“Olin, put twenty two seconds on the clock! Ready! Go!” I cannot
begin to tell you how many times I have heard this over my four years of
basketball. These were the dreaded four liners. In these you had to run
baseline to baseline four times within the twenty two seconds on the clock, and
if you did not make it, well then get back on the line because you are about to
go again. The reason I am starting out like this is because it gives the
perfect example of how Delmar Johnson, my basketball coach, has impacted my
life in high school.
For four years now I have been around Delmar just about year
round. I’m with him all basketball season, I helped him with his youth
basketball season, and I’ve traveled all around Arizona and even up to Colorado
during the summer for basketball camps and tournaments with him. That is a long
time to be around someone. Now I can’t say that Delmar was always my favorite
person during these times, but looking back, he has taught me a lot.
Delmar has to be the most passionate person about basketball
that I know. He truly loves it and he understands how it should be played. Now,
how basketball should be played and how high school kids play are two completely
different things. Delmar would yell at us, yank us out of the game when we made
a mistake, and run us to where we felt like our legs were going to fall off.
I have never told anyone this but there was a point where I felt
so low that I wanted to quit basketball. I texted Delmar and told him that
basketball just wasn’t for me and that I’ll turn in my jersey on Monday. Within
thirty seconds I received a reply from him telling me to meet up with him so we
can talk this out. Well, after about thirty minutes of talking he finally told
me that he isn’t going to let me quit and I will be forever grateful for that.
Delmar had broken me down. He had put me through tough times, but I didn’t
realize what he was doing in the process. He was breaking me down all the way
to the bottom, but then he slowly helped build me back up even stronger than I was
before. Just like with the four liners, when you are running them and he tells
you to run another when you are already exhausted, and you think he is just
being mean. However, then when you are in a game and you can run faster and
longer than your opponent you realize that all of those four liners were to
help up not to punish us. Delmar has put me through a lot; however, now when I look
back at it, I realize that he was only doing it to make me better. Delmar has
taught me that I will have really low parts in my life, but he has made me
strong enough to never give in. Thank
you Delmar.
