Texas Tech Women’s Basketball Star Wants to ‘Proclaim’ God Though Her Gifts

Published: March 12, 2024

Texas Tech Women’s Basketball Star Wants to ‘Proclaim’ God Though Her Gifts

By Movieguide® Contributor

Bailey Maupin, Texas Tech Lady Raiders women’s basketball point guard, is opening up about how God guided her to the right college.

Maupin grew up in a small town in Texas, and though she grew up in a Christian environment, faith wasn’t necessarily a priority. She felt she needed to go to church to make her parents proud but later realized the importance of a personal relationship with God.

“It was hard to realize that it’s not all it’s for,” the Texas Tech player told “I Am Second.” “I can get more out of this. I can learn. I can become closer to God.”

As Maupin improved at basketball, she became enamored with the offers from schools, revealing that she “didn’t look at if they were Christian.”

Though excited, she also felt “uneasy” about her decision.

“I felt like something was just pulling on my heart,” Maupin described. Something was on my mind. I just kept getting all these signs. And at that point, I knew that was God and the Holy Spirit telling me to pray about it and ask Him about it.”

After a few weeks of prayer, Maupin decided to play basketball at Texas Tech University.

“My coach is a woman of God,” she revealed. “That was the best thing I could have done for myself. I would have gone to the wrong college if I hadn’t turned to Him.”

When she arrived on campus, Maupin discovered that she truly had to make her faith her own.

“Having to become your own person and find your way in a world full of sin and hate and violence is hard,” she said. Everything around you is going by so quickly [that] you never know what’s real. I let my faith be held up by so many other things, and when I got to college, they were all gone. And I realized that my faith shouldn’t be held up by other people or a certain church. My faith should be held up by myself and by God.”

She’s now committed to using her platform to glorify God.

“He is using my gift in basketball to proclaim His glory,” Maupin said. “I was blessed to be able to have a platform to share my story to that young child out there who wants to be a basketball player but also wants to be a Christian because you can do both. You can be the greatest basketball player ever, but you can also share God’s Word at the same time.”