Good Sportsmanship

[Mister P-Mosh]

I saw this article on ESPN's site and thought that you all would find it interesting. Here's some snippets to give you an idea of the story:

Two missed free throws, ordinarily the cause of a coach's headache, became the symbol of sportsmanship in a Milwaukee boys basketball game earlier this month.

Milwaukee Madison senior Johntell Franklin, who lost his mother, Carlitha, to cancer on Saturday, Feb. 7, decided he wanted to play in that night's game against DeKalb (Ill.) High School after previously indicating he would sit out.

...

Rules dictated Womack would have to be assessed a technical, but he was prepared to put Franklin in the game anyway.

...

McNeal, a senior point guard, went to the line. The Milwaukee Madison players stayed by their bench, waiting for the free throws. Instead of seeing the ball go through the net, they saw the ball on the court, rolling over the end line.

"I turned around and saw the ref pick up the ball and hand it back to the player," Womack said in the Journal Sentinel. "And then [McNeal] did the same thing again."

...

"I did it for the guy who lost his mom," McNeal told the newspaper. "It was the right thing to do."

I would like to think that given the opportunity, most young athletes would have done the same thing. Still, it was a great gesture, and I think that this is a lesson many pro athletes should learn from.

[HAPe4me]

I didn't find it interesting....... that is too weak a word for it. I found it heartwarming, and indicative of the fine youth that are the hallmark of our country's future.

~HAP

[Tom Strange]

thanks for posting that Mosh... great stuff!

[kimberly]

Mr. P, I wish I knew how to post links.

I hope you can find it. A Football Game Gives Hope-tangle.com

Brought me and all I have forwarded it to to tears. They have even called to talk about it.

Thank you, Mr. P. sportsmanship is alive.

[HAPe4me]

This was in the Denver Post this morning: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_11804529

Players from both teams rushed the 15-year-old boy, and wrapped him in hugs. Grown men in the stands and on the sidelines wept. Mothers cried. Maybe, they all said later, it was the unplanned, unrehearsed nature of it all, the way sports can yield special moments that teach valuable lessons.

First you have to know of Seth. He is a freshman at Jefferson Academy in Broomfield. He joined the charter school's third-tier basketball squad the first day the sign-up sheet went out. Seth Senecaut also has Klippel-Feil syndrome, a spinal disorder that causes severely restricted mobility, cleft palate and abnormalities of the ribs, hands and fingers.

........snipped.......

By the closing minutes of the fourth quarter, Denver Lutheran was leading Jefferson Academy by at least 20 points. Neither coach today can recall the final score, which for the record was 41-18. John Stuerke, the Denver Lutheran coach, remembers the last minute of the game like it happened five minutes ago.

He first saw Seth when the boy checked in with about a minute to play. He was driving the baseline when he fumbled and lost the ball out of bounds.

"I knew then," Stuerke said, "that something with the kid wasn't right. I immediately called a 30-second timeout."

He called his team together. "OK, we've been shown some grace today," he told them, "so let's give some back."

Seth got the ball and moved up the court, dribbling past Lutheran players on his way to the basket. There were 10 seconds left as Seth brought the ball up the court.

A Lutheran player reached in for the ball. The whistle blew.

Seth was headed for the line. "Everybody is standing, the crowd is standing — I still can't talk about it without choking up," Seth's coach, Ron Naylor, said.

"And now, I'm praying — 'Please, God, let one of these go in.' "

Seth heaves the ball. A roar rips through the gym.

"He hit nothing but the bottom of the net!" Stuerke said, his words catching. "I don't think I screamed that loud even for my own players."

"Swish!" Naylor recalled.

"Now, I'm 51, and I jumped higher than I ever have. Everyone in the gym was just going nuts. I'm crying and thinking of how sport is such a great way to overcome a lot of things." Both teams mob Seth. He still has one shot left, which he misses, a fact about which no one now talks or cares.

I love these kind of stories, which is why little league/ youth league sports are my favorite sports

[Watered Garden]

My husband has done some coaching, and we enjoy going to the sports events where he teaches. I think it is so sad that when levies don't pass or when the state funding is cut off, sports is one of the first things to go. Kids learn so much more than how to play that sport; they learn how to be better people and live better lives.

I have never passed up voting for a necessary school levy, even when I didn't have kids.

WG