We Were Younger Then, and Played Basketball

My life in basketball went something like this ...

My introduction to the game was in the 7th/8th grade. Our school team rarely practiced and our "crowds" consisted of a sampling of the parents. It's just as well, as my personal play was marked by an embarrassing sequence of falling over my shoelaces and surviving hits to the head from the basketball.

As a high school freshman at Francis Howell, things turned around. Apparently, the Vikings had been hapless cellar-dwellars in the Gateway Athletic Conference for many years. We started the year with a victory over the school's arch-nemesis (Duchesne) and never looked back. Games were well attended as we raced through the schedule to post a surprising 10-2 record.

As a sophomore, things got better. Stan Lawrence joined the team, and we improved our record to 23-2. Our strength was conditioning, as we pressed relentlessly to win a large portion of our games in the final quarter. Things looked poised for a great junior/senior season.

However, the team underachieved the next two years, and hovered around the .500 record. I learned some valuable life lessons during this period. First, one should always push themselves to improve. Second, one should not be reuctant to push others to improve as well. Third, team chemistry is crucial.

My first year of college basketball (at SEMO) was a disaster. In the end, I quit the team, and as a result, suffered the insult of failing basketball (it counted as a class)! Today, I cannot remember the name of a single individual from that team, and if there were ever a year to forget, that was it.

My second year of college basketball took place at Lindenwood College, as documented by the preseason clipping to the right ...

The bond between the players, and the players and coach (Lanny Hradek), was especially strong, and the experience was wholly enjoyable.

With Kim and I planning to get married the next year, Lindenwood afforded me the much-appreciated opportunity to exit competitive basketball on favorable terms with the game.

Lindenwood recently hosted an alumni basketball event which enabled team members to get together once again. Characteristically, every member of the team showed up. The bond was still there. We don't see each other regularly, but when we do every 5-10 years, it's as if no time has elapsed between meetings.

A few pictures follow (see if you can match the five faces above to the pictures below) ...