For the last two years, Bollier has traveled to Macedonia to teach at a youth basketball camp sponsored by Athletes in Action (AIA).
AIA is an evangelical Christian sports ministry that uses basketball and other sports as a way to minister to others.
Part of AIA’s activities include participation in the Williams Jones Cup, an annual international basketball tournament held in Taipei, Taiwan.
After his work in Macedonia, AIA asked Bollier to be one of the coaches for this year’s United States team.
Bollier will help coach 12-14 division I players from all over the country. The team will practice in Ohio for five days and then spend eight days in Taiwan playing in the Jones cup.
Taiwan, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran, Japan, Korea, Kazakhstan, Philippines and the United States are among the countries that participate in the tournament.
Bollier said it is an honor to be selected as a coach for the United States’ team.
“It will be awesome because the other guys I’m working with are very experienced,” he said.
Bollier will be coaching along with former Baylor University coach Dave Bliss. Bliss resigned from Baylor in 2003 due to his involvement in making illicit tuition payments for murdered Baylor basketball star Patrick Dennehy.
“He has got a black eye in college basketball,” Bollier said. “He absolutely hit the bottom of the barrel. To work for someone that has been at the highest and the lowest will be a huge learning experience for me.”
Learning from other coaches is one of Bollier’s primary reasons for participating in the AIA program.
“I’m just going to try to be a sponge and absorb as much as I can and also, obviously contribute, but learn and grow from this,” he said.
When not playing in the Jones cup, Bollier’s AIA team plans to visit schools and orphanages and conduct some mini clinics.
“The other part of our goodwill is to go out and share with the folks some character development and share a little love with them,” he said.
Bollier said the experience is rewarding, but will also be very valuable in terms of his own development as a coach. For Bollier and his staff, basketball is a year round activity. Player and coach development takes place all year.
“There’s no question about that,” he said. “It definitely is twelve months that we’re involved in something with basketball. We want the program to continue to grow and hopefully everything we’re doing is in that direction.”
