Dalton State College guard Isaiah Box left his comfort zone to join the Roadrunners, but has found a new home thanks in part to coach Tony Ingle.

DALTON, Ga. — Producing at a high level as an athlete when you are 700 miles away from your family can be a difficult task. Feeling at home while doing so can be even more challenging.

Dalton State College guard Isaiah Box has found a balance both on and off the basketball court since coming to Dalton from Sauk Valley Community College (Dixon, Ill.) this season. His skills have helped the Roadrunners to an 8-1 record, but even more crucial for the junior from Rockford, Ill., has been finding a comfort level without his support system.

“It’s been a lot of fun, but it’s really different being so far from home,” Box said. “I come from a family that is so close. I have two older brothers and a sister and I’m really close to them, and the past two years in college if I was ever down, then they were here for me to talk to. But something that has been really big has been having (Dalton State) coach Tony (Ingle). He’s always there by my side and I don’t hesitate to go to him with anything that’s on my mind.”

Box’s relationship with Ingle played a crucial role in his decision to come to Dalton State. The two had great chemistry from their very first conversation, an extended telephone call that Box said he came away from feeling as though he would be well cared for.

“It’s not just basketball with him, he loves you just as much as a person as he does on the court,” Box said. “I remember the first time we talked and it was for six hours and it wasn’t just about basketball. He asked me about my family and my background. Every other coach I talked to it was maybe 20-25 minutes. But he really took the time to get to know me and my family.”

Ingle said he knew it would be tough for Box to come to Dalton and be so far away from family, but he wanted to make sure Box knew he was a priority for the program.

“I knew that we wanted him and you do what you got to do to get the job done,” Ingle said. “I felt like with him being a third team All-American (at junior college) that we had to make sure we were thorough. But home is where the heart is and I wanted him to know when I am talking to him that you’re not talking to everybody else, you’re talking to me. And I’m not talking to every other player, I’m talking to you. And I had to find out if he was a good fit and then I painted him a vision and how he could help us fulfill that vision.”

Part of Ingle’s vision is getting the Roadrunners back to the NAIA National Championship in Kansas City, Mo. Dalton State has gotten off to a good start this season with Box playing a critical role. He leads the team with 15.8 points per game and has averaged 3.1 assists and 1.67 steals per game. He has shot 34.7 percent from 3-point range and is 13 of 16 at the free-throw line. Each of those marks ranks among the top 10 in the Southern States Athletic Conference.

Box led the NJCAA in steals last season with 134 over 33 games. That’s the part of his game that he says fuels him the most, but he especially enjoys when his defense leads to an opportunity for one of his teammates.

“What gets me going is when I get a steal and dish it off to someone else,” Box said. “Seeing them celebrate gets me fired up. I try not to always make the flashy pass, but it just comes naturally to me. I really like to pass the ball.”

His tenacity on defense and highlight reel passes are what drew Ingle to him, but what Ingle has learned about Box is that he has a calmness about him on the court, which makes him an even more dangerous asset.

“He doesn’t get rattled,” Ingle said. “You don’t know if you are up 20 or down 20 by looking at his face. He has the flare, he can dribble, he can shoot and score. He’s really savvy and nifty and creates a lot of havoc. But I tell you what, I wouldn’t want to play poker with him. With that sucker, you wouldn’t know whether to hold them, fold them, walk away or run.”

The season is still young but Ingle said he believes the team is ahead of where he thought it would be at this point, considering the Roadrunners welcomed 11 new players to the squad. The only blemish on Dalton State’s record came in SSAC play as the Roadrunners fell to Faulkner on Dec. 3. It’s just one loss, but Ingle said he learned a valuable lesson when the Roadrunners weren’t invited to the 32-team national tournament last season after they didn’t earn an automatic bid.

“What you do in conference dictates how far you can go,” Ingle said. “We’d like to get back to the national tournament. It’s such a treat, but it’s so hard. You have to win your conference or conference tournament to get an auto bid, and we found out last year that two conferences had five teams get in and (the SSAC) didn’t have three. Being ranked in the top 25 doesn’t guarantee you a spot.

“I think we’re a little ahead of where I thought we would be right now, to be quite frank, but we still have a long ways to go. Good teams win in January, great teams win in February, but the best teams win in March.”

Box said the players are constantly reminded of the program’s expectations. During practice, Ingle will often tell the players to stop what they are doing and he will point to the national championship banner to remind them. That goal was another reason Box came all the way from Illinois to play for Ingle, and it drives him every day.

“That is something I hope to accomplish here,” Box said. “They haven’t won the conference tournament here yet, so that’s our focus. That will get us back to the national championship and hopefully we can go win it. Hopefully we can have one of our own banners up there that other teams will have to look at to remind them of what we did.”