"Why are you cheering for them Mom and Dad?"

What would your son or daughter do if you were found at their athletic event yelling, cheering and supporting the OTHER TEAM?

I'm not talking about the parent of a kid who is sitting on the bench and mom or dad are privately wishing the other team would start kikkin their teams backend~~ No, I'm talking about 1/2 the parents and fans of a high school, meeting, organizing, making banners to support their kids opponent.

Crazy? Yep,, but it really happened.  

Former Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly wrote this story for ESPN.

"They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas.

It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.

Did you hear that? The other team's fans?

They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, "Go Tornadoes!" Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions. "

This all started when Faith's head coach, Kris Hogan, wanted to do something kind for the Gainesville team. Faith had never played Gainesville, but he already knew the score. After all, Faith was 7-2 going into the game, Gainesville 0-8 with 2 TDs all year. Faith has 70 kids, 11 coaches, the latest equipment and involved parents. Gainesville has a lot of kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robbery—many of whose families had disowned them—wearing seven-year-old shoulder pads and ancient helmets.

So Hogan had this idea. What if half of our fans—for one night only—cheered for the other team? He sent out an email asking the Faithful to do just that. "Here's the message I want you to send:" Hogan wrote. "You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth."

Some people were naturally confused. One Faith player walked into Hogan's office and asked, "Coach, why are we doing this?"

And Hogan said, "Imagine if you didn't have a home life. Imagine if everybody had pretty much given up on you. Now imagine what it would mean for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you."

Next thing you know, the Gainesville Tornadoes were turning around on their bench to see something they never had before. Hundreds of fans. And actual cheerleaders!

"I thought maybe they were confused," said Alex, a Gainesville lineman (only first names are released by the prison). "They started yelling 'DEE-fense!' when their team had the ball. I said, 'What? Why they cheerin' for us?'"

It was a strange experience for boys who most people cross the street to avoid. "We can tell people are a little afraid of us when we come to the games," says Gerald, a lineman who will wind up doing more than three years. "You can see it in their eyes. They're lookin' at us like we're criminals. But these people, they were yellin' for us! By our names!"

Maybe it figures that Gainesville played better than it had all season, scoring the game's last two touchdowns. Of course, this might be because Hogan put his third-string nose guard at safety and his third-string cornerback at defensive end. Still.

After the game, both teams gathered in the middle of the field to pray and that's when Isaiah surprised everybody by asking to lead. "We had no idea what the kid was going to say," remembers Coach Hogan. But Isaiah said this: "Lord, I don't know how this happened, so I don't know how to say thank You, but I never would've known there was so many people in the world that cared about us."

And it was a good thing everybody's heads were bowed because they might've seen Hogan wiping away tears.

As the Tornadoes walked back to their bus under guard, they each were handed a bag for the ride home—a burger, some fries, a soda, some candy, a Bible and an encouraging letter from a Faith player.

The Gainesville coach saw Hogan, grabbed him hard by the shoulders and said, "You'll never know what your people did for these kids tonight. You'll never, ever know."

And as the bus pulled away, all the Gainesville players crammed to one side and pressed their hands to the window, staring at these people they'd never met before, watching their waves and smiles disappearing into the night.

Anyway, with the economy six feet under and Christmas running on about three and a half reindeer, it's nice to know that one of the best presents you can give is still absolutely free.

Hope. 

Coaches: Want to Improve your Team's FT percentage??

There are thousands of theories on how to improve your FT percentage. If you ask Wilt Chamberlain, he might laugh and say, "No, there are millions of ways!"

He tried quite a few. I remember seeing the 7 foot Wilt the Stilt shooting "granny" style free throws while dominating the paint for the Philadelphia 76ers.  Granny style is two hands, underhand, and bring the ball down beneath your crotch and softly with backspin launch the ball in the basket.  Unfortunately, if the hands aren't precisely in rhythm, you have a tendency to be either left or right.

Super scorer Rick Barry, whose many children played and still play in the NBA, mastered the technique and shot a high percentage while with the Golden State Warriors.  Wilt didn't. Chamberlain reverted to a regular one handed shot, but moved back into the middle of the keyhole to shoot his "FREE" shots.  He never did attain success the way he desired.

Shaquille O'Neal, whose hand engulfs the ball, has never had a solid free throw game.

Kelvin Sampson used a drill at the end of practice to improve his team's FT percentage. One of his assistants, Jim Shaw, is now an assistant at University of Washington.  The Huskies shot 59% from the Free Throw line last year.   That was the worst in the nation!!!   This year has been different, and the Huskies have ridden improved FT shooting to a 19-7 record.

In a Valentine's Day win over Oregon, the Huskies connected on 36 of their 46 FTA. Two days earlier, Washington went 21-29 from the line in a win over Oregon State. And in a road win over Stanford on Feb. 8, UW hit 21-28 of their free throws.

Shaw convinced head coach Lorenzo Romar to implement the drill at the beginning of this season.

THE LADDER~

At the end of every practice, all 13 players gather in a circle around the free-throw line, then take turns shooting free throws, each getting two at a time — either shooting a one-and-one, or a two-shot foul depending on the day (the team alternates by day.)

The drill isn't complete until the players combine to make 19 of 26 on days when the situation is a one-and-one, or 20 out of 26 on days when it's a two-shot situation. The totals are kept on a scoreboard, and it's referred to as "climbing the ladder" for the team to get to its requirement to pass the drill.

Players who miss head to the sideline for extra conditioning.

Some days, the team has needed as many as 45 minutes to complete the ladder, switching ends of the court with each failure.

Player of the Week Tulsa World - Brock Morton

Holland Hall's 6'5" senior, combo guard Brock Morton added to his growing list of achievements this week when he was named the Tulsa World Player of the Week. It came on the heels of the Dutch's Friday night / Saturday afternoon S.P.C. conference double-header with Fort Worth's All Saints Episcopal and then Arlington Oakridge. Morton notched 39 points against All Saints incuding 18 of 20 free throws.

The Dutch raised their record to 19-2 on the season, and 7-0 in the SPC conference. But Arlington Oakridge gave them all they could handle. The Texas squad employed a slowdown game, often forcing Holland Hall to play defense for over 40 seconds per possession. They held an 18-12 advantage at halftime. But the Dutch came out with a newfound energy in the 3rd quarter as Morton drained a 3 pt shot from the corner and then zipped into a passing lane for a steal and the Dutch were on their way back. They tied the game going into the 4th quarter, and Morton and Kwami Sexton keyed the comeback victory. Morton scored 11 points in both the 3rd and 4th quarter and the ultra athletic Sexton dazzled the crowd on both ends of the court. Click here to see the Box Score.

Click here to see the Tulsa World Player of the Week.


VYPE ELITE 8 - December 2008 Issue . Eastern Oklahoma
Morton joined 7 other top basketball players to pose for the VYPE Magazine cover in December.
The picture of Brock Morton on the tricycle was included in VYPE magazine's December feature where Brock, Bryson Pope- Jenks Trojans [University of Tulsa commit] , Cameron Downing - Memorial Chargers & Tyler Ridgeway of Foyil were named as the four boys on the ELITE 8 issue of Vype High School Sports Magazinethe magazine.

SPC CONFERENCE SHOWDOWN
The Dutch jumped out to a 15-0 lead on Trinity Valley on January 17th, 2009 at the Dutch gym. Trinity entered the game with a 17-6 record in Texas, and Holland Hall hit them hard. But Trinity was not ready to head back to Texas with their head held down, and actually fought back to tie the game at 51-51. But Morton again came through in the clutch for the Dutch, and nailed 4 straight free throws to seal the victory and keep Holland Hall undefeated in conference play.

1/14/2009
Morton seals it for No. 4 Dutch

12/20/2008
Holland Hall 61 - Cascia Hall 60
The mighty Cascia Hall Commando's came into the Holland Hall's gymnasium a prohibive favorite. The Tulsa World focused in on the girls game, but did give some paragraphs to the boys battle too. Good thing they did, as the Cascia girls won easily, while the boys game went down to the last seconds as Holland Hall knocked off the highly ranked Commandos 61-60, led by Brock Morton's 28 points. Bailey Miles drilled three straight trifecta's in the 3rd quarter to spark the Dutch.