ETBC - tryouts for high schoolers

My last organized game on the ETBC court was high school tryout day.

During the second semester of college and after the season was over, I spent many hours down at the gym shooting, mostly by myself. Sometimes some other guys would be there and we'd play a game. James, my roommate, was getting heavily involved with Cathy Bartels so he had quit coming down to the gym. A couple of times, when we needed one more person to have enough for a game, we went to the girls dorm to find James and Cathy sitting in the large TV/living room talking. A lot of other couples and girls were in the room. We'd call out loudly, "Cathy, can James come out and play?" They got engaged that semester and I was the best man at their wedding the following spring.

Anyway, I digressed. I spent many hours down at the gym in the evenings dribbling and shooting. I'd have made up games and situations and play full court by myself. The gym was never locked. I'd just go in and turn on the circuit breakers for the lights over the court. I practiced so much that I could shoot from anywhere and put it in the basket. This was before the 3-point line, but, if it were there, I would have been shooting from beyond the NBA 3 and hitting well over 50%.

On the day of the tryouts there was a guard from Marshall High School. He had been an All-District quarterback in football as well as All-District in basketball. He thought he was pretty hot stuff and was in fact later given a full scholarship to ETBC for basketball. We were playing half court, make it - take it. I was above the top of the free throw circle and to the right, near or beyond the NBA 3 line. He was playing a few feet off of me protecting against a drive and never expecting me to shoot from that range. I received the ball, looked at him, looked at the basket, and shot. Swish! We got the ball again. Same place, same thing. Swish! "This is college, son," I told him. "People can shoot from here." We got the ball again and I was set up in the same place. This time when I got the ball he quickly came out on me. I drove around him in a flash, dribbled a few times, and laid the ball in for another easy two. "You gotta be able to guard me better than that to play college ball," I taunted him.

I was on fire. All the evenings of shooting on that floor was evident. I couldn't miss. After the tryouts were over and we were walking back into the dressing room the coach, R.C. Kennedy, came up to me, complimented me on my play and offered me a half scholarship if I came back the next year. By that time I already knew that I wasn't God's gift to basketball. I knew that ETBC had nothing to offer me educationally unless I was going to be a teacher/coach. And, I also knew that I was going to marry Kay Ellen and I didn't think she would want to be a coach's wife. One of Coach Kennedy's favorite phrases was "You gotta want to, son," so, I replied, "I don't want to, Coach."

And, thus endeth my college basketball career. Next post, at the request of Jessica and Cindy (mostly Jessica) will be about Kay Ellen and me dating and how we decided we should get married.