SILOAM SPRINGS — Coleson Rakestraw has been the model of consistency in his time playing basketball at John Brown University.
In four years at JBU, the former Siloam Springs standout has started all 133 games he’s played in. He’s averaged nearly 29 minutes in each game, shot around 40 percent from the 3-point line and he’s scored almost 11 points per game.
And that’s just his achievements on the basketball court.
Rakestraw is set to graduate this spring with a degree in engineering, and he was recently named an academic all-American for the second straight season.
John Brown coach Clark Sheehy said all of Rakestraw’s achievements on the basketball court and in the classroom are simply a reflection of who he is as a person.
At A Glance
Coleson Rakestraw
YEAR G GS Min. 3PT 3-pt% PPG
2009-10 36 36 29.1 86 39.6 10.3
2010-11 31 31 28.4 66 38.2 10.5
2011-12 33 33 29.3 75 39.7 11.1
2012-13 33 33 29.4 72 43.9 11.0
TOTAL 133 133 29.1 299 40.2 10.7
“We had (ESPN analyst) Jimmy Dykes come speak to our guys in the fall,” Sheehy said, “and he gave a great definition of an ‘every-day guy.’ It’s just a guy that comes to work to do his job every day. He told our guys that in college basketball, you can win a lot of games with every-day guys. They may not be as talented and as athletic as other guys, but if you have every-day guys you can be successful.
“Coleson epitomizes that. He is an every-day worker, consistent, plays through nagging injuries, plays through shooting slumps and discouragement and is so consistent. That’s what’s remarkable about him. For me I see that in every area of his life — academics, social, the way he interacts. He’s so even and so consistent.”
Sheehy and the Golden Eagles are hoping for one last hurrah for Rakestraw’s career this week when JBU plays in the 2013 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.
The soft-spoken Rakestraw, who leads JBU in scoring at 11 points per game, said he hasn’t thought much about the end of his college basketball career. However the 6-foot-2 shooting guard does admit the years at JBU have gone by quickly.
“Honestly I haven’t thought about it a whole lot,” Rakestraw said. “I’m just excited about everything we’ve done. I haven’t thought about it a whole lot, but it’s coming quick. I know it’s going to hit me pretty soon. It’s gone by so fast. ... All four years here have gone by really fast.”
Rakestraw will have gotten to participate in the NAIA national tournament in three of his four years at JBU. As a freshman in 2009-10, the Golden Eagles made a Cinderella run through the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament and into the NAIA quarterfinals. Last year, JBU was eliminated in the first round by Montana Western.
This year, the Golden Eagles (26-7) — winners of the Sooner Athletic Conference regular season championship — play Life (Ga.) at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in their opening round game.
The Running Eagles (19-12) will likely have a good scouting report on Rakestraw, who comes into the game with 1,424 career points, an average of 10.7 points per game for his career. Rakestraw’s next 3-pointer will be the 300th of his career, and he’s currently hit 40.2 percent of his career 3-pointers (299 of 743).
This all coming after a stellar high school career at Siloam Springs High School, where he helped lead the Panthers to the 2008 Class 5A state championship and was the school’s career-scoring leader at 1,664 points going into this season before he was passed by Payton Henson (2,239 points) in December.
“Watching him have the high school career he’s had and then the collegiate career that’s he’s had has been special,” said Sheehy, who also starred at Siloam Springs and JBU. “I think it’s neat he’s been able to do it all in the same town, where he’s got a big family and they’ve been able to enjoy his success.”
Sheehy said recruiting Rakestraw to JBU wasn’t as easy as some might think.
“The night we did a home visit Harvard called and wanted to talk with him,” Sheehy said, before adding with a laugh, “I just told him you have a higher education opportunity here in town. You don’t need to answer that call.”
In fact, Rakestraw said himself that up until his junior year of high school, the last place he envisioned himself was at his hometown college.
“Honestly, growing up, I never thought I would have come here,” Rakestraw said. “Up until my junior year, if they asked me, I would have told them, ‘No, I’m not going there.’”
Rakestraw said a lot of things changed in his junior year.
“The Lord changed the way I thought about some things,” he said. “Living here my whole life, I still hadn’t really seen what all JBU was. I took several visits, met the people here, teammates, and the coach. After visiting all other places, it was obvious to me this was where I wanted to be.”
Rakestraw said he selected JBU over the University of Arkansas-Little Rock and Biola (Calif.), where his brother Nate Rakestraw ended up finishing his college career.
“It’s been a great place, and I couldn’t be happier God led me here,” Coleson Rakestraw said of JBU.
Rakestraw said he thinks back to the Golden Eagles’ run to the SAC Tournament title his freshman year and this year’s regular season championship as some of his fondest memories at JBU.
“This year, being able to win conference for the first time ever, was pretty special,” he said. “Probably the thing I’ll remember the most is my teammates and the memories we’ve made.”
Rakestraw has some exciting career opportunities on the horizon as well.
He’s already received a job offer with the Oklahoma City company SAIC, where he interned last summer.
Wherever Rakestraw lands and whatever he ends up doing though, Sheehy has no doubt he’ll be successful.
“Someone will get an unbelievable person and an unbelievably great guy,” Sheehy said of Rakestraw. “A smart hard-working, every-day guy.
“He’s just a remarkable student athlete. It’ll be a very, very hard challenge to find somebody as consistent as he is.”