Daily News-Record

Stuart Leake extends his right arm, stretching the skin and tugging at the face of the inky Jesus he has tattooed near his shoulder.

The Eastern Mennonite University point guard also has a crucifixion scene on his left arm, an eagle on his back and a set of letters on his chest.

"I don't know how many he's got," teammate Jason Sager said Wednesday before practice. "He leads the team."

Sager, also once a teammate of Leake's at Central High School in Woodstock, sports a little body art of his own, as do freshman guard JoMorrae Gordon and senior guard Mike Culen.

It's not the look you would expect at a small church school nestled in the Shenandoah Valley or from the players recruited by its devoutly religious first-year coach, Kirby Dean.

But on a team coming off a 3-22 season and sporting six new names on the roster - all of whom are expected to see meaningful time - maybe EMU needed a little image boost.

Heck, Allen Iverson might even be comfortable here.

Or not.

"Generally speaking, if I see a kid with tattoos, that makes me a little bit skeptical," Dean admitted. "But a majority of Stuart's are really a profession of his faith. Really, you want to live your faith more than you want to have it in a tattoo. Nevertheless, it makes a statement that this is what I believe. That's the kind of players I want in this program."

What Sager and Leake appear to believe as deeply as Dean is that they can help turn EMU into a winner.

The duo did plenty of winning in their days playing for Jerry Walters' Central Falcons. In 1998-99, the team went 20-0 in the regular season, with Leake playing the point and Sager at forward.

Since then, the two have traveled similar paths. Both opted to play Division II basketball at small schools far from home - and neither was happy.

Leake was a senior in 1999 and headed to St. Andrews in Laurinburg, N.C. A year later, Sager went to play at Erskine College in Due West, S.C. He spent just one semester there, never played in a game, and then headed back to Woodstock. He took classes at Lord Fairfax Community College, then got his real-estate license and joined his father working for Country Wide Realty in Woodstock.

That's when he got word from Leake that there might be a place for him at EMU.

Leake had been getting about 10 minutes a game, he said, as a freshman at St. Andrews, but he wasn't happy off the court.

"I left there 'cause I just didn't care for the school," Leake said. "It was really small. Basketball was all right; I think I was a little homesick."

So Leake went to Bridgewater for a year, but sat on the bench for coach Bill Leatherman after joining the team in midseason. He left school, worked, returned to BC, left again, enrolled at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida as a regular student - and finally landed at EMU, hoping to resume his basketball career.

Leake urged Sager to join him in Park View, and they've given the Royals both hoops prowess and a little hipper image.

Both had their tattoos done at the Painted Lady in Harrisonburg, and both independently picked the same design - an abstract arrow, though Leake added Jesus' face to the art.

Sager said he got his done on his 18th birthday, while Leake claims to have gotten his a year earlier while Sager was still in high school.

Either way, the two have an uncommon connection on the court, coming from their years together in high school and on the playgrounds.

For Dean, the duo brings three attributes: 1) more experience than most rookies, 2) ready-made on-court chemistry, and 3) plenty of eligibility, considering both are transfers. Leake, 22, has two years left -- plus one semester if he chooses to use it. Sager, 21, has three years remaining (maybe four, if the NCAA doesn't count his semester of practicing at Erskine).

So Dean, in dire need of players to turn around the Royals' program, looked past the ink and signed the duo.

"Tattoos are what they are," said Dean, a Spotswood High School graduate who spent eight years as an assistant at discipline-heavy VMI. "If someone has the sign of the beast, I'm not recruiting them. But if it's just a tattoo of something in their personality and it's not disrespectful, I don't have a problem with it.

"The biggest thing is how hard they've worked since they've been here. They've had great attitudes. They've done everything I've asked them to do. They've really bought into doing the things I expect."

Now, the pair expects to win.

Leake and Sager will likely be in the starting lineup when the Royals open their season Friday against Valley Forge in the first round of the McDaniel Tip-off Tournament in Westminster, Md.

Cullen, the returning team leader both in games played and body art, E.J. Arrington, the team's leading scorer last year, and freshman center Jason Lentz should round out the starting five.

"I think we're going up there the underdog," Dean said. "I really do. We're going to be the underdog all year. That's fine. I want the kids to embrace that."

Friday will be a big day for Sager. Not only will he play in the first college basketball game of his career, but he'll also close on his biggest sale as a realtor.

Sager said he expects to finalize a $130,000 sale, from which he'll draw a 1.5 percent commission - or about $1,950.

That'll pay for a lot of tattoos.
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Record Number: 109E396E4B03FF3B