By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider 
 
Josh Ehambe might have had four sacks in one game in seventh grade, and he was good enough to earn a full scholarship to the University of Kansas, playing defensive end for the Jayhawks. 
 
But basketball was his first love. 
 
As a toddler, "I used to climb out of my crib every morning to go play 'Space Jam,''' he said. "That was my favorite movie. No knock on LeBron (James), but I loved the original with Michael Jordan. That was the best."
 
And when he left the house late at night when the streetlights came on, Josh wasn't flinging the football or playing sandlot baseball. No, he was out there putting up shots on the dimly lit asphalt basketball court. 
 
The youngest of seven kids, Josh grew up watching the basketball games of his brothers Daniel and Moses, who went on to play at Oral Roberts and later played for the D-League's Iowa Energy. Moses is now the Director of Player Programs with the Minnesota Timberwolves. 
 
"I was actually sharing during chapel the other day, I talked about how my heroes don't wear capes, they wear my last name," said Ehambe, who was hired as Baylor Athletics' Director of Mission Impact & Enrichment in August 2023. 
 
"They're my brothers and sisters, and my parents of course, because they paved the way for me. They showed me what it is to be an Ehambe, but showed me what it is to work hard, to do the things that we need to do to be a man of God. All my siblings played sports. And my first love was basketball. I always wanted to be a basketball player."

Somewhat unfairly, though, Josh compared himself at a young age to his brothers and his best friend at the time, Emmanuel Mudiay. Ranked the No. 1 high school point guard in the country in 2014, Mudiay played one year in China and was the seventh overall pick by the Denver Nuggets in 2015. 
 
"He was a phenomenal basketball player," Josh said of Mudiay, who has played for four different teams in the NBA and spent last year in Puerto Rico with the Cangrejeros de Santurce in Puerto Rico. 
 
"We had a good team in seventh and eighth grade. And I kid you not, Emmanuel would have 30 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Several other peers on the team would have good games. And I would look at my stats: five points, five fouls. Comparing myself to them, I think, allowed me to take me off this path of basketball."
 
While Josh spent two of his four years in high school at Mansfield Summit, he twice followed Mudiay, first to Grace Prep Academy in Arlington for his sophomore year and then to Prime Prep Academy in Oak Cliff as a senior. Prime Prep was started by Deion "Prime Time" Sanders, now the head football coach at Colorado. 
 
"Emmanuel called and said, 'Hey, man, it's Deion Sanders. Come on,''' Ehambe said. "To be honest, I didn't even know who Deion Sanders was. I didn't know 'Prime Time,' because I was so immersed in basketball. Even as a football player, I would go to the gym and play basketball. And I would still watch basketball. I knew who Kobe Bryant was."
 
Started in 2012 as a group of charter schools, Prime Prep was ruled a non-accredited school in Josh's one year there and closed its doors in January 2015. 
 
"To say the least, Prime Prep was an interesting school," Josh said. "I always tell people, Deion had great intentions. I just think the execution wasn't the best."
 
That left Josh's college career in serious doubt. He committed to both TCU and SMU, "but they didn't accept my commitment because of everything that was going on at Prime Prep," he said. Stanford and Michigan also came by and took a look at Josh, "but I think it just scared a lot of people off."
 
Eventually signing with Kansas, Josh was ineligible for the 2014 season and then played in 26 games in three seasons with the Jayhawks. As a fourth-year junior in 2017, he started in six of the 10 games he played and finished with 22 total tackles, 6 ½ tackles for loss, two sacks, one forced fumble and one recovery. 
 
"After that, I had some injuries and was medically disqualified (for the 2018 season)," he said. "College was challenging to me. I was going through some things and trying to figure out this whole college thing, figuring out how to deal with coaches, how to deal with myself. There was a lot of trauma from the past, just insecurities."
 
While his career path began to clear up in that last year at Kansas, Josh said he was "hiding behind the internship" with student-athlete development, "because deep down, I still wanted to play."
   
"I wanted to go to the NFL. That was my desire, especially with Moses getting to the level that he got to," Josh said. "And, of course, Emmanuel, went to the NBA. So, it was very hard to give up that dream. I was hiding the hurt, the pain, making it seem like, 'Oh, I've got my career going and everything is fine. God's going to take care of me.' I still had a lot of friends on the team, but I didn't go to one game because of just the pain and the hurt that I experienced from the game." 
 
In that one year with student-athlete development at Kansas, though, Josh was a planner and leader for the R.I.S.E. program that facilitates pivotal life necessities for student-athletes of color and provided guidance and support through mentorship of 24 freshman student-athletes. 
 
"I got close with the athletic director there, Sheahon Zenger," who is now the interim president at the University of New Haven, Josh said. "There were just a lot of people that kind of showed me a different route, kind of spoke into my life that, 'Hey, sports isn't the only way.'''
 
The son of a minister, Josh said, "God has allowed me to have a unique story to share and tell," speaking at several churches while he was at Kansas and even sharing a motivational talk with the football team before a game against Oklahoma State. 
 
"The guys on the team respected me because I was a hard worker and didn't get into much trouble," he said. "And I think because of that, they were okay with me getting up there and sharing with them. And surprisingly, they liked it. They were like, 'Man, we really needed this.' And from there, God has just given me opportunities to get in front of people, whether it's at a church or a school or here at Baylor. God has opened up doors for me to come speak."
 
It was one of those opportunities that caught the attention of Dr. John B. White, Director of the Sports Chaplaincy/Ministry Program at Baylor's Truett Seminary. 
 
Because of health problems with his dad, Alex Ehambe, Josh had planned on taking a graduate assistant position at TCU that would have paid for his school and housing and a stipend, "so I could be close to my mom and dad and help out."
 
While he was attending a Black Student-Athletes Summit in Austin, Josh was asked by then-University of Texas women's basketball head coach Karen Aston to "share some words of encouragement to the team." 
 
"Because I'm not really shy to speak, I just shared what was on my heart," he said. "Crazy story, Dr. White was in that room, and he asked me to share with him about my story. And then, he pulled out his card that said professor of practical theology and Director of Sports Ministry. A lot of people in the past had talked to me about sports ministry. But at the time, I'm like, 'What the heck is sports ministry?'''
 
Although "being a pastor was not on my radar," Josh said he felt a tug on his heart to take a leap of faith and come to Baylor to work on a master of divinity degree with a concentration in sports ministry. 
 
"When I came, I thought it was the worst decision I had ever made," he said. "At TCU, I would have had a two-year grad assistantship, and they were paying for everything. I came here, and I didn't have a job. I was working in the dean's suite with Todd Still (at Truett), answering the phone. And I was an Uber driver. I was doing that on the side. And I was like, 'God, what the heck? You brought me here to Uber and work in the dean's suite, answering the phone?'''
 
But then, the doors started opening, one by one. 
 
After speaking with the Baylor football team in Dave Aranda's first season, Josh was asked to do a 10-hour internship with John Maurer, who is now the Assistant AD for Sports Ministry. He was also doing 10 hours a week with Dr. White in the Faith & Sports Institute department while also taking a full load in the master's program. 
 
Then, during his last year of seminary, Josh served as an associate character coach and chaplain for the Baylor men's basketball team through Nations of Coaches, assisting head character coach Scott Brewer in teaching, serving and assisting all student-athletes, coaches and staff within the program.   
After finishing his master's degree, Josh took the full-time role in the athletics department as Director of Mission Impact & Enrichment this past August. 
 
Baylor VP and Director of Athletics Mack Rhoades "had a vision to create a role where (Ehambe) could expand our sports ministry team," said Juliana Smith, in her first year as Executive Senior Associate AD for Mission Impact & Enrichment, "which is something that we needed to do, anyway."
 
"And then also, have someone who can expand beyond sports ministry and think about how we influence and impact our student-athletes more holistically," she said. "His role was kind of birthed from that. How do we retain someone who has contributed positively to our department and has been a reflection of what we want our student-athletes to be when they're done playing?"
 
In his role, Josh also serves on the ONE Group and works closely with Smith "in how we consider DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging) and its impact and influence on our effectiveness as an organization, but also our representation of the Kingdom," she said. 
 
He helped organize the Angel Tree drive that Baylor Athletics did with Mission Waco and is working in collaboration with other staff members to put together service days within the Waco community "so we can be the hands and feet of Jesus within our community," Smith said. 
 
Josh, who dreams of one day starting a K-12 charter school, said he knows he's in his current role "for a reason."
 
"I'm trying to focus on that reason, even if it's just talking to one student-athlete," he said. "And I'm here until the trumpet blows, just focusing on that."
 
Ehambe did say that the education system is "one of the quickest ways to be the hands and feet of Jesus."
 
"I think with what I went through, with the different schools that I went through, that's what I really want to do," he said. "I would live to go back and give back to young children, young kids, young adults, and show them Jesus that way. Help them navigate through their young life, that's my desire. But the man upstairs has a unique way of taking you to places that you never thought you would be."