Grigg family has love of God and basketball

KUTTAWA, Ky. (KT) -- A Kentucky Baptist pastor describes his family's life as "full throttle" these days. That's understandable since Bryan Grigg pastors Macedonia Baptist Church in Lyon County while also serving as an assistant basketball coach at Christian Fellowship School where five of the Grigg children play varsity basketball.

"We do basketball nearly every day," said Grigg. "It's an unusual time when we are not going to basketball practice or to a game. But it is fun."

For Bryan and his wife, Krista, the basketball experience "has been good and we've enjoyed it. We wouldn't trade it for anything."

Grigg, who played basketball at the high school and college level, says the sport "has been in our blood a little bit," and said having an older brother (Luke) who played has been helpful. He said the senior twins "have been playing together since they were knee-high, starting in Upward Basketball.

"We are building into the family a tradition of playing hard," Bryan said. "My three rules are honor God, honor God, play hard. You can always play hard. Thankfully after every game opposing coaches will say our team plays so hard."

He adds that basketball "has a lot of life lessons that apply to the Christian life, such as perseverance. We've had a lot of tough years at the school, which has 75 students. We play against schools like Marshall County (1,200 students). They are in our district, so it is David vs. Goliath."

In compiling a 10-3 record thus far, the Eagles lost one game in overtime and another by two points.

The boys team head coach is Kayl Kite, who is a long-time deacon at Macedonia.

The Griggs' excitement has been heightened by the success of their children who are actively involved in the school's basketball program.

Twins Elijah and Samuel, seniors on the CFS squad, are finishing their high school careers with a bang.

Elijah, a 5-foot-11 shooting guard, broke the school's scoring record earlier this month, surpassing a record that stood for three decades. He broke the record Dec. 22 when he finished the night with 2,630 career points, passing the long-standing mark of 2,621 set by Chris Johnson in 1996.

After a Jan. 2 game at Fulton City, Elijah now is 47 points shy of the Region 1 scoring record. That record of 2,722 points was set by Ballard Memorial's Jace Birney last year.

Elijah is now averaging 24.1 points (third in Region 1) and 9.5 rebounds (fifth in the region) a game.

His brother, Samuel, also is a standout on the court. When CFS won the Track Tech/CCA tournament championship earlier this month, Elijah was the MVP while Samuel, a 5-11 point guard, made the all-tournament team. Both have played varsity ball since the seventh grade.

Earlier in December, Christian Fellowship finished as state runner-up in the KCAC state tournament. The team had lopsided wins over Frankfort Christian and Highland Latin, then beat Foundation Christian 59-46 to advance to the title game, which they lost 71-70 in overtime to Somerset Christian.

Also playing on the boys varsity is sophomore Jed Grigg.

Two Grigg children play on the CFS girls varsity squad. Maleah is a sophomore while Abby is starting as a seventh grader.