Xavier Churnac’s long road has landed him the interim men’s basketball coach job at Jamestown Community College. Submitted photo

An information technology repairman was busy fixing a computer issue in Xavier Churnac’s office in the Hillside Suites West dormitory on the Jamestown Community College campus early last week, so the residence director invited me to find a seat in the adjacent room for our planned interview.

The change of venue afforded me a close-up view of residence life. Through the windows, a steady stream of students could be seen coming and going, but during our 90-minute conversation, much to my surprise, Churnac — known to all on campus as “X” — was, interrupted only twice. Once was to take a phone call. The second time was to greet a student who wanted just to say hello. The young man didn’t stop smiling during his interaction with Churnac.

As I’ve come to learn in the last week, Churnac has a knack for making people feel good. His personal odyssey — which has taken him from Kingston, Jamaica, to New York City, and from Jamestown, to Edinboro, Pennsylvania and back again — is living proof what can happen when one works hard and refuses to let obstacles get in the way of reaching life’s goals.

The road hasn’t been easy for him, but as Jamestown CC’s newly named interim men’s basketball coach told his story last Tuesday, it was clear that with a long holiday weekend approaching the 26-year-old had plenty for which to be thankful.

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Nearly 40 years ago, I was a student at Jamestown CC. I was also a huge fan of the men’s basketball team, as were countless area residents, who filled the Physical Education Complex to the rafters every night the Jayhawks had a game.

I was so into Coach Nick Creola’s team that I made sure to get to the game an hour before the opening tip so that I would guarantee myself a seat directly behind the bench. Among his assistant coaches in the late 1970s and early 1980s were Ray Fashano and Lewis Mack, the latter considered by most observers to be the greatest player in the school’s history.

I’d like to think that Creola, Fashano and Mack would have liked to have had a guy like Churnac around in those days, too. Not only did the 6-foot-5 forward have the basketball skills — as a senior at Art & Design High School in Manhattan he averaged more than 20 points and 10 rebounds per game — but he also possessed the personality and work ethic that seemed to win people over almost immediately.

Bryan Hodson, who served as an assistant for former Jamestown CC coach Mike Cordovano, was one of them.

“I tried to find guys at the smaller (high schools in New York City) because those were the guys who would be overlooked,” said Hodson, who is now an assistant coach at the University at Buffalo. “I reached out to him and his teammate, Andrew Joseph, basically started recruiting them and ended up signing both of them at JCC.”

By the end of his sophomore year, Churnac was an NJCAA Region 3 Division II first-team choice and ultimately earned a scholarship at Division II Edinboro University where he graduated in 2014 with a degree in communications. But Churnac’s basketball successes — from his formative years in the Big Apple to his being named the Jayhawks’ interim head men’s coach earlier this month — are merely a byproduct of his perseverance.

Inspired by his single mom, Churnac overcame financial and academic hurdles to earn associate’s and bachelor’s degrees; served as a resident assistant at both Jamestown CC and Edinboro; and favorably impacted faculty, staff and fellow students on both campuses.

“I met him and his mother on his tour and was taken with him right away,” said Amy Hadley, formerly a resident director at Jamestown CC. “He’s one of the most personable and real people ever.”

For those reasons, Hadley recommended that Churnac become a resident assistant while he was a Jamestown CC student and then encouraged him to apply for a resident director job on campus three years ago.

“Resident directors and resident assistants have one of the toughest jobs,” Hadley said. “They are in daily contact with students who are trying to find themselves, and they struggle. He has dealt with the hard questions … and come out on top just because he is so personable.”

Hadley recalled sitting with him in a meeting with students who “maybe didn’t make the right choices.”

“They were upset with X, because they didn’t make the basketball team,” Hadley continued. “He worked through that. He said it doesn’t mean you’ll never make it, but you have to put the work in.”

Churnac speaks from experience.

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Born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1992, Churnac moved to the United States when he was 5 and, after two years living in Florida, spent second grade through his high school years in the Big Apple.

“My mom always told us (Churnac has an older sister, Yoshan), ‘Look, if you don’t get a scholarship, you can’t go to college,” he said. “That was our motivation right there — her pushing us to do whatever we were good at to get into college.”

For Churnac, it was basketball.

For his sister, it was academics.

Both ended up in college, although it wasn’t always easy for Churnac, who had a chance at a Division I opportunity, but struggles in math prevented him from doing so.

Enter Hodgson, who convinced Churnac to move to Jamestown 400 miles away in the fall of 2010.

“I’d never been to Jamestown before,” Churnac said. “I had never even heard the name before. In my mind, Jamestown was similar to New York City and its tall buildings. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but when your mom tells you to do something, you do it.

“I wasn’t a great student and I didn’t have the finances to try and walk on to wherever my dream school was,” he continued. “My first semester academically was tough. I still stayed eligible to play, but I was just learning the ropes.”

During that journey, Churnac leaned on faculty and staff for support. One of those who helped a great deal with tutoring and advising was professor Kaye Young, who has since retired.

“You kind of gravitate to people that you know, and that you can just tell they’re a good person,” Churnac said. “The whole time at JCC she was a resource.”

And Churnac took advantage.

Others took notice.

Despite financial and academic issues his freshman year, Churnac remained in class and on the court.

“He had such a rapport about him, and his character speaks for itself,” Hodgson said. ” … It got to the point where people around town were going to make sure it happened. There was no way they were going to let this kid not make it. People don’t do that for a bad person. He was an unbelievable kid. He was captain of our team, he did everything the right way. When you do that, good things tend to happen.”

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The summer before he graduated from Edinboro, Churnac worked two jobs to help support his young daughter, Jazelle, but once he had his degree in December 2014 he realized that he had to dream bigger. So after looking for work for a couple months, Churnac said he landed a temporary job with Pepsi, which morphed into a full-time offer with the company by June.

At the same time, he had a job offer to become a resident director at Jamestown CC.

“We needed a residence director and I told him he really needed to apply,” Hadley said. “He came in and he did the interview.”

The young man from New York City was about to call Jamestown his permanent home.

“What better success story than to have one of our own to encourage the students to attain their goals,” Hadley said.

Armed with his new job on campus, Churnac joined the men’s basketball coaching staff as an assistant in the 2015-16 season. Led by head coach George Sisson, the Jayhawks made it to the Region 3 Division II title game before bowing to Monroe CC in a close one.

“My first year coaching, I didn’t know much,” Churnac admitted. “It was different. As a player, you worry about yourself. As a coach, you have to try and control everything.”

He had good mentors in Sisson and assistant Jim Rissel.

“Over these past three years, I’ve just seen how a coach is supposed to act and how they’re supposed to talk to players,” Churnac said. “I don’t think George realizes how much of a ‘sponge’ I’ve had to be.”

Tonight, Churnac and the Jayhawks travel to Cuyahoga CC where they hope to improve their record to 5-2.

“The profession we’re in right now is measured by wins and losses, but coaches know it’s more than that,” said Churnac, who is 1-1 as interim head coach. “We’re impacting lives. We want to raise young men to be successful after the ball stops bouncing.”

Sisson, who stepped down as the men’s head coach and is now Jamestown CC’s athletic director, believes Churnac’s current situation is “very good for him.”

He added: “We didn’t see this opportunity coming (a few) weeks ago, but now that’s it’s here, he’s surrounded by a couple good guys with (Rissel and Travis Muntz), and I’d like to think he’s working at it diligently. He’s not going to do it the same way, and that’s fine. … He has lived it. He has been that example.”

Added Churnac: “JCC is a life-changer for me. It changed my life in the most positive way. … (The rest of the season) is like an interview right now. I’m not the head coach, but I’m the interim head coach, so I have to do the best that I can.”

That game plan has seemingly served “X” well his entire life.