50th Anniversary of the Freedom March on Washington

Here's the way these things start:   An idea, a quote, a phrase from a song (last week), a sermon, a comment from someone who gave no thought to the possibility that their words could end up as the source for this column. 

Week before last, I was talking to a friend about his new job.   He was excited about the possibilities but expressed disappointment that he had to go out of town to find this job, that maybe job opportunities here weren't as good as they should be because of the color of his skin. 

My first thought was "in Blount County?"  Surely we are beyond prejudices and allowing race determine opportunity here.   Surely.

But I know this guy and I trust him and he is in a position to see that side of us all and maybe he really has experienced all this.   Even in 2013 with the White House occupied by a mixed race individual.

Tuesday is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which featured Martin Luther King, Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech.   

So last Sunday morning, I was thinking about a column about race relations and persistent prejudice even in a place like Maryville, Tennessee.   But I wasn't sure where it would go.  It was just some random group of thoughts running around inside my head, not knowing where to land but knowing that this was a topic that could generate some measure of controversy.

And then my wife and I go out for a movie that she and I both wanted to see, "Lee Daniels' The Butler."

Oh, my.   It's about Cecil Gaines, a butler in the White House that served 8 Presidents, from Eisenhower to Reagan.   Along the way, he faces trials and tribulations that most of us can't even imagine. 

Although based on a real person, the movie folks took a lot of liberties with the story.  Still it is historically accurate, from the post-Reconstruction south to the civil rights movement to Obama in the White House.  

The movie is now on my short list of favorites but at the same time be warned:  It can be deeply disturbing.  It commands us to face the dark side of race relations and it doesn't take much to see the prejudice in the world not just to the black man but to the red man and the yellow man and to everything in between. 

Prejudice in sports.  Prejudice in the work place.  Prejudice where we think there is none. 

Go back 50 years, when I was but a boy and we did have "separate facilities" for blacks and whites.  From Martin Luther King, Junior's speech on that day in Washington, DC:

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed  'we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal....'"

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

"It's My Job"

Back when I was in high school (just after the Dark Ages), I thought the world revolved around the local high school, particularly around the high school football season.

For sure, the biggest collection of folks in my hometown was Friday night football, especially if the team was good, but growing up, I didn't realize there was a larger world out there even in that small community, a community that did have quite a few folks whose life most definitely did not revolve around it.

At one time, I thought most surely that everyone was also in church on Sunday morning.   I found out differently about that one too.

But still, it is a wonderful time of year as the weather moves steadily toward winter and the sounds and sights and smells are all at their peak in this part of the country.  It's my favorite time of year.

For me, it is also the busiest time of the year.  My work days start early, with the 7 AM clinic for student-athletes at Cherokee followed by a day in the clinic or meetings and administrative time.  Afternoons find me at football practice from just before school is out until everyone is taken care of.

Once the season starts, the days just get longer.   Mondays might find me at a Freshman/JV football double header.  Thursdays, it is usually a middle school game.  Friday night, of course, is varsity football, which usually lasts until after 10 PM, unless there is an injured athlete that I need to follow to the Emergency Room.  Then it can be midnight or later.

Athletic Trainer Jen Winbigler covers everything except football at MHS but when she can't be two places at once, I will attend a volleyball game or a soccer match. 

Before you offer me some cheese to go with the whine, let me make it clear that I'm not complaining at all.  In fact, I love it.

Can there be a better place than sidelines at a high school football game?  Not for me.  The opportunity to be a part of the team and able to enjoy the thrill of victory alongside the coaches and players?  More than a few folks would trade places with me in a heartbeat.

And it's not just my games.  I enjoy them all.   I've watched kids grow up at all our local schools.

I look forward to seeing The Daily Times the next morning to read what Marcus or Grant or John wrote about the games.   Heck, if I get home early enough, I like to watch the 11 o'clock news to see what they have to say too.

And when my day job is over, I can often be found in Nashville or Washington, advocating for my professions and my patients, attending meetings and teaching seminars in a constant attempt to learn and grow, or on my bike.

But I do get tired and I am getting old so I do complain occasionally about the hours.  Right now, I'm putting in 50-60 hours a week.  My family is quick to remind me that I chose this job and this life.   To remind me that I could just as easily choose an easier path and a 40 hour work week.  That I could say "no" occasionally.

But that just wouldn't be me.  

One of my favorite Jimmy Buffett songs is called "It's My Job."  In it, Jimmy sings that "it's my job--without it, I'd be less than what I expect from me."

That probably sums it up pretty well.

Basketball Jones

It's been almost a year now and I can still feel what it was like.  I can tell you it was hard to give up.  I still dream about it at night and use the feeling that it gave me to relax me enough to get to sleep.

Yep, it was September of last year when I played my last basketball game.  The memories still haunt me. 

The elbow jumper.  The reverse layup.  The feel of the ball as you spin it before a free throw.  The thump of a dribble.  Drop step and power layup.

My love affair with the game of basketball goes way back.   I must have been 10 when my Dad and I used tongue and groove board to build a backboard and mount a rim in the backyard.   And when I say backyard, I mean backyard.  Our driveway, the site of many a basketball court, was gravel and wouldn't work.

When we first put it up, a neighbor, Charlie Anderson, brought a bunch of his buddies (real-life Junior High basketball players!) over for a game.  They quickly realized the fundamental mistake my Dad and I made in our goal construction:  We put the rim at 11 feet.  We promptly fixed that by moving the rim to the bottom of the backboard looked goofy but still worked.

After that, I quickly pounded that grass into a solid dirt court.  There weren't many public courts to play on in my home town.  There was an outdoor court at the Junior High and Jackie Lefler's grandad had built a sweet-rimmed concrete court in his backyard.   Bill Miller had a rim mounted in his driveway but it was slanted and on quite a hill and if you let the ball get away from you, it was a 10 minute delay while you chased it for a block or more.

But in my hometown, football was king and everything else just really didn't matter.   So, football was my game.   I thought I would play basketball in high school but when the football coach told me I should focus only on football, that I might have a chance to play after high school, my basketball days were over.

It wasn't until I took a job in the gym at the Student Center at UT-Memphis that I got my true Basketball Jones on.   Played all the time.   I used to have raw fingertips from playing so much.

Graduated and moved to Maryville and knew every game in town.   Sandy Springs.  Everett Park.  The Courts at the Candy Shoppe.   Sometimes we got in gyms like Alnwick and Mentor.   Parks & Rec leagues.  Church leagues.  Community night at Maryville College.

Later I settled into standing games at Maryville College on Tuesday and Thursday at lunch and Sunday evenings at Maryville High School.

Whether I had "game" or not is up for somebody else to answer.  All I know is that I loved to play.  And if my knees would let me, I'd still be playing.  At 60 years of age.  In my 7th decade. 

Why?  I don't think there is a sweeter moment in all of sports than the one-on-one move to the basket.   The jump shot.  The block.  The dunk.  Shut-down man defense.  Basketball to me is truly poetry in motion. 

I'm not alone either.  My buddy Dave Sands is still a fixture at games all over town.  And BMH Marketing Director Jennie Bounds keeps a basketball in her office to remind her of the smell and feel of the game (and who might take off at any moment to shoot some hoops).

I was lucky enough to play for 50 years.   I guess I'll have to keep dreaming of the baseline jumper and the ankle-breaking crossover dribble.  And in my dreams, I never miss.  Oh, and I play defense.

Better Competition?

Somebody asked me just the other day why I hated AAU basketball so much.  They didn't know that I had coached AAU basketball for several years (and even restarted Tom Ware and Charlie Finley's Blount Stars basketball program) but more on that later.

I think their question was based on my apparent indictment of travel teams and year round participation in a single sport.   OK...I can understand that.

But if they had dug deeper, they might have rapidly concluded that I was a complete hypocrite.  You see, my own kids played travel ball and on multiple teams.   Goodness, I can remember when my son played on two T-ball teams and can remember when my daughter went from high school basketball to club volleyball practice to AAU basketball practice.  All in the same day. 

So let me set the record straight:  I don't have anything against travel teams or particularly against AAU basketball.  Nothing.  

Year round participation in only one sport for a 10 year old kid?   Everything.

I believe that competition is important in athletic development.  We've pretty much always known that to get better, you've got to play better competition.  In the pursuit of excellence, you've got to seek out those that are better than you.

That's where things like travel teams can be important.   I can remember some of the teams that we played in our basketball travels.  Like the 6'7" 14 year old in Atlanta.   Or the kid from Charlotte that scored 50 on us and maybe could have scored 100.  You've gotta get better playing against that kind of competition.

I remember the fledgling Smoky Mountain Juniors volleyball team that struggled against most teams because volleyball in this area in those years wasn't quite as good as most of the teams it played.   I also remember  the time in Clarksville where they beat one of those teams and learned an important lesson about realizing your potential.

I remember playing against a storied AAU basketball team coached by a legend in a tournament in Johnson City.  Most of their players were destined for Division I basketball.  None of ours were.

Yet, we played them toe-to-toe for most of the game until a future UT star took over the game and finally put it out of reach for us. While no one on our team went on to become a Division I basketball player, almost every one of them became a college athlete and now, successful adults.  

Among those teammates came lawyers, accountants, teachers, coaches, and successful businessmen.

In that same tournament, a Bob Knight look-alike told me before the game that we had no business even being on the floor with his team.  And then we beat them.  Something about believing in yourselves in that one.

And in looking back at those years and those teams, what many of those athletes, grown men and women now, remember most fondly are the relationships that they developed.

Road trips and riding in the family van with your teammates.  Practicing and playing and fighting together, sometimes against insurmountable odds.  Traveling to downtown Memphis with new/old friends and having ribs at The Rendezvous--memories that seem to stay with you.

 I'd like to think that some of those relationships have stood the test of time.   

So maybe, just maybe, it is all about believing in yourself and relationships and realizing the immenseness of your potential and not so much about making sure that you get a college scholarship playing that game. 

Coaching 101

I know that I do get pretty darn preachy in this space, particularly with parents of athletes and people that don't take their health seriously at all.   Part of that is that I've either made every mistake in the book (the former) and seen every mistake in the book (in the latter).

But if you've been paying attention, you might have noticed that I rarely use this space to be negative.   That's on purpose.   Although I do have my demons and some limited prejudices, I try to always be upbeat and uplifting.  Here and in my everyday life.  

Being negative never really yields good results.  Oh, sure, you've heard me talk about the drive and ambition that I got from my high school guidance counselor telling me that I wasn't college material but what leads to true excellence will pretty much always be positive reinforcement.

High school sports seasons are about to start in earnest and I'd like to suggest that parents and fans to do the same.  Be positive.  Be supportive of your kids AND your coaches.

I've been around here working with schools and athletes and coaches since 1981.   I'm going to venture a guess that more than half (maybe most) of the coaches around here have been born since 1981.   Coaching tends to be a young person's job.   Few coaches actually coach all the way to retirement.  It's a hard job, with long hours and more than a few headaches.

I know the coaches around here.   Heck, I have taken care of many of them when they played.  Watched them grow up.  Like Brandon Waters, who I remember as a wide-eyed 8th grader who loved football and just wanted to grow up to be like his high school heroes.

And Tonia Johnson, who I actually coached in AAU basketball when she was just 16 years old.   Justin Ridge--a two sport athlete at William Blount.   I remember him when he was 15 and working hard to be good. 

Like Jon Young, who has chosen a different path (he's in school administration now) but had huge promise as a coach and has been a student of the game since he could walk.  Summer Russell Murrell played a variety of sports with my daughter and is a wonderful coach, parent, and role model for our young people.  And I knew her when she was maybe 6.

My point is this:  I know the coaches around here, on a basis you probably can't reach.  I've seen them behind closed doors.  When the game is on the line.   When times are tough and when times are good.

 They are with very rare exceptions outstanding, compassionate, responsible people.   People that you want your kids to be around.   If you think about it, why would they be teaching and coaching any way?  The hours?  The pay?  The hassles of dealing with teenagers every day?

I can say that in the 32 years that I've been a part of the sports scene around here,  I have seen very few circumstances where any coach wanted anything but the best for your kid.   Sure, they're human and they can make mistakes, but what they want for your child is the same thing that you want for your child--for them to be the best athlete that they can be.  For them to perform well on the playing field.  For them to take that experience and lessons learned and become better adults.

So they next time you might want to disparage a coach, think about how much better it would be if you just stayed positive, helping your child to understand why some coaching decisions are made rather than just jumping to the conclusion that the coach is an idiot.

They're not.  They're really just trying to provide your child with a positive experience and win some games.