When I was between the ages and 12 and 20 I was a sporting force to be reckoned with. it seemed as though it didn't really matter what sport I tried, I ended up being fantastic in it. From being first team in both soccer and football, to casually trying my hand at swimming and accidentally ending up being the number 11th best breast-stroke swimmer in the state, to casually defeating most of the people in track and field just because I tried, and even being a bit of a menace in basketball. I just did extremely well at anything athletic for about 10 years.
But that doesn't mean that all of my stories are stories of triumph, and one of my earliest stories of failure stems from a reputation that I hadn't even earned yet, but it came from an older sibling that had already dominated basketball and seeing my surname on the roster was enough to strike fear into any opponent.
Where I went to high school the basketball programs were very competitive. Many students who felt they had a future in basketball strived to get transferred to our high school to be under Coach Cowling, who by the time he retired had 6 State championships under his belt including winning both the women and men's State Championship in the same year. As far as I know that had never been done before in Virginia, or maybe anywhere else.
Anyway, the Virginia High School started searching for talent in a sort of "academy" way long before kids would attend high school or even have a chance to try out for the team. I was basically a shoe-in for the spot on the team because I was decent but my "bloodline" was something that seemed as though there was potential greatness in me. My older sister who was 3 years ahead of me in school did some truly amazing things in basketball including setting a lot of high school records that still stand to this day. I don't know how they fared against the likes of all other high schools but word of her dominance spread far and wide in local newspapers.
So when an 8th grade team was formed and I was one of the players, everyone was focusing on our shared last name.
I remember visiting a particular school and when we took our warm up jackets off hearing people saying "that's him!" and they were pointing at me as I was warming up and raining down 3 pointers like nobody's business. I was a seriously good perimeter player at that point in my life, just ask JJ (from a previous write-up). My coaches had a lot of faith in me and had contemplated moving me up to the high school team but I had elected and I think it was more their choice than mine, but I stayed back and waited and just played other 8th grade teams instead.
Well when they say my shirt and I heard whispers of "it's him" I had some fun with that....
Then I had some more fun with it when on my very first possession I buried a 3-pointer from the corner in a way that looked effortless and still had my hand up in the air after the ball went in... in a sort of arrogant 'I can do this all day" sort of way.
Well, unfortunately for me and my team things got pretty bad from that point forward. Because they were afraid of my supposed pedigree, the opposing team's coach had me guarded very closely and I don't know if it was own lack of experience or perhaps his as well, but I didn't have an answer to this. I recall a couple of really embarrassing moments such as being caught at mid-court right after I crossed over and then having no choice but to shoot the shot from half-court and of course missing wildly.
I probably should have tried to find a teammate to pass to, but we actually were not very good so instead I winged one from half-court. Mistake.
Later on in that same game I would air-ball a free throw because I was so rattled. We were getting destroyed.
But the true apex of my highlight of suck reel was when during an inbound pass, I thought I would play it cool and do a no look to a guy that was on my left.... unfortunately the guy on my left was the assistant referee and the ball just went out of bounds. The few people in attendance rightfully laughed at me.
I think that the coach really should have taken me out of the game but he didn't and honestly, this shell-shock of a game really got under my skin and perhaps contributed very heavily to me not really wanting to pursue basketball as much as I wanted to pursue football (of the soccer variety) and American football... both of those sports I was relatively dominant at.
Here we are though, nearly 40 years later and I still remember that day. I can still see the lights, I can still hear the jeers, I can still see my own shoes and can still remember how I was holding my head very low that day. I definitely remember how we went from being feared to being getting walked all over in that game and losing by 30-40 points. I also remember how rattled we were as a team for many games following that because of it.
Team sports are kind of crazy. You can have a talented group of people but once things start to go bad they can go really bad and stay bad if not reeled in. I always used to think that it was kind of stupid that college basketball coaches get paid millions of dollars a year but I can kind of understand why. It is such an important part of the game. I never did end up finishing the season with that team but it wasn't because of me quitting.
I'll save that story for another shameful day.