Basketball: A Communication Game

High school basketball is not only a mental sport, but, also, a communication game. You must be able to communicate very well to play in Morgantown, West Virginia, especially at University High School. To make the team, you have to be basketball knowledgeable, talented, physically fit, and vocal. After four years of playing varsity basketball, the vocal part of the sport has helped me out in the long run.

There are five positions in basketball: point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and center, but, the most important position is the point guard. The point guard is the “quarterback” or “floor general” of the team. You have to be very vocal to run the team and call the shots. If you are not vocal, you will be sitting the bench or worse, in the stands.

The shooting guard is the second most important player on the hardwood floor. He is the one “running back” or “sergeant” of basketball team. It’s, also, important for the shooting guard to be vocal as well. With out the point guard or shooting guard, you can not run the plays or even have a chance to win the big game.

The small forward, power forward, and center is, equally, the third import. Without these “big men,” you can not get hard set picks or the back door cuts for a heart-stopping slam dunk. These two little things are a big part in a winning team. You have to be able to pick a defender to let a teammate get by and you have to do back door cuts to get wide open lay-ups. Former teammates, power forward from 2000-2004, Dom Claudio and ,former center from 2004-2007, Grant Meadows did these two crucial things and it paid off for one of them at the end. One earning an athletic scholarship to West Virginia Wesleying as a red shirt freshman for the 2007-2008 season.

As a former point guard and shooting guard for the University High Hawks, I, also, had a shot to play Division I, in Michigan for the Wolverines and Spartans and West Virginia for the Mountaineers, and Division II, in West Virginia for the Fairmont State Falcons. With all this excitement, I was told that my talent stood out but, I was the best vocal player these four schools have seen but, my dream of playing college basketball ended when I received a brutal knee injury in the beginning of the season of my senior year in high school.

As I was told by former head coach of the Mountaineers and, now, the new head coach of the Wolverines, John Beilein, “You are the best vocal leader I’ve seen in all my years of coaching college basketball. You call out plays very loudly, so everyone can hear and I also like how you call out screens to help your teammates.”

After hearing what John Beilein said made me anxious for college basketball. I had to finish high school first though. So, that comment made me play even harder. There are many games that could be a major communication example, like Fairmont Senior vs. University or Elkins vs. University.

A game that stands out to an extreme in my head was in 2007 when we, the University High Hawks (19-2), played cross-town rivals, Morgantown High Mohigans (19-2). This was one game that the whole University High team had to be vocal and our fans ha to be vocal, as well. If all this wasn’t to be, we wouldn’t have won that game against No. 3 team in the state of West Virginia.

Everyone was anxious weeks before the game. Newspaper said, “Mohigans Will Scalp Hawks!” The only good thing we got said about us was by Justin Jackson, a sports writer for The Dominion Post. He said the we were a talented and vocal team who can win if they shot better than ninety percent from the field and be vocal from the beginning to end. The whole team, coaches, school, and University High Hawks’ community took to heart.

A Friday night in Morgantown, West Virginia at University High’s Gymnasium. The gym packed with loved Hawk fans and hated Mohigan fans. While both teams were warming up, chants from the student sections was a game of its own. Both, University High and Morgantown High, student sections were getting into this rival game. This chanting was getting the teams more fired up and ready to play.

The game started off slow, but started to pick up the pace quickly. It went back and forth for three quarters of play. After the buzzer went off at the end of the third quarter, the score was 78- 91 in Morganton High’s favor. I knew something had to be done. So, teammate, Jedd Gyroko and I told are fellow teammates “if we lose this game, we’ll be looked at as losers forever and are record 19-2 isn’t nothing to be proud if we lose this one important game.”

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