Edenville Owls

Chapter 6

There was a balcony above the Eastfield High School gym and I was sitting in it watching the high school varsity practice.

Coach threw the ball to one of the guards.

“Weave,” he said.

The five began to move. The man with the ball dribbled in one direction, a man without the ball came toward him. The dribbler went inside the other guy and left the ball for him and continued into the corner. The new dribbler went inside the next guy and left the ball for him and continued to the corner. They did this for a long time. Weaving past each other, and handing off so that the ball was always in the middle of the court and always in motion.

Then Coach said, “Sherm, take it to the hoop.”

Sherm was a blocky, muscular little guard. He came out of the corner, in the weave, and when he reached midcourt, he took the handoff and broke sharply for the basket right off the backside of the guy that just handed him the ball and went in and laid the ball up.

“Good,” Coach said. “Weave again.”

And they went back to it. Each guy took his turn driving for a layup off the weave.

After a time Coach said, “Okay Bart, start a roll.”

This time when Sherm came around and got the ball, Bart, the biggest guy on the team, turned and headed for the basket. Sherm passed it to him. And Bart took a layup.

“Lou,” Coach said.

And they ran that play over and over with different men taking the layup. I had a notebook and some pencils. But I didn’t use them. I just watched. Taking notes always kept me from learning stuff. I could write down things later if I had to.

“Okay,” Coach said. “Give and go. Out of the weave. Sherm, start it.”

So they went back to the weave, only this time as Sherm dribbled the ball toward midcourt and Bart approached him, Sherm stopped and passed the ball to Bart. Bart passed it right back to him and broke for the basket. They did this forever and when they finally stopped, all of them were puffing hard and shining with sweat.

“Okay, first unit,” Coach said. “Foul shots. Other end. Twenty each and I’ll be keeping an eye on you. Second unit come on in here and give me a weave.”

The starters went up the other end and began to shoot free throws. One guy shot. One guy retrieved, the other guys shot around. All of the guys but Sherm shot overhand. Sherm did the underhand free throw. And he was pretty good at it. I wasn’t much of a foul-shooter. But I’d rather miss than shoot underhand.