Devin Way

A small town high school basketball star began working for the Mavericks then came to SFA. Justin Saunders was just a sophomore at LaPoyner High School when he began working for the Mavericks in 2003.

 He said, “I started out working as a ball boy.” Justin worked on the court during games and would rebound for the players on game days. However, when he wasn’t putting his time into serving professional athletes, Justin was busy having an athletic career of his own. His senior year in high school he was named to the Academic All-State team.

He said, “I played in two state all-star basketball games, was named First Team All-Henderson County, First-Team All-Region, and All-East Texas basketball teams.” Justin graduated high school in 2006 as a very decorated basketball player as well as salutatorian of his class.

Justin knew the guy who was over the Maverick’s summer basketball camps and after graduation was offered a job coaching at one of them. After his first summer coaching summer camps, Justin accepted a scholarship and began his collegiate basketball career at LeTourneau University in Longview.

During this time period of his life, Justin befriended MavMan, the mascot for the Mavericks. That led to him become a part of their street marketing team. He said, “We would do parades and a lot of public events, working with our sponsors.” Justin has been apart of the maverick team for almost ten years.

Justin came to Stephen F. Austin his sophomore year in college after deciding that he didn’t really enjoy LeTourneau University as much as he thought he would. Once at Stephen F. Austin, Justin became very involved. He said, “ I was very active at SFA.” In 2009 Justin received the Presidential Volunteer Service Award. He was granted many other awards during his time at SFA as well. He was active in Texas Phi Chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, named a member of the 1923 Society, Quality Enhancement Plan Design Team and its marketing subcommittee, Driving Jacks Review Board, a sophomore homecoming nominee, Jack Walkers, and the Safe Ride Programs United Committee.

In 2010 Justin graduated from SFA with his Bachelor of Arts in Economics. He was accepted into Master of Business Administration programs at Ole Miss and Tulane University, however, he decided to stay at Stephen F. Austin and continue his education.

During his time in college, Justin continued working summer camps for the Mavericks and remained an active member of their street marketing team. He built many relationships with the players during that time in his life.

He said, “One funny story, probably two or three years ago, when Eric Dampier was still playing on the team. He was an old guy, he was turning probably like 35 and that’s old in the NBA. Anyways, he invited me to his birthday party but it sounded kind of sketchy so I didn’t end up going. But yeah, I got to know some of the guys pretty well.”

Justin believes that NBA players work extremely hard to be where they are. He said that they have more money than a person can spend in a lifetime but worked really hard to get it.

Justin was able to be at many of the half time shows that featured celebrities such as Usher and Shakera and many times was mere feet away from them.  He said, “I actually got to be on the court wile a slam dunk contest was happening in front of me.” Justin said that the coolest thing he got to do was work the practices of the east games where he met Lebron James and Dwaine Wade.

Currently, Justin is in his final semester of the MBA program at SFA and is planning to graduate next month, December, 2012.