Tevin Foster is a 6-0 guard from Lawton, Oklahoma. In 2022, he was the sixth man for the Potawatomi Fire and one of TBL’s top sixth men. He averaged 13.2 points, along with about two rebounds and two assists per game. He shot nearly 46% from the field including 36% from beyond the three-point arc. His aim was true at the foul line as well, going for 85% at the charity stripe. He scored a season-high 33 points vs Rockwall on April 3 which included 5 of 8 treys and seven rebounds. His journey to the Fire took him many places including to South Dakota to play D-I football, Labette (Kan.) Community College (JUCO) and Drury University (D-II) in Springfield, Mo., and then Abilene Christian for D-I basketball and later professional basketball in Croatia and Serbia. Foster is part of the Comanche Nation and played for the first pro basketball team (Potawatomi Fire) owned by a Native American tribe (Citizen Potawatomi Nation) in Oklahoma. Prior to the season, Foster sat down with Fire play-by-play man and director of communications, Chris Cox.
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
Hello everybody and welcome to the Potawatomi Fire Broadcast Network. I’m Chris Cox and it’s another special edition of the Coaches Corner except though without a coach. Instead with one of the Fire players, Tevin Foster. Tevin, one of the veteran members of the Potawatomi Fire — one of the three guys, I think, so far for the Fire that are coming back from last year. Coming into this new season, how do you think the roster is shaping up? It’s looking like it’s going to be a really, really stacked team.
Tevin Foster (Fire guard)
Man, I think it is shaping up good man, like all the way around. From the five position (center) to the four (PF), three (SF), two (SG), one (PG) and all the way to our bench. I think we’re deep going into this season.
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
I think last year you know you look at the Fire team and you — y’all were pretty well stacked except the back end of the bench. It did get a little light there, but like you were saying, I mean, all 12 guys — they’re gonna be asked to contribute at any given night. And so I think you got 12 guys this year that are going to be able to put up some numbers whenever they’re asked to do that, right?
Tevin Foster (Fire guard)
Like you said, we got 12 guys that makes it, it makes it better for the whole team. Everybody’s gotta stay on their toes. Everybody’s got to compete each and every day. Minutes are not gonna be guaranteed, (except) maybe for your core guys. But everybody’s gotta stay on their toes and be held accountable and that makes a championship team.
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
Before we talk a little bit more about the upcoming season, you’ve been busy this off season. You’ve been playing a lot of basketball. You’ve been traveling the country. Where are some of the places that you’ve played this year?
Tevin Foster (Fire guard)
Oh, man, shoot I’ve been everywhere. I’ve been down south. I’ve been in Texas. I’ve been in New Mexico. This weekend, I’m actually going to Arizona to play for a 6000 dollar tournament. I’ve been up north to Seattle. New York — man, I’ve been I’ve been in a lot of places but I travel on a native, on my native circuit. Not only on native circuit but that’s where I do most of my traveling. I travel on that circuit and our sponsors pay for all out of our tournament fees and travel fees and we just got to go there and win. If we win, we split good money with each other and go on about our business and have fun.
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
One other tournament that you played in this offseason was the FireLake Invitational right here at FireLake Arena. You got to play with some of the guys that you’re gonna be teammates with this year: K.D. Moore, Chuck Guy, Paul Harrison, obviously you know Deshawn (Munson) already. So you got to play with some of those guys and get a feel for how you all played together. How important was that tournament, do you think, going into training camp here in a month and then the regular season, here in just under two?
Tevin Foster (Fire guard)
Man, I think that tournament was really important for us because … when I play in money tournaments I like going with guys I know I can play with. Everybody’s going to play hard, we’re going to go there and win, no matter who scores of most points — no matter what, we’re going to win money. That’s the ultimate goal and I knew my brother (Craig) was playing this tournament so I didn’t want to go against him, ’cause I like winning money with my brother. But I had seen something special in the guys that we had with the team. And I knew I had a future here, I wanted to come back and play next season, so I’m just like, man! If we can put this together, we can win something. We can do some special. We can bounce back and have a good season. I am already comfortable with Munson — that’s a great player all the way around. I love playing with him. And then we got Chuck (Guy) coming in, Paul Harrison. We got a lot of top guys, like K.D. Moore — I love his energy. He brings his great energy to the team defensively, and that’s what we need to win championships. I like to, I can respond off that type of energy, especially from Chuck. He wants you to play defense, he wants you to guard. I respond off that because offense is gonna come at the end of the day.
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
Unlike a lot of the guys who are gonna be on this year’s roster, you know, you being from Lawton, you’ve been here in Shawnee a lot. You’re not too far away when you’re in Lawton and you’ve spent a lot of time here. What conversations have you been having with with coach (Mark) Dannhoff because you’ve been around him, probably more this offseason than a lot of the other guys have?
Tevin Foster (Fire guard)
Right, man, we have just been trying to build that bond together as a coach and player. I feel like me and Coach Dannhoff, as the offseason has been going on, we’ve got closer and closer and just been talking about how we can build this team and build a championship team. And whether it was — It wasn’t even about me, it was about other players coming together first and then, adding me to the pieces. You know it was just about, just talking making sure we had the right pieces set together. And he was always asking my opinions; open about my opinions on anything. That’s good coming from a coach because he’s willing to listen to his players and that’s important. I love to listen to my coaches — I’m not going against nothing my coaches say because I trust my coaches. He’s just open on everything. We played in that tournament. I’m a real competitive guy — I like to compete, I like to win so I said, ‘I was playing against my brother and shoot, he (Craig) was just doing all the talking.’ We were losing at the time but I know it’s a game of runs. But I was on a bench at the time and I was just like trying to get in the game ’cause I know, we were trying to win this money and coach kind of heard me. You know he heard me say something, but it wasn’t nothing against coach. It was just me being competitive and him learning me like ‘Okay, I got a guy that’s ready to compete on this end and play defense because we needed to get stops.’ He trusted me right there and that’s kind of like where our bond started growing, from that point on.
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
I know one thing that coach has talked a lot about is that it’s very relational and very family-oriented. Which you know some coaches, even great coaches, are just focused solely on basketball: ‘let’s go out there let’s play the best basketball we can.’ But then you have other coaches who are very, you know, relationship-oriented, family-oriented. How has that, I guess that family dynamic that he’s talked about — how has that registered with you?
Tevin Foster (Fire guard)
Man, ah he’s like. I came from Abilene Christian. And that’s what we were about — we were about family. Keeping God first and just coming together, talking to each other. Communicate with each other and that builds a bond. That builds team chemistry. If our coach can teach that and preach that from the beginning, then our team … it’s gonna be easier for our team. That’s big, that’s big coming from Coach Dannhoff. That’s one thing, that’s one big thing I like about him. He’s a positive guy. He’s spiritual. He wants us to come together as family and that’s what it’s about.
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
Obviously, the Shawnee community is already familiar with you. They’re familiar with the Fire, but what do you think is gonna be different that they’ll see this year as opposed to last year — not just from you, but from the team as a whole?
Tevin Foster (Fire guard)
Ah man, I think they’re going to see first off, that we got a great team all around. We spoke on that — just the energy from all of us. The energy from different guys this year, like I know what type of guys we got. I know what type of energy they going to bring. It is gonna be positive, is gonna be energetic. It’s gonna be everything and the fans are gonna love it. They’re gonna respond off of it and we’re gonna win (lots of games).
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
What are some of the things you’re excited to do, maybe in the community this season, as it gets going?
Tevin Foster (Fire guard)
Man, I just want to keep touching base with the kids. I know like, I’m from Lawton, Oklahoma. Our community needs positivity and the kids need guidance. They need role models to look up to, so they could reach where we reach or maybe even higher. And I want to be able to get out to Shawnee, continually no matter what, all season. In season — I want the kids to be able to come enjoy a good atmosphere.
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
Tevin, when I’ve been doing these interviews this offseason, I’ve been kind of doing some rapid fire questions with some of the guys. Mostly with some of the newer guys who fans haven’t gotten to know but I don’t think they necessarily have gotten to hear some of these answers from you. So we just have a few rapid fire questions for you, real quick. First off, you played at Abilene Christian — talk a little bit about your journey getting there and then getting here to TBL. ‘Cause it’s been, it was a wild ride for you.
Tevin Foster (Fire guard)
Yeah man, it was a crazy journey. So at first, my first year of college, I got recruited. In high school, I was getting recruited for football and basketball. I wanted to go to D-I, so long story short, I didn’t get recruited high for basketball. It was hard for us at the time even though I led, I all-stated in basketball. I was a top scorer in the state, but didn’t get recruited for D-I (even though) I was good at football as well. I actually fractured a C-6 vertebrae my neck, and I had to switch (after that because) I was getting recruited by top major D-I (programs). Well, they fell off. They didn’t want to take a risk on a person with a fractured neck ’cause I’m liability. South Dakota stayed with me. (They are) a Division I school and they (were) still Division I at the time. And they stayed with me and took a chance on me so I was just like man, I’m gonna go here. So my freshman year, I played football at South Dakota. For the first semester, I got about 30 reps a game. After the semester I was just like man, I want to transfer and play ball. That’s what I wanted to ultimately do anyway but I also wanted to go D-I and experience that.
So after the semester, I transferred to a junior college. I wanted to Seminole State (Okla.), up the road. I redshirted there, and then I found out, a coach that I knew was going to Labette (Kan.) Community College. He called me and said ‘What’s your plan?’ So he ended up giving me a workout there. I went to workout and had a good workout, and he gave me a scholarship. He actually gave me the green light — gave me the green light when I got there. Shoot, I led it the Jayhawk (League) in scoring at the time. We beat Hutch (Hutchinson CC) — that was a big time win for us. Had two 40-point games — I thought I was going back D-I. Man, I was about to go back to D-I.
But I was getting recruited by a good program, a Division II program called Drury University in Springfield, Missouri. They had just come off a national championship (in 2013). I went on a visit and I saw the gym and I was just like, oh man, that’s a D-I atmosphere. So I can do it here, and it’s a good program. Well, I committed there. Went there for two years and had two good years there. I was second team (all-conference) the first year. The first year (we had a) 19-8 record, then 18-10 record in the second year. We didn’t make it to the NCAA tournament (either year) — that was big for for Drury because they were a winning program. So coach, you know, we had our end of the season meetings and coach talked with me, (and said that) he might recruit some guys that might be better than me, whatever it was. But shoot, I was just like, ‘Man, coach, they got to compete. They got to come in and compete.’
Actually just something didn’t sit right with me and I just decided I wanted to figure something out for my last year. I felt like something that was in me that I could go back to Division I. I knew I could and I had a plan. I reached out to my brother (Craig Foster) who played in the Lone Star Conference at Cameron. Abilene Christian was in the Lone Star Conference at the time. They were Division II. So coach (Joe) Golding was still there. He was there through the Division II phase and then going into the D-I phase. My brother was the Player of the Year (in 2013) in the conference and All-American when he was there. His word was good so I reached out to (my brother) and said, ‘Man, I want to go Division I again. I want to go back to that platform and finish up ’cause I want to go overseas — that’s what I want to do’.
And so he (Craig) reached out, made a phone call. Coach Golding called me probably about 30 minutes later. He said, ‘Hey, man, I heard about about your process over there. We like you, we need a grad transfer to come in. We’ve got these guys that have been together since they were freshman. You’re our missing piece.’ Boom! Got me in there and I went to Abilene Christian. Man, we had a winning season as a Division I program. When I got there, they were eligible to go to a postseason tournament. We had a winning record and we got invited to go to the CIT tournament and to play Drake. We lost that in double overtime, unfortunately, but it was a good experience for me. Like that’s what I wanted to do again. Being able to go back from football at Division I, back to JUCO, Division II, and back to D-I, it was just … it meant something to me. My grind paid off It always taught me just keep working hard, man, no matter that nothing can stop me. It’s always gonna show.
So after I left Abilene Christian and my last year, I was trying to figure out how I’m gonna get overseas. Trying to find an agent, I’m trying to do everything. (At first), I didn’t find a good agent. Well, I’m networking for myself on Facebook. Shoot, I found a young agent and he connected me to the top league of Croatia. When you go overseas, you want to go to respected leagues so you can move up. Man, I’d show my brother because he had played in the NBL in Canada. ‘Is this respected?’ He’s like yeah, that’s the top of Croatia and a lot of good players playing in that league.
So I knew it was my rookie year. I’m going over there and show myself. I signed for no money. Signed for no money in a top league. I knew if I proved myself, it was gonna come. So I end up leading that league in Croatia in scoring and by about the fourth game, the GM came in and she asked, ‘What can we offer you? You know, it has to be within the budget but what can do? I know we had to start paying you.’ And (after that), she was giving me like $800 every two weeks. I was good with that because it was my rookie year. It’s gonna move up and sure enough, it did! Let that league in scoring and kept that team in the top league because that’s what they wanted.
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
They have the relegation system, right?
Tevin Foster (Fire guard)
Yeah, if you finished in the last two, you dropped to the second league. So that’s what they wanted me to come over there and do. We did that and I’m like — okay, that’s good on my resume. I ended up getting another contract the next year to go to Serbia for two years. I signed a two-year contract. The first year we finished number two in the league and I averaged around 12 points. I ended up signing with a different agent to get there also. But they finished number two in the league so when you finish the top two, you move up right (then). They play ABA league to this day, because of the year when I was there. I’m not saying it was all because me but I’m saying I was part of that. I was part of that team and so going into my second year, I’m thinking I’m about to play ABA 2 my next year. But I didn’t get to go back because of COVID and that’s when things started to get weary. Then the Potawatomi Fire opened up and I’ve been taking advantage of this opportunity.
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
Before we get back to some of these other questions, I’ve talked with a lot of you guys. And of all of y’all are about the same age — anywhere from about 24 to 28 (years old), somewhere in that range. It seems like that COVID really, for a lot of you guys trying to go from league to league, it really kind of, derailed your careers a little bit. I’m sure that had to be tough especially when you think, ‘Okay I’m getting ready to take a step up or I feel like I can take a step up.’ Then all of a sudden, you can’t leave the country.
Tevin Foster (Fire guard)
Yeah, man, it did. It definitely took a toll on a lot of people not just me. ‘Cause once you’re going ,you’re in a rhythm, you’re in a flow. And being away from home is not easy. Everybody can vouch for that, that’s been over there. So once you’ve flown, you’re over there and you’re going, ‘This is all right. I’m here now. I’m going.’ Then when that stops, you’re like dang! It kind of ruins your motivation to get back. Especially when you gotta work for your money every year. You’re not getting paid. You’re not getting paid for the most amount of money your first couple of years, you know I’m saying. So you’ve already been building for three years and you’re like, dang! All my work went to waste. When you take a year off over there … maybe a year, you can keep solid. But two years off? It’s hard to get back overseas and get the money that you want. You can get back over there and go pay for a little amount of money, but shoot, I’m 28 now. I’m trying to get it here, in the space, while I can man, while I’m still at that age in my prime. I’m glad, I’m blessed that Potawatomi opened up. I’m blessed to be part of this team for going on two years. I just want to bring that championship here now.
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
Yeah and kind of going back to some of these other questions — so before, what’s your go-to meal before a game?
Tevin Foster (Fire guard)
Oohh, I would say, probably Subway. I like sub sandwiches before my games.
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
What is your pregame routine like?
Tevin Foster (Fire guard)
Okay, so I like taking hot showers before every game. So I make sure to take a hot shower, then I just, I get into a a mode where I like to just start stretching, listen to music before I get ready to head to the game. But when I get to the gym, I’m getting on the court and I’m getting loose. I’m trying to get out there before everybody so I can get my blood flowing. Get my mind right. Get my muscle memory right. Everything.
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
What’s in your headphones that you’re listening to?
Tevin Foster (Fire guard)
Ah, it just depends on my mood. Sometimes, you know I might listen to some Lil Baby. You know but sometimes, I might listen to some gospel before a game. Like I said, it just depends on my mood. I like to switch it up.
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
All right. And then, looking back at the team on the court … you’ve talked about … how good this team is. What are your goals for this team?
Tevin Foster (Fire guard)
Man, I just, first off, if we win, everybody eats. From the GM down, everybody eats. So, I just want everybody to have a successful season. No injuries. We’re all coming together as a family and we can bring this championship back home and finish off where we left last year. And build on that.
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
All right, Tevin. Well, thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.
Tevin Foster (Fire guard)
No doubt, man. Thank you for having me.
Chris Cox (Fire Play-by-play)
That’s gonna do it for this edition of the Coaches Corner here on the Potawatomi Fire Broadcast Network. Be sure to go to visit the Potawatomi Fire website at potwatomifire.com where you can find links for season tickets and there also single game tickets as well. You’re not going to want to miss out on the Potawatomi Fire this season. Also be sure to stay tuned into the Potawatomi Fire Broadcast Network and then also, of course, all of our social media channels as we’ll have more information for you. More of these special interviews throughout the offseason and into training camp, which is coming up right around the corner, and in the regular season which will be here in the blink of than eye. That’s going to do it for us today. Thanks again for listening. I’m Chris Cox.