Junior Year & All-CAC Team
Heading into Gerhardt’s junior year in 1989, the university’s athletic department was moving in a completely different direction than in previous seasons. Trinity’s tennis team was leaving division I for division III and the rest of the athletic teams were finding homes in the NCAA DIII Collegiate Athletic Conference (Hanson, 1989). This move would cause Trinity to share a conference with schools that had similar entrance and academic requirements and allow for the university to have regular season and championship opportunities (Hanson, 1989). Trinity also brought in 35-year-old Charlie Brock, to succeed Duane Henry as the men’s basketball head coach (Hart, 1989). Brock was hired late in the offseason process, so he was not able to recruit his own players, but he recognized that he had a special player in Gerhardt (Gerhardt, 2020). The club had gotten off to a slow start going 2-8 in their first 10 games before heating up. They beat Howard-Payne and then two solid teams in 10-8 Schreiner and 10-4 Rhodes for a three-game winning streak and reason for optimism moving forward (HerrNeckar, 1990). Although the team sputtered and finished the season with similar results as in the previous two years (they ended up at 7-18 in the 1989-1990 season), Gerhardt really blossomed as a player and as a leader of the team. He averaged 13.3 points per game for the season, 83.9% from the free throw line, and an outstanding 48.3% from three-point range (Horning, 1990).
The standout game from his all conference season was in a 33-point win against LeTourneau on January 19th, where he went for 30 points on 10-18 shooting and went 8-8 at the free throw line (HerrNeckar, 1990). However, basketball was far from the only thing on Gerhardt’s mind in that performance. Earlier that day, Gerhardt received a phone call that one of his childhood friends had passed away from a battle with Leukemia (Gerhardt, 2020). Gerhardt dedicated that game to his friend, went to his friend’s memorial the following day, and returned after a one-game absence to score 20 points that Sunday in a loss against Schreiner (HerrNeckar, 1990). Speaking on his career night, Gerhardt recalled: “If I could just use all his energy, there’s no reason I can’t do well… So, I remember just thinking ‘Just play your heart out. Play as good as you can.’ And I ended up having my career game” (Gerhardt, 2020). In reference to making all of his free throws, Gerhardt said, “Every time I was shooting a free throw, I was thinking of my buddy – thinking ‘There’s no way you’re going to let me miss one of these, is there?’” (Gerhardt, 2020). The mental resilience, talent, and hard work that Gerhardt demonstrated during that season paid off as he became the first men’s basketball player to be a part of the All-CAC (later changed to SCAC) team in Trinity’s very first season in the conference.