Junior year basketball - part 2

I remembered a couple of other interesting things and I wanted to talk about our annual Spring EHHS basketball championship series.

First, two items from the season. We went to Abilene to play in a tournament in early December. North Side High School was playing in it as well and we all went on the same school bus and stayed in the same motel. The motel was a typical "It'll Do Motel", not even a Holiday Inn caliber. After our first game and dinner we went back to the hotel to spend the night. I'm not sure where they came from or how the guys met them, but two local girls came to the hotel and were hanging out with the two teams. The seniors got one girl to go in a room with them and they visited for several hours. Jay Worley and a guy who played quarterback for North Side and was on the basketball team took the other girl into a room by themselves. They played strip poker with her, cheated, and of course she ended up with no clothes before long. They left the window shades open so anyone outside could see. The really funny thing was the next day at North Side's game. The coach called for the quarterbackto go in but he was on the end of the bench sound asleep, although he was in a sitting position. The coach said, "Nevermind, let him sleep."

For the last game of the season we played Paschal at TCU's Daniel Myer Coliseum. Whoever won the game would win the district championship. Ricky Hall was a junior forward for EHHS and was really good even though he was only 6'3". He had a little jump hook shot that he started at his waist, but the defenders could never block it because they were shielded from the ball by his body. In practice prior to the game, for some reason, I was guarding Hall. I figured out when he was going to take that shot and was quick enough to dart around him and block the shot between his waist and his shoulder. I did it 2 or 3 times in a row. He got really mad at me when I blocked it again, pushed me, and said, "No one that would normally guard me can do that, so quit!" I sometimes felt that it affected him because he wasn't as confident with the shot in the championship game and we lost. Hall was our leading scorer as a senior, made all-district, and played for TCU, 2 years as a starter.

The Spring EHHS World Basketball Championship was an annual event where the coach would divide that year's sophs and juniors onto two teams and they would play each other a 7-game series for the championship. Jay Worley, a 6'2" guard and really good shooter, and Ricky Hall had both started as juniors. They were put on a team together with John Tandy, a 6'4" center who lettered as a junior, my brother Gary, and some of the top players from the JV. On my team was John Groody, a 6'3" forward and Kim Riddle, a 6'4" center. Both of them had lettered along with me as juniors. We also got Allen Stanford, a 6'3" forward/center, Jimmy Swanson, a 6'2" guard, and some JV guys. So, on one side you had 3 lettermen, 2 of whom had been starters, and some other players versus a team with 3 lettermen, none who played all that much, and some other guys. On paper the Hall/Worley team should have won, but we beat them 4 games to 2.

I vividly remember one play during the series. They got the ball on a steal or something and went downcourt on a fastbreak. The ball was passed over to Gary on the baseline about 10 feet from the basket and he shot. I had been running down the court trying to get on defense and was still 10-15 feet away from Gary when the ball was passed to him. When he shot I was still 3 or 4 feet away but coming down a line that would eventually put me between him and the basket. I took a running leap and, with the ball 3 or 4 feet out of his hands on its way to the basket, swatted the ball out of mid-air and out of bounds. Coach Howerton went crazy, "Oh, little brother stuffed you!" he yelled at Gary. "Oh my! What a block" and so on. It was the kind of play you would have expected from a big, tall, athletic shot blocker but not from a 5'10" guard. I really got up in the air. The ball was around 10 feet or over in height when I swatted it with my entire palm. It was a great block!