Athletic Accomplishments: what have you done?

another one

When I was in the 8th grade (1975) I was the only white boy on my basketball team that ever saw any significant playing time. I modeled my game after Pistol Pete. I had the long hair, droppy socks, desire to shoot every time I touched the ball, and a huge disdain for playing any defense whatsoever. To say I was "groovy" or a "hot dog" would be an understatement. I was the kind of kid I would now like to travel back in time and smack up side the head.

We were playng Woodland Middle School and they had already beaten us twice by 20 or more. Well, on that particular day, I was in the zone and on fire. I was making baskets from about every spot on the floor. Remember now, there was no 3 point line in middle school in those days. I remember hoisting one from about 35 feet (OK, OK, maybe it was 34) and my coach screaming "no, no, no" and when it went through, he screamed even louder, oh yes, that's my boy". The game was tight and we called a time out. All 4 of my black teammates on the floor and even the ones on the bench said, "get the ball to the white boy because that honkey is on fire". We won 62-60 and I scored 43 points. I hit 20 shots from all over and made all 3 free throws. I was told I only missed one shot that day. Funny thing is, I don't remember missing any. But, I don't remember any steals, rebounds, or assists either!

I have never been in the zone like that again. My wife will vouch for that!

 

What a great story, TBA. Race Car driver?...Did you ever consider Busch series, then upwards...run moonshine?

 

Like father Like son

Now this is a dream come true. Congrats.

 

Priorities...

To be honest with you I had a lot of aspirations, but decided to forego most of them when my son turned 10. I decided that I needed to spend more time with him. I had been working with him at The Baseball Academy in between classes, and felt like it was time to put more effort into his development. I began coaching travel ball, and was able to work with him and most of the SC Class of '07 since they were 11. We traveled all over the state, even went to Florida for a USSSA World Series. They accomplished a lot, most notably 2 State Championships. That was a very special group and I was proud to be a small part of their success.

"GIVE AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE"

 

Grayben- I hope you never change. There is never a time that I would ever guess what you will post. You crack me up!

 

One of the coolest presents I received for Christmas this year was from my little brother. He gave me a copy of our team's (Hickory High - 1981) stats from my senior year.

We had an excellent statistician who gave us all copies after the season, but I had lost mine. We went 17-3 that year and some of my memories were getting fuzzy.

My pitching line was 7-1, 1.83 ERA, 44 K's, 15 BB's and 12.99 pitches per inning. After studying the stat sheet, my son's reaction to this was something along the lines of "must not have been much hitting back then."

As TBA probably remembers, my only loss was to South Caldwell!

All in all, not bad for for a fat, RHP who was cranking it 83 MPH!

 

In my early years,basketball was my sport-I won our local Optimist Club skills contest as an 8 -9 and 11-12 yr old groups.I played middle school and started at PG for 2 yrs and my 8th grade yr,led team in scoring w/15pg.Got to HS-led Jv team in scoring my 10th grade yr at 14/pg.My jr. and sr. yrs-I was the least tanned player on the team and avg 8-10 pts. and realized I was too slow for my height.I also got MVP for my age group(11-12) at the 83 NCSU camp and won the free-throw competition for my age and got to shoot on the BIG floor at Reynolds which got me a clip on a Mt.Dew commercial with Jimmy V(my claim to fame).He was Awesome Baby!As for baseball and football-I was all conference my senior yr in both sports-I pitched and played middle IF and punted in football.I also played JV QB -I went to what is now Barton College and Coach Wilkinson gave me a chance to play and I will never forget that.I played in the old Pac-6 at Vance Sr. and I tell my kids I playedagainst Rodney Rogers , Henrik Rodl,and Avie Lester , the problem is they don't know who they are.My fondest baseball memory was beating Roanoke Rapids 2-1 in Babe Ruth District as a 15 yr old with a 2-hitter and throwing a 3-hitter at Millbrook my sr. year of high school.

 

My athletic years were so long ago I've forgotten what I did. LOL

 

I once caddied for the Dalai Lama in Tibet. Tough course, lot of up and down.
We get finished, I'm dog tired, and the Lama stiffs me.
So I say, "Dolly,c'mon how bout a litttle somethun for the effort'.
The Lama just looks at me and says, "Gunga la lunga", no it was "gunga,gunga,la lunga"... well I found out that means total enlightenment, so I've got that going for me.