OPINION/EDUCATION
During the summer I take time off to go back to my hometown to spend time with my family.
For those who don’t know, I come from a very small town in West Texas called Cross Plains. To give you an idea how small my town is, Cross Plains has less than 1,000 people and my graduating class was just 17 students.
This time on my yearly trip back home, it was a special occasion for me.
My high school was hosting an alumni basketball game where the current players are pitted against former players.
For me, this was an opportunity to reconnect with some of my former classmates and coaches while getting a chance to show off against the young ones.
As a basketball player, I was alright. While offensively I was just okay, it was defense where I excelled. In fact, I was put on the best player to shut them down offensively. I took pride in my defense and rarely did the other team’s player ever score on me.
I was also someone who wasn’t afraid to do the dirty work by blocking out despite my size and jumping on the ground for loose balls.
For me, my message was simple. You might be a bigger basketball player than me, but you sure as hell are not going to out work me.
I will always be proud of my time with the basketball program for one reason. My class helped build the foundation for the future generation to build a mansion.
Before my junior year, our basketball had failed to make the playoffs since 2000 and had not won a playoff game since then.
My junior year not only did we break our playoff drought but we upset a favored Priddy Pirates team to win our first playoff game in over a decade.
I can still remember the celebration like it was yesterday. We hoisted up the trophy high in the air and celebrated all night long. It was a testament to all the hard work we had done over the season and being able to overcome the obstacles set against us. We even celebrated the fact we were going to miss a track meet because of it (I still went to that said track meet because at the end of the day, I’m a track junkie).
My senior year not only did we advance to the playoffs once again, we nabbed second place in district, the highest placing any team had in over a decade, and ended up winning back-to-back playoff games. Though our season ended at the hands of the eventual state champion in Water Valley that season, we had set the standard for everyone else to follow.
Come the alumni game, I wanted to at least get into shape before playing, so I started hitting up the local basketball courts to at least get into somewhat of shape.
Though I’m a lot older now and not in as good of shape as my high school counterparts, I still have that competitive fire in me. I wasn’t going to let a bunch of high schoolers show me up.
So there I was at the alumni game, huffing and puffing but still not letting my man score on me, diving on the ground for loose balls and getting fired up after getting a bucket. I think it stunned my ex-teammates. My goal was to win – even though this is technically just a charity game.
But at the end of the day, it is just a game and it is about giving back to my high school alma mater.
I just wanted to show the younger generation to never extinguish that competitive fire.
Colton McWilliams Sports Editor
