This may come as a surprise to some of you, but I used to play a little basketball. Those of you that actually remember watching me play would probably say…, oh wait, nobody keeps those kind memories for 30-plus years…. .
This past season, I decided to start following my old high school team. I went to several games and struck up a relationship with the coach. I got to meet some of the players, and I really enjoyed watching the boys play.
They made it to the first round of the state playoffs - the team had a very good season.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, the coach asked me to be the guest speaker at the end of season Basketball Banquet.
I gladly accepted the invitation even though:
a) I’ve never actually been a speaker before.
b) I’ve never actually written a speech before.
c) English is not my best subject.
d) All of the above.
I thought the best thing to do would be to begin my talk with a true story from my playing days…
In the 73-74 season, I played on the sophomore team, got to suit JV, and even got some JV minutes. I also set what was then a season scoring record for the sophomore team. The reason I set the record was because our sophomore team played more games than the previous record holders’ team did…
Anyway, I thought I was hot stuff; the JV Coach, Coach R, and the varsity Coach, Coach B didn’t see it that way. During my sophomore year we were playing a home game against a team from the northern part of the state and my buddy Mark and I got to suit JV for that game.
A couple of things to put this into context, back then there was no three point line, so if you got too far behind it was difficult to catch up. Secondly, Coach B always sat on the bench during the JV games, and with two minutes left in the game he would get up and go to the locker room to talk to the varsity before their game.
So Mark and I were sitting at in our customary spots at the end of the bench and with about 3 minutes to play, we’re up by about 30 points over our opponent. Coach R looks down the bench and yells “all right, the two of you get up here!”
Now Mark and I have these silly grins on our face, because we know we’re going to get some playing time. We’re very excited. We sit down next to Coach R and are intently watching the game. With two minutes to go, we’re up by 35 and Coach B gets up to leave the bench. As he does so, he points to Mark and me and says to Coach R “Joe, put these two in when you feel safe…”
To add insult to injury, Coach R waited another 30 seconds before he put Mark and me into the game…
Anyway…
The banquet was last night and Mrs. R came along to share the moment with me.
The banquet was great, and I gave my speech without incident. Well that’s not exactly true, most of the audience dozed off about two minutes in, but that was actually good.
I’m a much better speaker when no one is listening…
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