At the outset of his junior season at Belgreen, Eli Hiser found himself somewhere he was entirely unaccustomed to being.
The bench.
Hiser, a 6’1 shooting guard who transferred from Vina midway through his ninth-grade year, had been competing for a spot in first-year head coach Clint Isbell’s starting lineup, but a pre-season weight-training injury to his lower back knocked him out of commission for a brief period. After missing the 2016-17 season opener against Covenant Christian, Hiser returned to find himself a part of the second unit—a valuable part, to be sure, but not a starter as he had envisioned.
“That team was really deep,” Isbell said, “and Eli was basically our sixth man. He was pretty much the first guy off the bench. Coming over from Vina, I know he was one of their better players and probably never came off the floor. But he gave us a real spark off the bench, a lot of energy and enthusiasm.
“He gave us something coming off the bench that we probably couldn’t have got from anybody else.”
Looking back on it now, Hiser admits to being frustrated with what he perceived to be a reduced role.
“I had always been a starter, pretty much my whole life,” Hiser said. “Being on the bench when the game started was tough. I wasn’t used to that. I remember asking myself a lot, ‘Why am I not starting? What am I not doing that’s keeping me from being out there?’
“Finally, my dad [Jason] told me to go to Coach Isbell’s office, close the door and have a conversation with him about what I needed to do.”
During the sit-down that ensued, Isbell clearly defined for Hiser his role and responsibilities going forward.
“My role for that team wasn’t to be a starter,” Hiser says now. “My role for that team was to come off the bench and be the best teammate I could be.”
Hiser did that to the best of his ability, averaging 3.4 points per game for a Bulldog team that won 22 games, a county championship and an area championship on its way to earning a berth in the Northwest Regional. Athletic two-guard Adam Green signed with Coastal Alabama after the season [he’s now playing at a four-year school in Arkansas], opening up the opportunity for Hiser to play an expanded role as a senior in 2017-18.
It was the chance he’d been waiting for, but it took a little longer than expected for him to recalibrate his mental approach following a season spent as a sub.
“Early in the year, it was like he was still deferring to other guys,” Isbell said. “He had gotten used to that coming off the bench, but we needed him to be more aggressive and do some scoring for us. We needed him to realize that he was just as good as those other guys on the floor.”
After totaling just 11 points in Belgreen’s first five games (all wins) this past season, Hiser’s breakout performance came on December 11 at home against Carbon Hill when he scored 16 of his career-high 20 points in the fourth quarter to spark a 64-63 victory.
“I think that was the kind of high-scoring game Eli needed to get him going,” Isbell said.
Hiser went on to score in double-figures 11 more times before the year was done, including a 17-point, eight-rebound effort in a double-overtime win over Red Bay on January 22 in the county finals. That performance triggered a five-game stretch during which he averaged 14.2 points and knocked down a total of 11 threes.
Hiser finished the season averaging 7.7 points per game and was one of the Bulldogs’ most efficient players, shooting 74 percent from the foul line, a team-best 35 percent from beyond the arc and 49 percent from the floor overall. He also averaged 3.4 rebounds per game and ranked among team leaders with 57 assists and 51 steals, earning Most Improved Player honors from the Free Press and helping Belgreen go 25-6 and make it to Hanceville for a second straight year.
By season’s end, Hiser had decided that he wasn’t ready for his basketball playing days to be done.
“I told Coach Isbell that I was willing to do whatever it took to play at the next level,” Hiser said. “I really felt like that’s where God was leading me. I told Coach that if he would set up some try-outs for me, I’d put together a highlight video and do whatever else I had to do to give myself a shot.”
Hiser and fellow senior Jacob Mayberry both traveled to Montgomery to work out for Huntingdon, and both ultimately received an offer to play for the Hawks. Hiser, though, was drawn more to Blue Mountain College, a Baptist-affiliated NAIA school roughly 90 minutes from Belgreen across the Mississippi line.
“Blue Mountain just felt like home,” Hiser said. “It’s only an hour-and-a-half away, and it’s really got a great Christian atmosphere. I felt like that was an influence I needed in my life right now.”
At a try-out this spring with close to 40 other aspiring players, Hiser managed to catch the attention of Blue Mountain jayvee coach Jack Moser, who also serves as the school’s dean of students. Ironically, Hiser made an impression on Moser by not trying to make an impression.
“When you’ve got that many guys taking part in a try-out, everybody is looking to do something impressive,” Moser said. “There were players there who were more talented [than Hiser], but I liked the way he played within himself. What really stood out to me was when he dove on the floor for a loose ball. That definitely caught my eye.
“From what I’ve seen of him, he just seems like the kind of player who will accept whatever role you give him and do what’s best for the team.”
On a follow-up trip to Blue Mountain, Hiser and his older sister Maggie were treated to a tour of the camps and lunch by one of the school’s recruiters. It was a conversation with that recruiter that sealed the deal for Moser.
“After Eli and his sister left that day,” Moser said, “[the recruiter] told me, ‘It just seems like a really good fit.’ There was definitely some prayer involved on both sides, and I think we all came to the same conclusion.
“When you and somebody else are on the same page, it makes the decision that much easier.”
Moser made Hiser an offer, and Hiser accepted. He signed with Blue Mountain Thursday afternoon at a ceremony in the Belgreen library, with Jason, Maggie, mom Lisa, Isbell, assistant coach Chuck Simmons, Belgreen administrators, classmates, teammates and Moser all in attendance.
“This has been a dream of mine for a long time,” Hiser said. “I’m excited. Everybody thinks you have to be 6’7, 6’8 and a five-star athlete to play college basketball, but that’s not true.”
So what was it, in Hiser’s estimation, that made him stand out to Moser at the Blue Mountain try-out?
“There are 6’1 guys with good grades who can shoot all over the state, all over the country,” he said. “I think it was the way I talked and communicated on defense, the way Coach Isbell has taught us to talk and communicate on defense. And the fact that I hustled, too.
“That’s what a lot of these schools are looking for—players who are disciplined and who are willing to do whatever they can to help the team.”
Like, for instance, coming off the bench after a lifetime spent in the starting five. Hiser humbled himself and accepted that role as a Bulldog junior, and nearly two years later he’s reaping the rewards of a valuable lesson learned. Isbell believes his former player is positioned well to make an immediate impact for the Blue Mountain jayvee.
“Eli is aggressive, he’ll get up and guard you, he pushes the floor well and he can shoot,” Isbell said. “When he came to me and said he wanted to play at the next level, I knew he was capable of doing that. It was just a matter of finding the right fit.”
