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.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
The enduring impact of a coach
By Mike Brown
EDGERTON -- Most of us living and loving basketball in Northwest Ohio didn’t have the privilege of getting to play for or to personally know the late, great coach Babe Shoup.
He coached, taught and inspired so many student-athletes during his 35 year career at Edgerton High. But what he is best remembered for is the 1959 State Championship Team.
Winning a state basketball championship in Ohio is seemingly an impossible task. The 1959 team won seven consecutive playoff games to ultimately win it all in Columbus. The Bulldogs were underdogs in each contest and every one of the victories were dramatic efforts against what most supposed experts said were superior and taller players.
For anyone thinking that competing in high school sports, and the positive impact of a good coach, are overblown, they are wrong. It is painful to see young boys and girls at small schools frequently decide not to play basketball in favor of specializing in other sports, working too man part-time hours, or sometimes because of just plain lack of focus and bad advice from parents and peers. Basketball is a game that teaches lessons for life.
For me, the Edgerton story brought back enriched memories of 1969 with a coach named Dale Perkins. It seems like only a few years ago and here it is 40 years later that a group of short and scruffy freshman boys in a small Vermont town were learning to become a team, finding creative ways to win and over-achieve, and learn many lessons.
We won a game against a much larger school (Rutland, Vt.) that had four freshman players about six-foot-five. All of our players were less than six-foot.
Coach Perkins was a master at preparing us for games and for beating teams that had more size and individual talent. But he ultimately got a raw deal at our school because ugly politics at schools or in the workplace, left unheeded, can be disastrous. The new superintendent hired a family friend to be the new varsity basketball coach.
We were forever fortunate that Dale Perkins coached us as junior high and freshman athletes in football, basketball and baseball. One of my treasured scrapbook photos is not our team winning a game but our entire team in sweaty practice uniforms standing together for a newspaper photographer. Without prompting, we all pulled in toward coach Perkins in the middle and put our hands on his head and shoulders.
The newspaper man’s caption on that memorable 1969 photo said, “Basketball players shown with their coach, Dale Perkins. It tells just how much the young lads think of their coach, a great deal, it is needless to say. The team has an 11-3 record with two games left and was a pleasant surprise this year. It was said before the season started they would have a bad time picking up any victories.”
Coach Perkins left for a varsity position at another school but the bond with us was so strong that he came back to our high school graduation ceremony. He mailed me a long hand-written salute when he learned I had made the basketball team in college.
Coach Perkins attended my wedding in 1982, as did three teammates from that 1969 team. Some of our teammates also went to his wedding in Cooperstown. Alas, some of us attended his 1991 funeral.
Coaches like Babe Shoup and Dale Perkins teach young athletes how to be confident, creative and team players in life long after high school basketball years.
It made me smile listening to Edgerton star Bob Grundish recall his creative ability to throw the artful behind-the-back passes. Long ago, coach Perkins made me run solo sprints in the middle of practice when I over-did this artful pass. But just like coach Shoup told Grundish, my coach encouraged me to make the pass as long as it went to a teammate for an easy basket.
Shoup taught a creative style of basketball that is missing in much of today’s local basketball action. The 1959 Edgerton team once scored 93 points during an era when there was no three-point line, and yet many local teams now average only about 45 points per game.
When is the last time you watched a local high school player throw a slick behind-the-back pass, or roll across the lane to shoot a hook shot over a taller player, or head fake a defender in the air; then spin the ball off the glass for a layup? Those were common scoring skills “back in the day” but what happened to today’s game?
Grundish and others from the 1959 state champs believe the three-point line that came in about 20 years ago forced the game into a more stationary, less-mobile style. Players now typically run to spots on the floor, with their backs to the basket, and diminish the speed and flow of the game.
Watching black and white tape of the 1959 championship efforts in Columbus, a group of superbly-conditioned Bulldogs ran the floor like dancers in constant motion. Everybody on the starting five was expected to have quality skills to handle the ball, shoot it, pass it, and of course to defend and rebound.
Pick and rolls, double screens for shooters, behind-the-back passes on the fast break, they were staples of the game that are not coached or created very much at all in the modern scheme of today’s high school basketball.
It was a much better game back then in the truly good old days. However, basketball fans then and now sure love a good comeback. Maybe that old style of creativity taught so well by coach Shoup is coming back for the next chapter of local high school basketball.
EDGERTON -- Most of us living and loving basketball in Northwest Ohio didn’t have the privilege of getting to play for or to personally know the late, great coach Babe Shoup.
He coached, taught and inspired so many student-athletes during his 35 year career at Edgerton High. But what he is best remembered for is the 1959 State Championship Team.
Winning a state basketball championship in Ohio is seemingly an impossible task. The 1959 team won seven consecutive playoff games to ultimately win it all in Columbus. The Bulldogs were underdogs in each contest and every one of the victories were dramatic efforts against what most supposed experts said were superior and taller players.
For anyone thinking that competing in high school sports, and the positive impact of a good coach, are overblown, they are wrong. It is painful to see young boys and girls at small schools frequently decide not to play basketball in favor of specializing in other sports, working too man part-time hours, or sometimes because of just plain lack of focus and bad advice from parents and peers. Basketball is a game that teaches lessons for life.
For me, the Edgerton story brought back enriched memories of 1969 with a coach named Dale Perkins. It seems like only a few years ago and here it is 40 years later that a group of short and scruffy freshman boys in a small Vermont town were learning to become a team, finding creative ways to win and over-achieve, and learn many lessons.
We won a game against a much larger school (Rutland, Vt.) that had four freshman players about six-foot-five. All of our players were less than six-foot.
Coach Perkins was a master at preparing us for games and for beating teams that had more size and individual talent. But he ultimately got a raw deal at our school because ugly politics at schools or in the workplace, left unheeded, can be disastrous. The new superintendent hired a family friend to be the new varsity basketball coach.
We were forever fortunate that Dale Perkins coached us as junior high and freshman athletes in football, basketball and baseball. One of my treasured scrapbook photos is not our team winning a game but our entire team in sweaty practice uniforms standing together for a newspaper photographer. Without prompting, we all pulled in toward coach Perkins in the middle and put our hands on his head and shoulders.
The newspaper man’s caption on that memorable 1969 photo said, “Basketball players shown with their coach, Dale Perkins. It tells just how much the young lads think of their coach, a great deal, it is needless to say. The team has an 11-3 record with two games left and was a pleasant surprise this year. It was said before the season started they would have a bad time picking up any victories.”
Coach Perkins left for a varsity position at another school but the bond with us was so strong that he came back to our high school graduation ceremony. He mailed me a long hand-written salute when he learned I had made the basketball team in college.
Coach Perkins attended my wedding in 1982, as did three teammates from that 1969 team. Some of our teammates also went to his wedding in Cooperstown. Alas, some of us attended his 1991 funeral.
Coaches like Babe Shoup and Dale Perkins teach young athletes how to be confident, creative and team players in life long after high school basketball years.
It made me smile listening to Edgerton star Bob Grundish recall his creative ability to throw the artful behind-the-back passes. Long ago, coach Perkins made me run solo sprints in the middle of practice when I over-did this artful pass. But just like coach Shoup told Grundish, my coach encouraged me to make the pass as long as it went to a teammate for an easy basket.
Shoup taught a creative style of basketball that is missing in much of today’s local basketball action. The 1959 Edgerton team once scored 93 points during an era when there was no three-point line, and yet many local teams now average only about 45 points per game.
When is the last time you watched a local high school player throw a slick behind-the-back pass, or roll across the lane to shoot a hook shot over a taller player, or head fake a defender in the air; then spin the ball off the glass for a layup? Those were common scoring skills “back in the day” but what happened to today’s game?
Grundish and others from the 1959 state champs believe the three-point line that came in about 20 years ago forced the game into a more stationary, less-mobile style. Players now typically run to spots on the floor, with their backs to the basket, and diminish the speed and flow of the game.
Watching black and white tape of the 1959 championship efforts in Columbus, a group of superbly-conditioned Bulldogs ran the floor like dancers in constant motion. Everybody on the starting five was expected to have quality skills to handle the ball, shoot it, pass it, and of course to defend and rebound.
Pick and rolls, double screens for shooters, behind-the-back passes on the fast break, they were staples of the game that are not coached or created very much at all in the modern scheme of today’s high school basketball.
It was a much better game back then in the truly good old days. However, basketball fans then and now sure love a good comeback. Maybe that old style of creativity taught so well by coach Shoup is coming back for the next chapter of local high school basketball.
USA pride from 1980 Olympics recalled
By Mike Brown
LAKE PLACID -- President Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony captured the complete attention of our nation and the world, and sparked a mix of emotions ranging from patriotic pride, renewal, and a celebration of history many people thought they would never see in their lifetimes.
Those same emotions dominated the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid. Each year when television networks and publications name the “most memorable sports highlights,” at the top of the list is typically the miracle success of the USA Olympic Hockey Team.
“Do You Believe in Miracles?” was the classic television broadcast delivered so eloquently by a then little-known journalist named Al Michaels.
It was my pleasure to be sitting in the press box near where Mr. Michaels told the world about the pride of the hockey team. My assignment was covering the gold medal hockey game and other Olympic activities for the national Ottaway Newspaper Group.
Yet until President Obama stood in front of the world to become the historic new president of the United States, I haven’t personally experienced such a high level of patriotic positive zeal since the 1980 Winter Olympics.
The February 25, 1980 lead story in Ottaway newspapers around the nation said “The United States Olympic hockey team had more than enough magic left over from Friday’s stunning upset of the Soviet Union to claim the USA’s first gold medal in the sport since 1960 with a 4-2 decision over Finland.”
Most people want to think the USA beat the Soviets for the gold but it took a second day of miracles for the United States to win gold with a difficult victory over a talented team from Finland. The USA trailed Finland 2-1 late in the match.
Before that epic Sunday game in the tiny New York mountain village of Lake Placid, a place about the size of Edgerton here in Northwest Ohio, the anthems of both nations played. Standing next to me, a journalist from Finland stood stoically with tears streaming down her face as her national anthem played. I had never seen that level of patriotism from anyone in the United States.
She explained to me in broken English how much she loved her country, how proud she was to represent Finland and stand to honor the nation and its hockey team.
The lessons are valuable from the 1980 success stories, during a transition time in America after the 1970s were tarnished by President Nixon, gasoline shortages, and the documented slippage of national pride and economic strength.
Perhaps those years seems like ancient history to many of today’s teens and young adults who tend to think anything that happened last week is old news.
Ice hockey was an obscure sport in the United States leading up to 1980. The Soviet Olympic Team (remember the Soviet Union?) had beaten the USA by a ridiculous score of something like 20-1 at an exhibition match in New York City.
There was nobody in the world, outside of the late coach Herb Brooks and young skaters such as Ken Morrow from Bowling Green State University, who thought the USA would be competitive with any team in the Olympics.
After the USA skaters won the gold medal, they streamed outside single file through a crowd of amazed fans and headed to the nearby media center in the old dusty gymnasium of Lake Placid High School. Reporters from around the world were just learning how to operate primitive laptop computers through land line phone couplers.
The team liked to call themselves the Comeback Kids; the average age was 22 compared to 30 for the international teams. They were as stunned and proud as anyone else that they had won the Olympic gold medal. It was refreshing.
They were over-achievers, and never gave up. Given a chance, they proved the nation and the world wrong.
Those emotional and proud moments in the little villages of Lake Placid don’t come along often enough. They are enduring memories and lessons in life for every generation.
Regardless of your political viewpoint, ideally you can see where President Obama is trying to take this nation’s mindset and pride at a time of challenge and change. Did you see his televised remarks when the cameras turned high in the Congressional setting and the little girl who wrote him a letter was featured?
There were millions of Americans besides me shedding a tear of pride and joy during President Obama’s address. Perhaps we’re not sure why, but it’s a good thing; just like that European journalist listening to her nation’s anthem in advance of Finland going for the gold against the USA in the 1980 Olympics.
LAKE PLACID -- President Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony captured the complete attention of our nation and the world, and sparked a mix of emotions ranging from patriotic pride, renewal, and a celebration of history many people thought they would never see in their lifetimes.
Those same emotions dominated the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid. Each year when television networks and publications name the “most memorable sports highlights,” at the top of the list is typically the miracle success of the USA Olympic Hockey Team.
“Do You Believe in Miracles?” was the classic television broadcast delivered so eloquently by a then little-known journalist named Al Michaels.
It was my pleasure to be sitting in the press box near where Mr. Michaels told the world about the pride of the hockey team. My assignment was covering the gold medal hockey game and other Olympic activities for the national Ottaway Newspaper Group.
Yet until President Obama stood in front of the world to become the historic new president of the United States, I haven’t personally experienced such a high level of patriotic positive zeal since the 1980 Winter Olympics.
The February 25, 1980 lead story in Ottaway newspapers around the nation said “The United States Olympic hockey team had more than enough magic left over from Friday’s stunning upset of the Soviet Union to claim the USA’s first gold medal in the sport since 1960 with a 4-2 decision over Finland.”
Most people want to think the USA beat the Soviets for the gold but it took a second day of miracles for the United States to win gold with a difficult victory over a talented team from Finland. The USA trailed Finland 2-1 late in the match.
Before that epic Sunday game in the tiny New York mountain village of Lake Placid, a place about the size of Edgerton here in Northwest Ohio, the anthems of both nations played. Standing next to me, a journalist from Finland stood stoically with tears streaming down her face as her national anthem played. I had never seen that level of patriotism from anyone in the United States.
She explained to me in broken English how much she loved her country, how proud she was to represent Finland and stand to honor the nation and its hockey team.
The lessons are valuable from the 1980 success stories, during a transition time in America after the 1970s were tarnished by President Nixon, gasoline shortages, and the documented slippage of national pride and economic strength.
Perhaps those years seems like ancient history to many of today’s teens and young adults who tend to think anything that happened last week is old news.
Ice hockey was an obscure sport in the United States leading up to 1980. The Soviet Olympic Team (remember the Soviet Union?) had beaten the USA by a ridiculous score of something like 20-1 at an exhibition match in New York City.
There was nobody in the world, outside of the late coach Herb Brooks and young skaters such as Ken Morrow from Bowling Green State University, who thought the USA would be competitive with any team in the Olympics.
After the USA skaters won the gold medal, they streamed outside single file through a crowd of amazed fans and headed to the nearby media center in the old dusty gymnasium of Lake Placid High School. Reporters from around the world were just learning how to operate primitive laptop computers through land line phone couplers.
The team liked to call themselves the Comeback Kids; the average age was 22 compared to 30 for the international teams. They were as stunned and proud as anyone else that they had won the Olympic gold medal. It was refreshing.
They were over-achievers, and never gave up. Given a chance, they proved the nation and the world wrong.
Those emotional and proud moments in the little villages of Lake Placid don’t come along often enough. They are enduring memories and lessons in life for every generation.
Regardless of your political viewpoint, ideally you can see where President Obama is trying to take this nation’s mindset and pride at a time of challenge and change. Did you see his televised remarks when the cameras turned high in the Congressional setting and the little girl who wrote him a letter was featured?
There were millions of Americans besides me shedding a tear of pride and joy during President Obama’s address. Perhaps we’re not sure why, but it’s a good thing; just like that European journalist listening to her nation’s anthem in advance of Finland going for the gold against the USA in the 1980 Olympics.
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