My Love & Frustration with Hoops Part Deux

I would be remiss to bring up another point as to why I should have known my broadcasting career should have never gotten started and went the coaching route.

It was the last high school game of the regular season. Dave Juday and I were doing the broadcast of the North Central-Jeffersonville game at Hinkle Fieldhouse. I had seen Jeffersonville several times throughout the season. I saw them against an undermanned Shelbyville team at the beginning of the season and I saw them lose in the Hall of Fame Tournament at New Castle. The Red Devils again played another undermanned team in North Central and easily won by about 20-30. Of course I would see Jeffersonville again when the Red Devils would beat Ben Davis in the state championship game - the last one I would ever do on radio. Anyway toward the end of the game a Jeffersonville fan, who had a walkman on and you could tell was listening to our broadcast, dropped a note off to Juday. Dave read it and then tried to hide it. He failed. Finally after enough bickering he let me read it. The person wrote "Gentlemen, you need to learn to call the game."

Once we got the equipment loaded up in my car and made the quick two minute drive back to the parking lot at Residential College on campus we went to our rooms. My junior year was basically a big blur to be honest. For most of the month of February I didn't attend classes much. Somehow I kept up and pulled off one of my better semesters - still trying to figure that out. Anyway, having turned 21 back in November of 1992 instead of going back to Hinkle and shooting baskets - as I would have done if still living at home - I drove around the corner to the local liquor store got a case of Miller Lite and washed away the sorrow of that note.

Not sure if I mentioned this back in the earlier post but I did contemplate changing majors. I decided against it mainly because I figured I was close enough to earning this degree that it would be wasteful to change that late in the game. If I learned anything - it's never too late to change things...NEVER!

OK enough of the "I screwed up with my vocational choice" and basically paid Butler to allow me to play radio for three years crap.

Basketball...basketball...BASKETBALL...it's always been there. When I didn't realize it at the time it has been there when I needed it most - the deaths of my parents.

February 4, 2007 - the day the Colts win the Super Bowl. I had seen Mom the previous evening and watched the IU-Iowa game on TV with her before leaving to go home. I had officiated at the church league that morning and then also a tournament at the Indy Southside Sports Academy. I was set to return to the ISSA that next morning. Mom didn't look well. She was gasping for air more so than normal. I left that night very concerned but I tried to hide from her and when I got home I hid my fear from Wendy.

Sunday morning I got to ISSA and ran into a long time friend in Mike Long. Mike played for Harmening's first team at Center Grove. It was the first time and one of the few times I can honestly say I watched a team improve from the first game of the season all the way to its last and have both games to show as the measuring stick. That 83-84 season began at Franklin against a Grizzly Cubs team that was ranked in the top 10 in the state. Several had even said this Franklin team could make a run to the Final Four. On Thanksgiving Eve at Vandivier Gym Franklin blitzed Center Grove to lead 42-14. Center Grove continued to improve throughout the season. When it came time for sectionals the Trojans, who were 1-20 the previous season, were now 11-9. Because of a bad snow and ice storm (per usual during sectional week in Indiana) CG would have to play three games in three straight nights to win the sectional (the draw that year was Game 1: Whiteland vs. Center Grove; Game 2: Indian Creek vs. Franklin; Game 3: Greenwood vs. the winner of Whiteland-CG). The Trojans blew open the game against Whiteland in the second half to advance to play Greenwood the next night. Franklin beat Indian Creek in the first semifinal and the Trojans again used a strong second half to beat the Woodmen and avenge a double-overtime loss right at the first of January (btw - Long went coast-to-coast to make a layup to send the game into the second overtime). In the championship game against Franklin the Trojans were right there for the better part of three quarters. Then the effects of playing three straight nights caught up to CG. Franklin took control of the game and won (The Grizzly Cubs would lose in the regional semifinal to Columbus North the next week). Long, for his performance in the three games, was named Most Valuable Player for the tournament by the Daily Journal.

So when I saw Mike I went up to him and told him about Mom. I hadn't told anyone yet how overly concerned I was until then. Mike said he would say a prayer for her. I went to the officials locker room and saw the schedule I was going to do Mike's son, Anthony, game that morning. I did that game and another game and went back up to the locker room where I saw I had a message on my phone. It was the hospital. They told me to call them as soon as possible. I called and the mom's nurse answered and explained to me there had been a complication of some sort with the blood clot in her leg and the varicose veins in her throat had erupted and she had died.

What?! My mom died! They were trying to call my Dad. He was at church and was going straight from there to the hospital to see her. I called my aunt and uncle, who live in Colorado Springs. My cell phone died and fortunately I was able to write the number down before it did so I could call them on another one. I called Wendy and then I called Chris Wood, who came and got me and took me to the hospital in Franklin. I called the church down in Bargersville - Dad had already left for the hospital. Thing is when he got to the hospital there was no note on the door. The door was open and he walked right in and there was Mom still in the bed dead. He thought she was just sleeping until a nurse finally saw him and had him go into another room where they eventually told him. According him he had been there for 20 minutes! 20 MINUTES!

I should have been there that morning and followed my gut - then again when have I really ever followed my gut? Instead I was officiating a basketball tournament because it was a way to earn extra money so I could provide for my family. For several months I was mad at myself for putting basketball first. I hated basketball. I hated officiating. March was painful because Mom and I spent that month every year watching the basketball games and filling out brackets against each other - I literally think she won almost every year we did them. Butler also made a run to the Sweet 16 and gave Florida (the eventual national champion) its stiffest challenge in the whole tournament. In a way I felt a little like Maverick (Tom Cruise's character in Top Gun) after Goose dies. They kept trying to send him up and get him back to being the fighter pilot that he was. I felt that way about my officiating. Finally during an officiating camp at Kent State it clicked again.

September 9, 2010 - I had seen Dad the night before to drop off Micah's birthday present for him to give - a Butler basketball shirt. When I talked to him earlier that day he said he didn't feel right. He went to Bargersville and had his picture taken for the yearbook pictorial and came home. When I got to his house he said he felt better after taking a nap. I told him I would see him Thursday night for our usual ice cream and wrestling watching night and he said fine. I called that morning and there was no answer. Called a couple of other times and thought maybe he went to see his friend, Marshall, down in Edinburgh. I went that night to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame picnic - it's an event the Hall puts on to promote that season's Hall of Fame Classic with the eight teams (four boys and four girls) there as their coaches make some speeches about their teams. It's also a good chance to reconnect with friends who are also heavily involved with the Hall of Fame and basketball in Indiana in general. I got a ball as my door prize that night. It was also nice to be there that evening because Center Grove's boys team was playing in the Hall of Fame tournament for the first time - the Trojans were led by Jonny Marlin, who now plays at IU, and Andrew Smeathers, who now plays at Butler. CG won the tournament later that December and also its first sectional in 17 years in March.

After the program I called Dad again and still no answer and I thought that odd. I was supposed to meet Lucas Howard afterward so he could take my Butler mini basketball and get his brother Matt Howard to sign it. I called him and said I didn't feel right and I needed to get to my Dad's house and check on him. As I came around the bend on the street behind my parents' house I noticed the lights weren't on in the living room. I opened the garage door and saw the truck and car still parked. I opened the door to the house from the garage and began yelling his name. Once I got to the bedroom I flipped on the light...

Once again there was basketball softening the blow...I remember coming to for a brief moment and crying while at the hospital (they took me after I blacked out and my blood-sugar count was at 388) thinking I again had put basketball first over everything else. It wasn't that at all...it was God giving me basketball (as He always had) to give me peace.

I did my officiating schedule that season and then "retired" because if anything being home with my sons and watching the games on TV were more important than being out somewhere blowing the whistle during a game. That ball I got that night at the Hall of Fame picnic...yeah I got all my partners from my final season to sign it along with a couple of coaches that I enjoyed working for in Brownsburg's Amy Brauman and Josh Kendrick and Columbus North's Pat McKee. I also had the Mississinewa and Delta coaches sign it since that was the last game I did. The ball is now in a case prominently next to my ABA Pacers Ball in my office.

Thus when anything has fallen apart basketball has been right there to always soften the blows and make everything all right.