one of my projects that I’ve been incredibly proud of. Because, he is really dedicated to the Lord. Tré is an interesting situation. His home life was really poor growing up, and he’s really overcome a lot of great things. He is a really, really strong Christian guy. He’s playing over there, actually, against Stephon Marbury the other night. He had 36 points, so he’s doing well. There’s some really good things going for Tré, and I’m excited about watching him grow and see him continue – he hit 53 on Wednesday, so he’s getting it done over there.”

There’s a lot of stories out there about the corruptive influence of Division I athletics, but it’s good to know that it doesn’t have to be this way, and that people like Easterby, Boynton and Kelley are providing good examples to USC.