A trip in the way back machine today for the tour with a shout out to boot from said trip. The machine takes us back to 1980 when this writer was playing for the mighty Highland Scots in 7th grade basketball. The faces in the picture should look familiar as I still hang with three of the 12-13 year olds shown. The coach for said team, Mike “Skip” S., was voted AP Class A girls basketball Coach of the Year for 2017.http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/news/article/-5328049265398742073/ap-class-a-girls-basketball-all-state-team-announced/
I laugh at how the press references him as “Skip” as Jim C. (aka “Champ”) I believe gave him the nickname in high school after mirroring the name of the former host of “Real People.” A great show that was; can’t believe it hasn’t made a return in reruns.
Here nor there, he was my favorite coach in any sport and was fortunate enough to have him as my coach again my sophomore year at Milford. He wasn’t a shouter, was incredibly patient and made the game fun.
He helped me my junior year at Milford as well as I was the object of the varsity coach’s wrath when something went wrong in a game. One instance of said fury didn’t even involve a game situation. We are in Brighton for a game, waiting for what seemed like forever for the coach to come give us our pre-game pep talk. Idiot Tim, with a toothpick in his mouth, speaking when he should have used his internal voice, uttered “Where’s Don?” Little did I know Don was right behind me and calling your coach by his first name was a no-no. A got a nice chewing out with a nice slam against a locker to boot but it was all deserved as I was out of line. I was expecting to sit the entire game but Skip calmed the coach down and later told me most of the coach’s fury had been building up from other factors. After checking that I didn’t crap my drawers after the chewing out and the trembling subsided, I still started, we won the game and to this day, every time I see Skip in public, the first words out of his mouth are “Hey Timmy, where’s Don?” and we both laugh.
Thanks Skip and congratuations.
Trail Head
