Love and basketball

Basketball doesn't build character it reveals it.
-- Author Unknown

I traveled home for Christmas as most of us probably did. I had the pleasure of being signed up for the Grand Valley Alumni game. Going back to a place where my love for the game all began interested me. Remembering all the days in the gym, and on the courts of Orwell, which probably are the safest courts in America to play on. The number of times I aspired for greatness and failed more times then not.

I have had a love affair with this game for as long as I can remember. I always wondered why. Mostly I thought it was the beauty, free flowing action that happens when five guys play the game together, which I experienced three times in my life, once as a high school sophomore as my JV team went 19-1 and a missed jumper at the buzzer from being perfect. The second time I watched from the bench as my Marycrest team lost at the buzzer from going to the national tournament, and the last time was a meaningless intramural tournament in Iowa City, where a bunch of rag tag guys from Grand View found their way to the semi-final of a state tournament.

Back to the alumni game. I got put on a team with a gunner, a guy still trying to prove himself, and the back that wish he wasn't. The gunner was a guy who had sweat stroke from way back in the day. well he took ten threes making only one. That didn't stop him from throwing up shot after shot thinking he could reach back, for one more moment of glory. A classmate of mine who made the statement he wasn't getting enough playing time and should get the ball more. He said well I'm trying to prove I'm still can play. I'm favorite of the day was the back-up point guard from 1993. I know he was a back-up because he backed up my brother way back in the day. He tried to dominate the game, dictate who played when and who should be taking the shot. At one point he froze me out, refusing to pass the ball to me, looking me off three times in a row. One could say he was still trying to prove he wasn't a career back-up. Needless to say I walked away chuckling and about how basketball reflects life and how one views life. The gunner trying to stay connected to youth, the former classmate stilling proving he's got it, and finally the back-up proving he should have never been a back-up.

I realized I was the same just settled into a better place with the game. I played the game like a chess match. When to attack, manage the swings, strike big blows, play the hot hand, think, think and think. I had to because I wasn't fast or could jump high enough to play any other way. I played to prove basketball wasn't just a game for athletic types, I played to prove that for a night I could hang with anyone. That if you played against a better team ten times, that they would would nine out of ten times. I played for that one out of ten. I relished the look on guys face when my constant chatter wouldn't stop because the my teams would find away to hang around. I remember smiling bigger after loses to teams that where way better because I hung around. I wanted the big shot, I wanted the tension, I wanted the other guy to be pissed he couldn't knock me out. He could knock me down but not out. I love seeing better basketball players gets frustrated by sure reliance.

Now I spend my life taking kids who most people say can't be saved and save them. I'm trying to prove I can build my own public speaking career. I'm still trying to prove that sometimes it's a smart beat to not go with what the odds makers say.

All that leads me to this year. My constant search for a second round in the Iowa Games basketball games. I've been close three times. I have walked away smiling after last year, as we pushed that last team to the brink. I'm coming back this year for another chest match, when to get the ball to Jim, when to run, who to attack, when to take the three, when to attack, and how to beat a team we shouldn't. I fell in love with this game for those moments. I know everyone on our team comes for different reasons and a different love for this game.

All I know is I love back in love with this game this year on a competitive level. On a I will drag my ass to a second round of the Iowa tournament. I'm coming back to push us past our potential as a team, I'm playing to put another team in that frustration zone where they think they should be killing us but their not. I'm playing to win the chest match more than not. I'm playing to get that moment when it all fall just right and basketball becomes beuatiful the game the reveals character.

why are you playing?


Our Team this year
Braden Yauk
Jim Strand
JP Derryberry
Marcus Thie
Rob Hammel
Jay Bowers
Jeff Pratter
Jason Cox? Marcus's Friend?
Kyle Johnson
Scottie Dont