Kedra Holland-Corn

November 14th, 2007 Share

Main Man/Woman of the Month!

Check out Kedra Holland-Corn greatest achievement below

Kedra Holland-Corn Position:  G Born: 11/05/74 Height: 5-8 /  1,73 Weight: 132  lbs. / 59,9  kg. College: Georgia ‘97

If anyone ever regarded Colossians 3:23 (“Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” —NLT) as a pattern for living, it would be Kedra Holland-Corn. The Sacramento Monarchs’ guard follows a discipline of hard work that has paid off in professional success. At the end of last season, she was ranked in two WNBA top 10 lists (third in three-point field goals made with 59 and ninth in steals per game with 1.75). Holland-Corn also is ranked 11th in three-point field-goal percentage with .393.

Her motivation doesn’t come from the professional honors. It comes from deep inside.

“My faith keeps me focusing on the task at hand,” she says. “It helps me realize that once I step on the court, I am representing Jesus Christ—not the (Sacramento) Monarchs or Kedra Holland-Corn, but Jesus Christ. That means I give all that I have that day. When it’s over, I leave on the floor everything that happened in the game.”

As a young girl playing basketball in the parks of Houston, Kedra Holland was a natural. The passion for the game grew as she began organized play in the fifth grade.

Just as a coach builds the skills of his or her players, Holland-Corn knows the influence an adult can have on a young person’s spiritual life. Growing up in a Christian household, her great-grandmother taught young Kedra the importance of knowing Jesus. But the Christian journey is not stationary; it has to advance continually.

“My senior year in high school is when I began to feel the void in my life,” she recalls. She was on top of the world, but something was still missing.

“I had basketball. I could choose anywhere in the country where I wanted to attend school. There were accolades nationally and domestically and (plenty of) media attention. Society says if a kid at that age has all of those things, they should be enough to make her content and happy. But that was not the case for me,” she recalls.

She soon realized the missing piece was developing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

“So on Sept. 6, 1993, I began my journey of allowing Christ to be the captain of my life, leading and directing me in the direction He wanted me to go,” she remembers.

Following high school, she continued to perfect her game at Georgia, gaining a reputation for three-point shooting. The 5’7” guard developed a routine of shooting five sets of 10 three-pointers. If she missed more than four, she did that set over. Her goal was to shoot 50, hitting 60 percent or more.

Practicing between 100 and 200 shots a day, she honed her natural ability into refined technique. This hard work paid off, gaining her first-team All-SEC honors in 1997. That year the speedy senior guard was named an Associated Press third-team All-American. She was selected to the 1995 NCAA All-Midwest Regional Team and was a member of the championship 1997 USA Women’s World University Games and 1994 U.S. Olympic Festival teams.

“Kedra was a hard worker and didn’t complain,” remembers Janie Jones, former FCA staff member in Georgia who now is working for the ministry in Dallas. “She always gave 100 percent. Her goal was to give the Lord the glory, and she played like it.”

Early in her college career, Kedra was involved in helping Jones organize and establish the FCA Huddle on the Athens, Ga., campus. Not only was she a student leader, but she also visited local middle schools and high schools to speak for FCA. Whether speaking for a Huddle meeting or school assembly, or giving her testimony at a fundraising banquet, Kedra endeared herself to the listeners, always pointing the way to Christ. Even after she started playing pro ball, Kedra made herself available for FCA functions on her return visits to Athens.

It was during her years with the Bulldogs that she met and married her husband, Jesse Corn. Also a solid Christian, Jesse actively participated in FCA too. Jones recalls how Jesse was Kedra’s biggest fan. After their wedding, he served as team manager for the Lady Bulldogs so he could travel with the team. Jesse is still Kedra’s biggest fan.

Disciplined practice and hard work have helped Holland-Corn make the most of the opportunities God provides. She trusts in the words found in Jeremiah 29:11: “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

Reliance on these words reduces the stress.

“God knows all about my life,” she says. “He knows what is best for me. My future is in His hands, so there is no trying to figure out what to do, when to do it or where to do it. It is all taken care of.”

While relying on God to direct her life, Holland-Corn knows she must do her part diligently.

“I must stay in close relationship with Him through prayer and spending quiet time with Him to know what His will is for my life. This keeps me from guessing and speculating about what His will is for my life,” she says.

Following her Bulldog years, Holland-Corn played for the San Jose Lasers of the American Basketball League, averaging 10.3 points per game, 2.9 rebounds per game and 2.2 assists per game in two seasons. During this time, Holland-Corn participated at the FCA Girls Camp in Santa Barbara, helping with the basketball clinics and sharing her testimony during an evening session.

“The campers loved Kedra working with them,” recalls Debbie Haliday, Santa Barbara Camp Director and FCA’s Southern California Regional Director of Camps. “She is an incredible athlete. The campers were really listening to her words.”

And Holland-Corn enjoys Camp as much as the young athletes.

“There is nothing like seeing young people at an early age make the commitment to follow Jesus Christ in front of their peers,” said the pro player, adding that she loves the fellowship and sports.

“That’s what’s great about Kedra,” explains Haliday. “She enjoys getting to know the kids, working with them one-on-one. She’s real down-to-earth and a lot of fun.”

After the ABL folded, Holland-Corn was drafted by the WNBA’s Monarchs. She is stepping out as one of the spiritual leaders for the Sacramento team.

Last season, she started holding a team Bible Study in her home. As much as her hefty playing schedule allows, Holland-Corn also speaks to groups about her Christian faith.

When she has the opportunity to present her testimony to young people, Holland-Corn emphasizes how her relationship with Christ puts everything in perspective for her:

“I am a professional basketball player in the States and overseas. That is my career, it is one of the things that I love to do.

“But throughout my life what I have realized about the game of basketball is that it’s just a game. Don’t get me wrong, I work just as hard as—if not harder than—my opponent to make sure I am mentally and physically ready to compete and win. But I don’t let the game control me; I control the game.

“Basketball is important to me, but it comes nowhere close to how important my relationship with Jesus Christ is to me. If all is well with Him and our relationship, all is well in my life. It doesn’t matter if I go 0-for-15 from the field. It doesn’t matter if the coach won’t play me. It doesn’t matter if I get a season-ending injury. All is still well, because Jesus is right there helping and guiding me through it all. Jesus puts sports in perspective for me, by helping me realize that it’s just a game.

“But if all is not right with the Lord and my relationship with Him, I begin to allow the game to control me and my life. Injuries, bad game, etc., begin to affect me, and all is not well.

“When it’s all said and done, God is not going to ask me how many points I scored against the L.A. Sparks. That will be far, far from His mind. But He will be concerned about what I did for Him while I was here. And I want my answer to be, ‘Help as many people as I could come to know and love You, like I did.’”

As Holland-Corn speeds across the floor of ARCO Arena, don’t be concerned about her motivation. She’s playing for the Lord

 

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