Chapter 13: You Make Loving Fun

Medway High School Gymnasium

3:42pm, Friday, February 16, 1979

‘My God, she’s absolutely stunning!‘ I thought as I stood at the gym doorway for a moment and took in the scene across the gym. Lynette had somehow changed outfits since I last saw her at the start of geography class. Gone were the black baggie sweatpants and a red Medway fleece sweatshirt. Lynette now was whooping and hollering in a mid-thigh length, red and black hounds-tooth patterned skirt with black fishnet stockings. Instead of that Medway sweatshirt, Lynette wore a shiny, black with red lace trimmed, spaghetti strapped halter top. Her long dark blonde hair was now bouncing freely around her face and shoulders as she jumped and shouted encouragement to the JV team’s players, who were mostly our classmates in the ninth or our tenth grade.

When I looked up at the school board, I wasn’t at all surprised to see that our JV team was murdering Glencoe’s team, 17 to 2 with 35 seconds left in the first quarter. Our JV team’s record was 19 and 1 at the moment, and they probably could have defeated a few of the smaller schools’ varsity teams. Their only loss this season came in overtime at the hands of the Robarts, the Ontario School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, who had players up to the age of 20 on their team.

In that game, it was literally men playing against boys, especially when our JV’s best player, Andrew Werring picking up a minor concussion early in the second quarter of that game. An older Robarts’ player, who obviously didn’t hear the whistle, charged into Andrew as he relaxed some, and sent him crashing into the end wall. I doubted if Andrew, who was a surprisingly smooth 6-4 shooting guard, had played the whole game that our JV would have lost that game by 3 points, but as I’ve learned over time, injuries are a part of the game and everyone else on the team has to pick up the slack when someone goes down.

When Glencoe scored their fourth point of the game right before the end of the first quarter, Lynette finally saw me standing over by the gym entrance, and waved me over to her seat. At the end of the quarter, I hustled to the main bleachers and walked up the three rows to where my girlfriend, Joanne, Heidi, Andi and Michel were sitting, along with the Lunby twins.

“This isn’t much of a game, is it?” Lynette rhetorically asked right after she gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“If Mr. St. John keeps up the pressure, we might see the scoreboard explode when it reaches 100 points,” I laughed back. “I bet he calls off the dogs here shortly and starts playing the backups real soon.” Just as soon as I said that, we saw four JV backups report to the scorer’s table. At the start of the second quarter, only Andrew Werring remained in the game with those four subs. Mr. St. John kept the full court pressure going, which I thought was a good idea as that gave those backups quality experience against the opponent’s starting players.

At half time, the score was 32 to 10, and I walked out of the gym with Lynette to the make-shift concession stand. She bought a bag of salt and vinegar chips and a coke, while I bought a Gatorade drink. We chatted about what happened in geography as we walked down the main hallway to the front of the school. She said she would try to copy her notes for me on Sunday afternoon or evening. I smiled at her generosity and to show her my appreciation, all the while wishing we had a futuristic Xerox machine at our disposal at times like this.

When that conversation died out as we checked on the weather at the front doors, I turned to her and took a step back to drink in her beauty. After giving her a clear once over, I said in my best Billy Crystal voice, “I didn’t want to say this in the gym earlier, but holy cow Lynette, you look ‘Maaar-val-ouuuus’ in that outfit.”

Lynette did a little curtsey dip at my compliment and said with a beaming smile and her best Scarlet O’Hara accent, “This little, ole outfit, I just put it together as an afterthought, really.”

“If that is how you look as an afterthought, I sure would hate, no, no! Correction, I would LOVE to see how gorgeous you’d look if you put some effort into things!” I exclaimed as I stepped forward and gave her a big hug, and kissed her lightly on the lips.

“You’ll see just how good I look tomorrow after our volleyball game and team party,” Lynette softly said as she winked at me. We shared a passionate kiss for about thirty seconds in the front alcove area before the front doors opened. We were semi-surprised when we heard, “Good luck tonight Little-Mike,” and “Hello Lynette,” from a man and woman, respectively. We quickly separated and blushed as we saw a smiling Dr. and Mrs. Werring walk past us, and head on down towards the gymnasium.

“Hello, Dr. Werring, Mrs. Werring,” Lynette and I both replied at the same time.

We giggled after the inside doors shut behind them, and I pulled Lynette into me to share a wonderful little kiss. Lynette then pulled back, looked deeply into my eyes, and softly said, “I can’t wait to see you out on the court tonight, but I really can’t wait to slow dance up against your body, and kiss you some more on the dance floor.”

Then with a sexiness I wasn’t prepared for, she straddled my right leg and rubbed her crotch on my thigh as I leaned back against the wall for support. She placed her hands on my shoulders and kissed me one final time before she sultrily added, “And, if you dance as well as I’ve seen you move on the court, you just might be in for a little surprise later on, too.”

My heart and mind were racing out of control as I saw pure animal heat coming from Lynette’s smoldering face. Fortunately, she stepped back from me and allowed me to stand up and nonchalantly adjust myself right before we saw an upset looking Mr. Williamson walking from the main office area. I didn’t think he had seen us or what we were just doing, so I simply took Lynette’s hand and lead her back into the school proper.

“Oh, hi, Mike, Lynette. Is it half time, yet in the JV game?” he haggardly asked when he saw us come through the inside doors.

“Yes sir,” I replied. “It’s not much of a game as we expected. Mr. St. John took the starters out early after it was 19 to 4 at the end of the first quarter. I think it was 32 or 33-10 at the half. We just decided to get some fresh air before I head to the locker to get dressed for our game.” Mr. Williamson’s facial expression still wasn’t his normal bright look, so I asked, “Is something wrong, Sir?”

“Oh, nothing of real importance, at least not right now,” he replied with a touch of false conviction in his voice. Both Lynette and I looked at each other for a moment and realized something definitely was going on with our vice-principal and my coach. But as sixteen-year-olds, we both figured it was just normal adult crap that he had to deal with as the boss of the school.

When we saw him stop at the beginning of the main, long hallway, he told me, “After you walk Lynette back to the gym, let the guys know to come to the locker room around the six minute mark of the third quarter, please. I’ll see you there, okay?” With that, he made a U-turn back towards the main office and/or our varsity locker room.

“Sure thing, Coach,” I replied. Lynette and I walked hand in hand, slowly back down the main hallway. About half way to the gym, I asked her, “Wonder what’s up with TR? I’ve rarely seen him discombobulated like that.”

“Discombobulated? Ha, good one, Mike. But yeah, something is on his mind for sure,” she replied. “May be he’ll tell all of you about it in the locker room, if it is something sports related ... but who knows” She gave me a hip-check as she said that last little part there and smiled her thousand watt smile at me, which definitely refocused my mind back onto Lynette’s promise of something special for later on tonight.

I didn’t have a clue that Mr. Williamson just got off the telephone with the Middlesex County Education Superintendent about a new and highly controversial social program that was in the early discussion phase for Medway High School and a few other schools across the province. With all the new and exciting things going on in my rebooted life, especially my upcoming date with Lynette Robertson, I had totally forgotten about the Energists’ major condition on my ‘Do-Over’ teenage experience. Apparently, they wasted little time in setting the stage for my reality version of their Naked-In-School program.

In the varsity locker room, we all were dressed in our white home uniforms, and our ‘DePaul-style’, scarlet, white and gray warm ups when Coach Williamson came in for his final pregame talk. He told us that Kane’s mom had come and gotten him, and reminded everyone that Kollin was going to take Kane’s spot at point with the zone team. Right before we headed on down to watch the last few minutes of the JV game, he reiterated his three keys for today’s game, and smiled at me as he reminded us all to ‘play fast, play tenaciously but play SMART!’

As we walked from our locker room down to the gym, my excitement level increased exponentially and I had to consciously remind myself to make use of my prior life’s playing and coaching experiences. Thankfully, we only had to wait for about two minutes before the JV game ended. It was obvious that Mr. St. John had mercifully called off the dogs in this game, as our Cowboys’ final margin of victory was only 35 points.

As the JV teams lined up to shake hands, I heard Matthew Werring call out, “Little-Mike, starting point guard always leads off the warm up drills.” With that, he passed me the basketball he picked up off the supply rack of balls and shouted, “Let’s get it going!”

While the other folks in the stands watching us warm up probably didn’t understand the significance of that gesture on Matthew’s part, I beamed with pride as I caught his pass and dribbled the ball a few times to get that comfortable feeling back in my mind. Once Glencoe’s JV players cleared the floor, I lead off our layup line and laid our team’s first shot up off the backboard and through the hoop. That was significant for me because up until today, Kane Goodwin had always had that honor for our team.

During the rest of our warm up, things went as planned and I really focused on my ball handling and also worked my defensive slides and footwork. I started to worry a little when it seemed like I couldn’t hit the broad side of the barn door with my jumper as I was consistently a tad long. However, the ball felt good as it left my hand, so I focused on that small positive.

When Big-Mike came over to me after I cussed at missing another jump-shot, he told me to relax and not worry about my shooting, and just focus on defense and running our offense. That gentle reminder from him really helped put my mind at ease and set my priorities for this game.

When Coach Williamson called us in just prior to the start of the varsity game, I saw a couple of unexpected people scurrying along the baseline over to the bleacher seats. First, I noticed that Brad MacGee was holding Elizabeth Morkings’ hand. I then heard Lynette’s unmistakable voice cry out, “Brad, Elizabeth, come sit over here with us!” which put a small smile on my face. It was great to see Elizabeth out with Brad, and hopefully they’ll have a good time at the game and dance.

Just as we broke our huddle, I saw my mom AND MY DAD walk into the gym and hustle over to the bleacher seats. While my mom has seen me play both football and basketball here at Medway, this is the first time my dad has ever been to one of my high school games. He’d make it to the odd hockey game, but this was a simply HUGE for me. My dad was always working late to support his five children or just really didn’t understand basketball enough to come to one of my games.

As I walked out on the court with my teammates, I smiled at my parents and gave them a slight wave. I was pumped up big time now as this was my first start and more importantly now, it was the first time my dad had come see me play too.

In Ontario, the schools rarely introduced the starting lineups, so the five of us simply shook hands with Glencoe’s starting five and our guys quickly figured out who was our defensive man. Matthew Werring easily won the jump ball and Big-Mike passed it to me to get our offense in gear. After receiving a return pass at the top of the circle, I faked a move to the right and then blew by my defender to the left. When Matt Connell’s defender came to stop my drive down the lane, I easily dropped off a no-look pass to him for an easy layup and a 2-0 lead.

Even though I really wanted to give Matt a hug after that play, we immediately began our ‘pressure and overplay’ fullcourt press. Glencoe’s point guard was the same height as me but nowhere near as quick or fast as me, so I was extra determined to harass him. I was able to get a hand on his first pass and deflected it to Jon Lunby. This instantly turned into a 3 on 1 break for us. Jon immediately passed to me and I heard Big-Mike’s shout and led him in for an easy layup.

On the next inbounds, Glencoe’s point guard tried to take me on one-on-one. After his third cross-over dribble maneuver, I quickly figured out he wanted to get the ball back in his dominant right hand. When he tried that move a fourth time as he crossed half court, I reach out and slapped the ball as he tried to create some space. Once I got to the loose ball first, I knew I could out race him to the goal. Just as I took off for my right-hand layup, I felt him rake his arm down across my left shoulder, which knocked me slightly off balance. However, I remembered to take the ball up strong and made my layup before I righted myself against the padded end wall. I hit nothing but net on the free throw to complete the 3-point play.

Before the game was three minutes old, we were ahead 13-0 and only allowed them one decent shot at our basket, which their forward missed badly. We forced five turnovers and scored 7 points off those defensive plays. Our home crowd was going crazy as we never let Glencoe get comfortable with their offense and we scored on all but one of our possessions, when I unfortunately throw a lob pass a little too high for Matthew to catch down on the blocks.

I noticed that Coach Williamson had our zone defenders up at the scorer’s table ready to replace us. I was definitely getting winded out there. When Glencoe’s shooting guard missed a 15 foot jumper, I saw that Matt Connell had the rebound and I took off running down the court. Matt outletted the ball to Big-Mike, who threw a perfect lead pass to me for a breakaway on their goal. Somehow or another, even as tired as I was at that point, I gathered myself and was able to throw down a two-handed dunk for a 15-0 lead.

Glencoe’s coach called his first timeout of the game at that point, as our whole team and crowd went ballistic at seeing that totally unexpected shot. Even Gary Dander came up to me as we huddled on our bench and congratulated me on that dunk. After that timeout, our zone defensive unit entered the game and I was definitely thankful for the rest.

When Kollin picked up two quick fouls with a little over a minute left in the first quarter and the score now 23-5, Coach Williamson called me and sent me in to replace him so he wouldn’t pick up his 3^rd foul before half time. As I waited at the scorer’s table, Coach W. reminded me, “Remember how we play in those zones. You don’t have to go for a steal or press the ball handler every time. Play with patience, be a part of that zone team out there now.”

“Yes sir,” I replied to him as the official waved me into the game for Kollin.

“Go get them Little-Mike!” I heard Lynette scream out as she saw me re-enter the game. “Throw down another one on these Golden Gaels!” I just smiled and shook my head as I took my position at the top of our 1-3-1 trapping defense. Because I hadn’t practiced this or even thought about playing this type of defense since I returned to high school, I missed a golden opportunity to steal an errant pass after Andy Lundy and Gary Dander had a Glencoe forward trapped in the corner. I was frustrated with myself when Glencoe’s shooting guard hit his second long jump shot in a row after that missed turnover chance.

I brought the ball up court after that basket without any trouble as Glencoe had switched from their man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone defense in order to mitigate our size advantage with Gary and Dennis Grainam on the floor. As we reversed the ball, I faked a pass down to Bruce Smyth in the corner, which created an entry passing lane to Gary, who had gained inside position on his defender. I tossed a lob pass to him, and Gary easily corralled and laid the ball into the basket for a 25 to 7 lead.

With only 10 seconds left in the first quarter, I heard Coach W tell me to pressure the ball to slow down their advancement. With their starting point guard now dog tired from playing the whole first quarter, he made a lazy crossover dribble move, which allowed me to easily knock the ball from his hands. Just as it was going out of bounds, I heard Gary call out and I blindly backhanded the ball in the direction of his voice. Gary caught my wild pass in stride, took one dribble before he tomahawked the ball through the goal just prior to the first quarter buzzer.

Once again, our whole building exploded at that dunk. After our teammates congratulated Gary on that powerful slam, he searched me out, smiled his big goofy grin, and gave me a high five for getting him that dunk opportunity. As Coach Williamson talked to us at the quarter break, he told Andy Lunby to take the point position on the zone team and sent Jamie Purvice in as the small forward. The zone team would play the first two minutes or so of the 2^nd quarter and then the ‘man’ group would finish off the first half, against a hopefully tired opponent.

I was happy to get another couple of minutes rest before I had to go back hard with my ‘man’ defense group. For the first time in a long time, even counting my prior life experiences, I was somewhat thankful for those extra endurance workouts I had to do with the London-Western track club. Playing like this resembled one of those intense, repeated interval workouts consisting of 600m, 800m or 1000m runs.

Before the man group reentered the game with 5:35 left in the first half, Coach Williamson said to me, “Keep up the defense intensity as best you can. Also, if they drop off you like they’ve been doing at the top of their 2-3 zone, I want you to take that 18, 20 footer. WHEN you make a couple of them, it will really open up those inside passing lanes to Matt, Matthew or Big-Mike.”

With the game no longer in doubt at 37-12, Coach Williamson reminded us to take only good, open shots but he also nodded his head at me as a reminder of my special instructions. After I forced a bad pass, which Big-Mike picked off and fed Jon Lunby for an easy layup, we heard Coach W call out, “21 Regular”, which was our code to switch to our half court, regular man pressure.”

All five of us retreated beyond the half court line before we picked up our assigned opponent. Our defensive intensity slacked off some, which allowed Glencoe to score a couple of easy baskets. I got caught looking at the ball too long, and my defensive assignment went backdoor on me for an easy layup. Man, was I pissed at that ‘rookie’ mistake, and vowed that that wouldn’t happen again.

With a little more than 2 minutes left in the first half, Coach W called a time out, and he wasn’t a happy camper. He lit a fire under both Jon and Matt, our best shooters for forcing jump shots and then for slacking off on defense. I was actually surprised he left us in the game, as mad as he was at us right then. However, before he sent us back out there, he pulled me aside and said, “If they aren’t going to run the plays that you or I call, just hold the ball and let me fix the problem. Remember, I want to see a couple of long jumpers from you.”

“Got it, Coach,” I replied as I went to take the inbounds pass. When I moved down to our end with Jon Lunby, Glencoe surprised us with their own full court man press. I made a quick, sharp ‘V-cut’ move to receive the inbounds pass from Jon and waved him up the court. Their backup point guard was on me and he was smaller and quicker than their starter. However, with one behind the back dribble and a hard crossover move, I was able to advance the ball and get us into our offensive play.

After our first option didn’t work, the ball came to me at the top of the circle. When I faked a pass down low to Matthew, my defender dropped off me a good bit, so I set my feet and lifted off with a twenty foot jumper. It felt good as it left my right fingertips and when Big-Mike called out, “Nailed it!” before the ball ripped the twine, I jumped up and swung my fist with joy.

That shot was really more important to me and my team than that earlier dunk, because if I could consistently make that shot, our future opponents would have to play me honestly. That in turn would open up more attack options for our inside post players and for my own one-on-one moves.

Right before half time, I made my second long jumper from the top of the key, which give us a 47-18 lead. When I looked over at my parents for the first time since the game began, both of them were smiling at me, and clapping along with the rest of our fans. While my parents didn’t know the intricate rules or details of basketball like they did with hockey, they knew enough to clap and shout for a successful shot at the basket.

As we headed out to our locker room, I easily picked out Lynette’s voice as she yelled out, “Keep it up, Cowboys! Keep the wind out of the Gaels’ sails.” I smiled and winked at her as she waved on my way to the exit and our locker room.

As expected, Coach Williamson was both pleased and pissed about our performance. Defensively, he was very pleased as we forced 14 turnovers and held Glencoe to 28% shooting. Coach Williamson wasn’t happy with our offensive execution in the last half of the 2^nd quarter, as a few guys were playing selfishly and cared more about their stats than perfecting the plays we’d need to beat tougher opponents. He told us that we were going to employ the same strategy as we did at the start of the game for the first four minutes of the 3^rd quarter. Then we were going to switch to our basic defensive system, as well as turn to our 4-corners (4C) offense to run the clock out.

As we were walking back to the gym, Coach W pulled Kollin and me aside and said, “I’m going to swap your two groups because I want Kollin to get some tough man-to-man practice tonight, and you can use the zone trap experience as well. When we go back to our base defense, I’ll switch you back to your original groups.”

“Sure, Coach,” I replied and Kollin just nodded his acknowledgement and slapped me on the back as we entered the gym.

The 2^nd half wasn’t too eventful after the first four minutes. Both defensive groups held Glencoe to 4 points or less with Kollin’s defensive group forcing two turnovers, and my group creating three turnovers. The best play occurred when I tipped a pass and Andy Lunby caught the ball, and threw a blind pass over his head down the court as he fell into the bleachers. I out raced a Glencoe player to the ball and threw an alley-oop pass to six-five, Dennis Grainam, who slammed it through the rim with authority.

With the score 60-28 at the end of the third quarter, we ran off nearly five minutes of clock time with our North Carolina style 4C offense. Glencoe never really came out to challenge me as I dribbled for most of that time near the half court line. When we heard their coach finally say to move up and play defense against us, I quickly passed the ball to Jon, who immediately gave it back to me, so I could start this offense with a natural ‘triple-threat’ option available.

I faked right and dribbled hard past my defender, down the left side of the lane. When a Glencoe post player moved to cut me off, I passed to Matthew in the corner, who immediately returned it to me, and I dribbled back to the top again before restarting that cycle with Big-Mike.

This next attack, I stopped my penetration at the foul line and faked a pass to Matthew in the corner. Their post defender anticipated and moved hard towards the corner. Matthew saw my fake and the defender’s action and went backdoor on him. I dropped a simple bounce pass under my defender’s arm and Matthew captured it in stride and laid the ball in while being fouled. He completed his 3-point play and high-fived me as he ran past me back to our end of the court.

Our final basket in this 68-36 victory was a series of three beautiful cuts and passes to create a wide open jump shot with 5 seconds left on the clock. I originally dribble hard left towards Jon Lunby, who faked high and went backdoor on his defender. Jon then drove the lane and was picked up by Matt Connell’s post player. Matt cut back to the corner for an open pass as Big-Mike cut across the top of the key to set a screen for me. I took one jab step down and ran my defender hard into Mike’s stationary body to get that open shot from about 12 feet. With the crowd counting down the clock, I made sure to set my feet correctly as I caught Matt’s pass and elevated up to release the ball. It hit nothing but net for the game’s final two points.

In that final 8 minute quarter, I only forced one bad pass in our 4C offensive set, which Coach W was very pleased with in the locker room. Coach Williamson left me out there to run that offense with both groups of players as he said he wanted to give me as much time as he could in that ‘practice-like’ game setting. In my first start, I played beyond my or anyone’s expectations. My stat line read: season best 10 points; 4 rebounds; 6 assists; and only 2 turnovers. More importantly, Coach Williamson told me I had played ‘fast and tenaciously, while playing very smart.’

As we were getting dressed after our showers, I was a little surprised that Gary Dander came over to me and congratulated me on my performance. He was still jabbering about my crazy blind pass, which lead to his monstrous dunk in the second quarter. This change in his attitude towards me was a most welcome sight.

From my prior experiences teaching and coaching student-athletes, this was a classic example of how guys can really dislike someone, but do all they can together to help their team win. On the other hand, I’ve learned that if a girl dislikes a teammate, they are far less likely to pass to or help that teammate out, even if doing so would help their team win. Several of my former female student-athletes have said they’d rather lose than see a disliked or ‘enemy’ teammate score the winning goal or point.

As I walked outside the locker room, I saw Lynette waiting with Samantha and a few of the other guys’ girlfriends. I also saw my parents standing along the glass hallway, about fifty feet from the locker room. They were talking and laughing with Mr. and Mrs. Lunby, and a few other adults as they waited for me.

Lynette smiled when she saw me exit the locker with Jon and Andy Lunby. She waited for me to walk over to her, and then she gave me a small kiss on the cheek, and told me how well she thought I played. I thanked her for kiss and compliments, and then I took her hand to walk her down to where my folks were standing.

“Hey, Dad! Thanks for coming to my game,” I excitedly exclaimed as they turned towards me. “You, too, Mom!”

They both were smiling as we reached their location and my dad then replied, “I’m guessing you played well, because your team sure did lay the lumber to those Glencoe boys. You’ll have to explain those ‘double-dribble’ and ‘traveling’ things to me, sometime because I heard a lot of people around me saying a few of their players were doing it in the game.”

“I will Dad. I’ll show you if maybe we can watch a game or two on TV together, sometime. Oh, sorry,” I suddenly said as felt a slight squeeze in the hand Lynette was holding. “Uh, Mom, Dad, this young lady is Lynette Robertson. She is...”

After a second or two of searching for the right word, Lynette jumped in with, “I’m Mike’s girlfriend. We have a few classes together, and I’m also on several of the teams here at school. It’s nice to meet both of you.”

“It’s nice to meet you, too, Lynette,” my mother said. “Are you driving Mike home after the dance, tonight?”

“Yes, Ms. Nevins, I have my mom’s car and I’ll be giving this guy a ride home.”

“Okay. Just be careful and make sure you give yourself enough time to get yourself home in a safe manner,” my mom semi-instructed my girlfriend. She then looked up at me and said, “We, we just wanted to let you know that we thought you played well, even though we really don’t understand this game like we do hockey.” My mom then paused for a moment as she apparently was studying both of us as we stood before her. She then softly said, “You two have fun at your dance, but...” and she left the rest of her thought unspoken as she smiled at both of us.

“You did well, Mike,” my dad said as he took my mother’s hand. I also noticed a slight head nod towards Lynette as he said that short phrase to me. I guessed there might have been a small father-son ‘hidden’ meaning behind his words there.