Points in the Paint
A long time friend sent this photo of me from Ft. Loramie High's 1966 Annual after reading my recent blog on high school basketball in which I mentioned cracker box gyms, black Chuck Taylor Converse All Star shoes and dunking the basketball; all three of which are evident on the picture! As a senior in 1966, our team had dramatically improved from the prior year. We had several skilled guards who had evolved into great shooters and quick ball handlers, while the bigs had all gained strength and grew taller. So our team’s strategy from my junior to senior year evolved from the controlled stall approach to a more run and gun style. However, Coach continued to drill into us a strong defense to stop points in the paint, resulting in lots of fouls by the underneath players like me. Fortunately, we had excellent subs who could come off the bench, so our play continued strong. And Coach always knew our opponents weakest foul shooters, so he would coach us to stop those players from driving to the basket no matter what, foul or not. He’d rather have them on the line than make an easy layup. The approach also set us up in a stronger position to block out for rebounds. The strategy began to work as we beat SCL teams the second time around that we had lost to earlier in the season. In fact, we scored over 100 points in several games while holding opponents to around 60. However, through the course of the season, I accumulated lots of fouls and some injuries as well from the rough and tumble play underneath. Bumps and bruises, sprained ankles, a busted tooth, stowed fingers and a couple incidents requiring stitches were the norm for me. The injuries slowed me down just enough that we lost a squeaker to League Champ Anna in the district finals, although I did manage to foul out trying to keep Anna’s 6’7” center Ed Schweitzer from scoring in the paint.
In spite of the injuries, playing high school basketball was so much fun, plus it also provided such long lasting, positive effects on my life. For example, Coach had me doing a lots of stretching exercises to get through the injuries and to build flexibility, which to this day I still perform diligently before any physical activity (golf, tennis, paddle ball, walking and biking, but no more basketball!). And all that time on the bench allowed me to build a kinship with the subs since the more fouls i got, the more they played. To that end, four of us now winter in SW Florida so we get together down there for golf, boating, dining and lots of reminiscing each winter.
In fact, high school basketball was indirectly responsible for the best thing that ever happened to me. Because of all the foul trouble and injuries, the bench time provided a great way to scope out the opponent's cheerleaders! It paid off, as fast forward a few years, I ended up dating, then marrying the love of my life, a former Russia’s cheerleader. Check out this photo of her and her three sisters in their cheerleading outfits.
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