The end is always so sudden

By Mike Brown
What will the outstanding seniors remember for the rest of their lives now that the basketball season is over?
The end always seems so sudden in the playoffs. It is difficult for even bystanders to not shed a tear watching dozens of seniors walk out of the lockers with deep emotions on their faces when the time has come and gone to wear their team basketball uniform for the last time.
Area high school basketball seniors were very impressive on and off the court. Edon seniors Jen Troyer and Toni Slattery granted an interview after they were crushed in their season finale by Stryker. They were humble, proud and gracious in defeat.
The same was true with Edon’s big man, Ryan Becker. He played his best career game on the last night despite a losing team effort.
Stryker senior Jacqueline Laws was always fun to watch, and only a day after her career ended against Kalida, there she was bouncing up and down in the bleachers leading the cheering section at a schoolboy playoff game. That’s an amazing thing about the best and brightest of our teens, they are resilient and bounce back.
How tough was it for senior Jordan Jaggers to walk out of the locker for the last time when his Stryker team bowed out of the district playoffs after he had a nightmare shooting night? A shy and modest young man, it made me proud to see him standing up straight and make no excuses. Senior teammate Zach Erb said it best, “Somebody said you find out more about yourself after you lose.”
Amen to that great thought for life and it’s a fact that just about every basketball player will end their career with a loss. But the real victories are not on the scoreboard, they are in the work ethic, team spirit, and creative efforts that the artistic game of basketball has taught generations of Americans.
North Central had a great year in basketball, and that includes the schoolgirl team that never won a game all season yet they always showed class and work ethic. Watching the Eagle boys emerge as the area’s most exciting team provided seniors like Derek Dye and Coty Motter with incredible scoring outbursts.
NC coach Justin Houk coached his seniors years ago when they hardly ever won as junior varsity players, and they rarely played in front of more than 50 people in the bleachers. There were 2,400 people watching them play this year’s classic sectional championship game against Stryker. Things have changed for the Eagles and they have the potential to be a regional tournament team a year from now.
Hilltop’s schoolgirl team did not have a single senior on the roster and both Cadet teams are brimming with talent and size for next year, if they iron out some team chemistry issues.
Edgerton’s Ben Adams was a senior who reflected the old cliché “leave it all on the court.” The Bulldog point guard, for a team that won only once all season, was physically and emotional exhausted after many games that were close but always went to the opposition. But he never made excuses for missing free throws or when his team somehow lost huge leads late in many games.
These are all powerful lessons from seniors to pass on to a great group of junior standouts around the area coming back for next year.
They will make a lifetime of new memories before they finish their careers. Personally, my last time in a basketball uniform was a night I will never forget.
It was 35 years ago. My last game was as a non-scholarship St. Michael’s College player at a strong NCAA Division II program. We had won our final junior varsity game of the season and my shots were falling. After slowly getting dressed in the locker, and somberly thinking this is probably the end of the line, somebody told me the athletic director wanted me in his office.
For a brief second I wondered wishfully that he might offer me a scholarship for next year. But alas, he said the remaining scholarships were going to recruits from New York City, and I wasn’t tall enough or fast enough. He suggested at first that I could have three more good years and become a successful college player by transferring to nearby Division III college programs.
But I told him the new journalism program on our campus was perfect for me and really did not want to leave. The athletic director’s eyes twinkled, and he told me my priorities were right on, and offered me one of the best deals of my life. He hired me on the spot to work for him as a sports information director and also broadcast college games on the radio.
That media offer opened up all kinds of “scoring lanes” into career and personal opportunities. But my playing days were over, other than sustained enjoyment for a lifetime of tournaments, recreational leagues, and pickup games that continues today.
Yes, as Fairview senior Ben Wonderly said recently, basketball is a game for life.