University of San Francisco Athletics

Joel DeBortoli had plenty of career options following his graduation from USF in 1990.
 
After transferring to the Hilltop from College of the Siskiyous, the McCloud, Calif. native played three seasons for the Dons under Jim Brovelli and graduated as USF's 13^th all-time leading scorer with 1,170 points. He earned first team All-West Coast Conference honors as a senior after averaging 18.3 points and 7.1 rebounds and still ranks 22nd on the school's all-time career scoring list and 14^th in career field goal percentage.
 
A business major, DeBortoli was also a standout in the classroom. He was named the WCC's Male Scholar Athlete of the Year Award and earned second team CoSIDA Academic All-America honors following his senior season.
 
While his basketball skills paved the way for a 14-year professional career that took him from Quad Cities, Ill. to Switzerland, Turkey, Macedonia, Belgium and finally Qatar, it was DeBortoli's academic prowess, business acumen and genuine people skills that seemingly placed him on the CEO fast track.
 
However, it was in Turkey in 1995 that DeBortoli and his wife Tammy, who first met as third graders, heard another vocational calling loud and clear.
 
"I was listening to a missionary speak in our church and I felt God call my wife and I to be missionaries," said DeBortoli. "All of the people that we would hang out with in Turkey were missionaries and they loved us. God basically was just asking us to do the same and He would use basketball to get us to the places where He wanted us to be.
 
"We said 'yes' and let God send us where He wanted us to go."
 
For the past 18 years, Joel and Tammy, along with their four children – Gabrielle, Jordan, Grace and Joy -- have been associated with Iris Global, a holistic missionary organization "dedicated to the revival of the Holy Spirit wherever the love and power of God is present." Founded by Rolland and Heidi Baker in 1980, missionaries of Iris Global instill a spiritual awakening in the poor, broken and marginalized citizens of the world.
 
DeBortoli describes raising a young family in the remote reaches of Nepal as a "family affair and a glorious adventure which teaches how fulfilling and joyful a life lived for others can be."
 
The DeBortolis join other missionaries in taking care of the orphans and widowed of Kathmandu in Nepal, where they have called home for the past nine years. They also administer to a center for the poor and homeless, serve meals to over 200 people twice a week and find the time to visit Nepal's remote villages in order to care for people's needs, paint churches and share the love of Jesus.
 
One day might find DeBortoli plowing fields, praying for the sick and dying on the streets of Kathmandu, training village pastors or teachers, or coaching basketball at his son's school.
 
"The most rewarding part of our work is seeing our loving God completely transform the lives of others, whether it's an orphan being welcomed into God's family, a blind or deaf person getting completely healed or witnessing someone experience the love of Jesus for the first time," said DeBortoli.
 
"God has graciously allowed us to witness Him allowing the paralyzed to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the sick made well and cancerous tumors disappear."
 
His former coach is not all surprised of DeBortoli's career choice.
 
"Joel is a very religious guy who believes in people and helping them to grow in their lives," said Brovelli. "People like Joel because he is real, trustworthy and very believable. I remember going to his wedding in McCloud and you can see how close he was to his family and how much he believed in the goodness of people.
 
"You always knew he would be a success in anything he pursued."
 
DeBortoli's roots in missionary work was planted at USF, where he and his teammates would routinely visit homeless shelters in the Haight and treat the shelter's young children to games. He also remembers volunteering his time with friends in the Marina district following the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989.
 
He also has fond memories of his basketball days on the Hilltop, especially notable wins over nationally-ranked teams such as Loyola Marymount and Notre Dame before pack crowds inside Memorial Gymnasium.
 
DeBortoli's future plans?
 
"To grow in the love of Christ and share His love with the people of Nepal and the world."
 
DeBortoli would be proud to know USF's current student-athletes continue to honor the Jesuit mission of being men and women for others by mentoring children through partnerships with San Francisco RBI and Harper for Kids, feeding meals to the guests of St. Vincent de Paul's MSC Shelter and St. Anthony's Dining Room, participating in clothes drives, conducting clinics for the mentally challenged and raising funds for cancer research through the Change for Change program.
 
While USF's student-athletes continue to change the world from here, others who preceded them have touched the lives of others all over the world. Joel DeBortoli has the passport to prove it.
 
Jim Young, Associate Athletic Director / Communications & Community Relations