Terry Brock - Competitive Sports

Basketball

I started my basketball journey as the starting center for the eighth grade basketball team at Medora Indiana. My Freshman year, I continued to improve my skills and was the starting center for our Reserve team. Also, I was placed on the varsity team at Medora.

My Sophomore year, we had one of the best teams in many years.

This season, we won the Monon conference, the Brownstown Invitational and lost by only one point to Brownstown who also had one of their best teams ever in the Seymour sectional.

My Junior year, I was the starting forward for one of the best teams in school history. One must understand that this was the time of school consolidations, leaving very few small schools for us to compete against. However, our team this year was able to compete with the much larger schools.

I remember the day our coach told us that he had received a late-night call from the Brookville Indiana coach. His call was to ask us to participate in an upcoming tournament at their school, as another school had withdrawn from the tournament. Coach told us he was half awake when he accepted the invitation. It was evident that he was more than a little concerned that we might be totally embarrassed playing in such a powerhouse tournament.

We went to one of the Brookville home games prior to the tournament, and watched them defeat a very tall and talented Rushville team. This was when I learned that Brookville was undefeated and ranked number 10 in the state. Later, they lost to eventual state champion Indianapolis Washington in the semi state.

We were paired with Brookville in the first game of the tournament. I could hear our coach's stomach churning with anxiety. But, a great effort by our team kept the game very close until the final few minutes of play. The mother of one of the Brookville team members approached me after the game and let me know that she did not appreciate my defense in shutting her son down - LOL.

We then played a very good North Dearborn team in the consultation game. Again, we played very well and came away with the win to prove that there were still small schools who could compete with the big schools.

One of the most famous games in Medora history was when we played Needmore who was undefeated in their season and was expected to go deep into the state tournament. This team included J R Holmes, who was later inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. We had an outstanding game and beat them by 2 points. It was my understanding that there was a lot of money won and lost on this game. The game was described as the biggest Basketball upset in Southern Indiana.

My senior year we had a good team, but our record suffered due to constant injuries to various team members including myself when a herniated disc in my back ended my high school season. However, I was able to leave on a high note when our team won the Crothersville Invitational Tournament and I had 25 points and 35 rebounds in the two games.

Following high school, My next competitive basketball was in a college Intramural league. This was a story of good, bad and ugly.

The good thing was that my dorm had a great group of players including a Tennessee State All Star.

The bad was that our team was not listed on the schedule when it was published. I was more than a little frustrated when I had a follow-up meeting with the league scheduler when he said “oh yeah I remember you”.

He then told me that if a team drops out, he would let me know and we could take their place for the rest of the season.

After three weeks, he contacted me and advised me that a team had dropped out of the league and we could take their spot. While I was happy to play, we had to start with an 0 and 3 record as the other team had no wins when they dropped out of the league.

Our first game was one of disbelief as we won by over 100 points.. I remember a guy calling over a friend of his and telling him “you gotta check this out”. his friend looked at the scoreboard which showed us as having 45 points and the other team having 32. His friend then said “what's the big deal”. He then tells his friend that the real score is 145 to 32.

At that time, they kept score with a two-sided flip chart that was only capable of going up to 99 points.

I was a starting forward and scored over 30 points as did three of my teammates. I don’t think we lost a game for the rest of the regular season.

The ugly occured when we were playing for the championship in the end of season tournament.

We were up against a fraternity that had won the tournament for the last two or three years and had a lot of Influence in the league. We played even with them thru the whole game, but found ourselves down one point and having the ball out of bounds at half court with 3-4 seconds left in the game. The inbounds pass went to our best outside shooter who turned and made a half court shot.

We, along with many spectators, were cheering our victory. And then several seconds later, we realized that the official had not signaled that the shot was good or not. We then saw that he was having a conversation with the other team. After the discussion ended with our opponents, he ruled that the shot did not count. The whole gymnasium erupted in boos and jeers.

The opposing team was not celebrating a victory in any manner. One of my teammates approached some of the players on the other team asking them If they felt they had truly won the game. They would not answer, rather they just hung their heads and walked away.

I next engaged in competitive basketball when I went to work for Cummins Engine. I played in their company league for second and third shift workers.I played very well in this league, having scored 37 points in one game.

After 7 years as an hourly employee, I was accepted into one of the Information Technology groups. One of the Supervisors who interviewed me for the position, said he had heard I was a very good basketball player and wanted to see if I would be able to play in the 6 ft and under league sponsored by the Columbus Parks Department.

At that time I was about 6 ft 1 in. tall. After watching some of the 6 ft and under games, I really thought I would enjoy playing in this league.

I did some research and practiced measuring my height, and was successful in passing the height limit for a couple of years.

The parks department then decided to use the height on your driver's license to validate that you were eligible for their league. I never felt like I was a cheater when they were doing a physical measurement as I was just able to be creative enough to fall within their guidelines. I was told that there were several players in the league showing up with new drivers licenses. There was no way that I would go to the BMV and have them change the height on my license as I felt, this would truly be cheating.

I played in a very competitive church league In Jennings County for a couple of years. One of these years I averaged almost 30 points a game. While I was a very skilled player, I have to give a lot of the credit to our point guard who fed me the ball time and time again when I would get into a good scoring position.

There was also a county league in Jennings County that I played in for a couple of years. The league had many players who had played college basketball and/or were past high school varsity players. I would normally average about 15 points and 10 rebounds a game in this league.

One of the most brutal events was when the Information Technology groups would hold tournaments on Sundays. We had 4 teams and would play 2 full-court games. After which I would limp home and lay down for the rest of the day. Thank goodness, my job required very little physical activities, so Mondays were always a day of recovery.

I was fortunate enough to play in a Cummins company wide league with a teammate by the name of Jeff Blue He was a tremendous athlete at 6 foot 7 inches tall and 260 lb of muscle, he was a college All-American and was an awesome force inside.

Jeffs’ Hobby was steer wrestling. He was a man's man. He was drafted by the Boston Celtics.

A mutual friend told the story of Jeff going up against the famous Bill Russell in his first practice with the Celtics. When Jeff made a nice move against Bill, to score a basket. Bill told him “nice move rookie” but not to try it again. Later in practice, Jefft had the opportunity to make the same move, this time Russel swatted the ball about 15 rows up in the gym.

Unfortunately, Jeff suffered a severe knee injury and was unable to continue his pro career. I was told that the Celtics left the door open for him to return once his knee healed.

I remember one game, that at half-time I gave it everything I had and went up and dunked the basketball. One of my teammates and longtime friend, Asked “ How was I able to get that much weight that high in the air”. I think my dunk motivated Jeff, as early in the second half he made a quick spin move to the basket and threw down a thunderous two handed jam. While I think we had the best team in the league, Jeff missed some games due to business travel. I believe we lost 2 or 3 contests when Jeff was unable to make a game.

Ceraland park had an open gym for pickup games at least once or twice a week and some weekends. Here I made many fond memories.

One in particular was when a couple of girls from Jennings County asked if I would play with them in some 3 on 3 games. We would play against boys from Columbus North and East high schools.

The girls were excellent outside shooters and played great defense. As none of the boys were much taller than me, I was able to totally control the inside game, both offensively and defensively.

We won our first game quite easily. I then overheard some of the boys who we were to play next say “What, you let an old man and two girls beat you”. Then one of the boys who had just lost, yelled “let's see how well you do”. Needless to say, we promptly thumped these boys as well. I think I played with the girls for another week or two before they went back to college and we never lost a game.

My last competitive play was in the Cummins half-court 3 on 3 league. I was now in my middle forties. I liked this format very much as I still had great skills but less endurance.

My team won both the league and the end of season tournament. As I was sitting on the bleachers after the league championship game, I saw the “big man” from the other team walking towards me.

We had some terrific battles under the basket throughout the season and I was unsure what was about to happen. Once he reached where I was sitting he said “I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed playing with you, as while our play was very physical, you never once got mad like the younger boys do”. This meant the world to me, as being respected and complemented by your opponent is better than any trophy.

Baseball - High School

We had an excellent baseball team my Sophomore year and won our conference. I was a very good outfielder but wasn't a consistent hitter.

This was highlighted when we played Henryville and beat them by double-digits in a game that I struck out in my first 4 at bats. But, on my fifth and final at bat I made great contact to hit a grand slam home run into the trees at the end of their left field boundary. One of my teammates told me that a Henryville player told him that he had never seen a ball hit that far.

One of the reasons we had such a good team was that our coach played semi-pro baseball. He raised the skill level for the whole team as he pitched to us in batting practice and many of us hit the ground when he threw a wicked curveball.

He also used his pitching skills in the classroom, as if a kid fell asleep or was not paying attention you would soon see a chalk eraser landing on the kid's head.

However, while he was a great skills coach, he had very little personal integrity. I believe he committed the biggest violation in school history when we played Bedford in a non-conference game. I'm not sure how we were able to even get Bedford on our schedule as they were ten times the size of our small school.

I'm sure they viewed our game as an easy win for them. It was an away game for us and I believe there were not more than a dozen fans or so who made the trip.

Most people are aware of the term “an Ace in the Hole”, well we had one that night as our starting pitcher was a young man who had graduated a couple of years earlier.

Our coach used a fictitious name on the line up card and this outstanding pitcher tossed a no-hitter with ease. We were able to score two or three runs to walk away with a tainted win over a very embarrassed Bedford team.

In my senior year, I won my first trophy for being the team's most valuable hitter.

Softball

At age 28, I played my first game of slow pitch Softball in a league at Cummins. I had played left field for 2 years of varsity baseball, so I thought this would be the best position for me to start. However, I found that I was not able to make the transition to softball as I had 3 errors in my first game. I just couldn't judge the flight of a softball like I had in baseball.

The first good team I played with was a group of Cummins men. We played in the Columbus Parks “C” league and were fortunate enough to win the league championship.

I played right field for this team and don't remember having any errors all year. My most notable play was when a base hit came to me and the runner tried to stretch it into a double. I charged the ball and made a great throw to second base to get him out. While I never had an exceptionally strong arm I was very accurate with my throws.

A short time later, I played in a church league at a diamond close to our home. We had a very good team that season, and won the church league Championship.

They also had other leagues at this location in which I played for multiple teams. One season, I went into my last game tied with a player from another team for the league hitting title. I was on a hot streak, having had 10 hits in a row over my previous 3 games. I went 4 for 4 in the last game to win the hitting trophy with a .676 average.

These were the peak years for slow pitch softball and North Vernon was the softball capital of Southern Indiana. There were many leagues and tournaments played on the North Vernon field, often hosting 32 teams in double elimination tournaments.

I was asked to play with a group of men from Scipio Indiana. I became a little spoiled as they had a sponsor who furnished us uniforms and paid our league and tournament entry fees. I played very well for this team and was the second highest hitter in the league.

I had my best outfield play ever, when a batter had a base hit in front of me and I saw that the runner on second base was trying to score on the base hit.

I fielded the ball cleanly and fired a strike to our catcher at home plate for the out which ended the inning. On this play, I remember our second baseman yelling “no '' as I made the throw to home plate Instead of second base. When he saw the results he went from ”no” to “way to go”.

His wife was our Statistician and said that in all of her years of being involved in softball, that this was the best throw that she had seen. Also, our catcher, who was also our coach, said it was an unbelievable throw as he was standing on home plate and never had to move his glove.

With my hitting, I was being recognized by many of the other players in the league, who said I was one of the best base hitters that they had ever seen.

What I came to find was that unless you could hit home runs, you were less likely to make the roster on a really good team. This being the case, I made some adjustments to my swing and focused on being able to pull the ball more. I was now beginning to hit home runs on a regular basis.

One of the best teams in the area (Wilson Concrete) had a third baseman retire. Their coach asked me if I would like the open position. As many of the players were friends of mine as well as their sponsor, I was thrilled at the opportunity.

I played for this team for 2 years, and we won numerous Tournaments including the highly-regarded Fourth of July tournament in North Vernon. I was 36 years old when I joined the team and had unbelievable success for 2 years at the third base position. I was never fast, but I did have great reflexes. This allowed me to play even with the third base bag and turn numerous double plays.

Two of my best defensive plays occurred in tournaments at North Vernon. One was when I was playing against my former team from Scipio. I knew the third batter was very fast and liked to pull the ball down the third base line, so the adrenaline was very high for both of us. On the First pitch he made a powerful swing, only to top the ball. The ball then rolled only about 20 ft in front of the plate. We both froze for a split second before he took off like a rabbit. I charged the ball as quickly as I could, grabbing the ball with my bare right hand and threw a strike to our first baseman to get him out.

The second was my best defensive game ever. We were playing a very talented Greensburg team in a tourney at North Vernon. They had a very fast player who liked to pull the ball down the third-base line.

On his first at bat, he had to be l thinking that he would hit the ball by me for at least a double. He ripped the ball right at me. and I’m not sure I even saw the ball as I felt the ball almost knock my glove off. I made the catch and threw him out. His next at bat was a repeat of the first, as he crushed the ball right at me and I again made the catch and threw him out. On his last at bat, he came to the plate with his team having runners on first and second base with one out. Once again, he smashed the ball right at me. I caught the ball, stepped on third for their second out and made a strong throw to first getting him out to end the inning. This may have been the only time he was doubled up that year.

My coach came to me early in the season and told me he really needed a good hitter in the bottom of the batting order. While this meant I would have less at bats, I agreed with him that it was a good strategy for the team. Typically, I would have 2 hits in 3 at bats and hit several home runs as well.

I remember our sponsor bragging on me when I went 7 for 7 in the first 2 games at one of our tournaments.

Overall, we had a great group of hitters. Over the 2 years with this team I had a batting average approaching .700 percent. One of my best performances was when I went 3 for 3 in the championship game of the state sectional. Two of my hits in this game were home runs.

One game demonstrated the offensive power of our team, when we were down 17 to 7 in the third inning. If a team was down 10 or more runs at the end of 5 innings the game would be called. So after the fifth inning this game was called. However, the final score was 27 to 17 in our team's favor.

While our team won many many trophies, The one I cherished most was at the end of the season when I was named MVP of the team.

When I turned 38, I found my reaction time had diminished sharply, leading me to retire from the team.

Golf

My first competitive game of golf occurred when I was working second shift at the Cummins Tech Center. Second shift was a great shift for those who enjoy golf, as we could play 18 holes in the morning, eat lunch and get to work with no problem. When I was at my best, I typically would shoot in the middle 80s with my best score being an 82.

Cummins also sponsored a league for second and third shift employees. I was playing well when the end of season tournament took place and made it to the final game against a good friend of mine.

When we made it to the final hole of the tournament we were tied. The last hole was a short 320 yards. I had some anxiety while I prepared to hit my drive, as more than once during league play I had hit the ball across a creek and into the hospital parking lot.

I often made 300 yard drives. However, they might be straight down the fairway or go straight for 150 yards, and then make a hard right turn for another 150 yards.

Fortunately, this day I made a great drive, with my ball landing just to the left of the green. I was able to chip the ball onto the green and made two puts for an easy par. My friend had a bogey on the final hole, allowing me to win the Championship.

Bowling

My first competitive bowling was in the Columbus city league. I joined with my friends who I had played golf with the previous summer. I bowled with this group for a couple of years, and we won the league one of these years. This was one sport I could not master as my best game was a score of 210. I carried an average in the mid 140’s which actually helped the team as it was a handicap league. Bottom line though, I was terrible at this game.

Shooting

Cummins sponsored a shooting league and tournament for a couple of years for handguns and .22 Caliber rifles.

One year, I won the rifle competition with a 94 out of a possible 100. I was very proud of my score as we had to shoot offhand at a target 50 yards away, and the bullseye (10 Ring) was the size of a dime.

I used a Savage/Anschutz rifle with a scope and sling that was just under the 8 lb limit for competition. This was a great rifle, which I wish I still had many times.

My best score using a handgun was 99 out of a possible 100 at a distance of 25 yards in a practice. And while I never won a handgun match, I did place second in one tournament. One was only allowed to shoot with one hand, which made these competitions very challenging.

Participating in this league really improved my offhand shooting. I was able to discontinue using a shotgun for squirrels, and would focus on making headshots with my rifle.

I liked to hunt varmints when I was younger and spent many afternoons searching for groundhogs in the local area. I had a very nice rifle chambered in the .243 caliber with a nice scope.

I remember one particular occasion when a friend and I were hunting in the Medora bottoms.

We spotted two crows sitting in a tree at quite a distance, I layed down on the ground to steady my rifle. I pulled the trigger and we watched a crow tumble to the ground.

We measured the distance at 370 steps, I never told my friend that I was actually aiming at the bird above the one I killed. LOL

My best shots ever were with a custom 22 caliber automatic rifle that my oldest son Chris brought to our farm one weekend. He was wanting to see how well it would do at 100 yards.

We sat a rest on the picnic table and placed a paper target one hundred steps away. I fired three shots, and when we retrieved the target we saw that a nickel would cover all three shots.

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Coaching

My Oldest Son - Chris

Like many dads who have played sports I became involved in helping coach my sons when they became old enough to play organized sports and experience the good, bad and ugly of competitive Sports.

I began coaching Chris baseball at age 7 in a league at Scipio Indiana. Chris was ambidextrous so I taught him to throw with his right hand and hit the ball left handed as it shortened the distance to first base.

He did very well in his first year and led his team in hitting. His second year saw him playing in the t-ball league at North Vernon.

This was less challenging for him as the coaches had pitched to the Players at Scipio. He again led his team in hitting.

I can't remember much about his play at 9 and 10. I know he played very well but It may have been that his play in the 11 and 12 year old league was so awesome that it caused me to forget the previous two years.

In his first at bat, at age 11 he hit a homerun over the center field fence and although he never hit another home run that season he had a very good year.

Chris’s second year in the A-league was unbelievable. He started the season with well over 40 at bats before being responsible for an out, which occurred when a runner ahead of him was a force out at second base.

His official batting average was over 800 and in one game he was within inches of having four home runs in one game.

Chris went on to play varsity baseball at Jennings County and had a solid 300 + batting average.

Chris quit after his junior year because his arrogant coach told the players they had to play Summer Ball or he wouldn't let them play on his team the next spring.

Chris was also a very good tennis player and played on the number one doubles team.

Chris, Began playing basketball in the 6th grade at the Hayden Elementary School which played in a countywide league made up of the other elementary schools.

Chris, by all accounts, was the best player in the county that year and his team had a very good regular season and advanced to the championship game of the county tournament.

In the last few seconds of this final game Chris's team was one point behind with possession of the ball.

However, one of his teammates made an errant pass and my heart sank as I watched the ball begin its flight out of bounds. Then, out of nowhere, I saw Chris dive out of bounds and with 1 hand catch the ball and pass it back to one of his teammates.

Chris then jumped to his feet and his teammate passed the ball back to him with 3 seconds left on the clock. Chris then drove down the lane and put up a left-handed bank shot that looked perfect. But it rolled off the rim and my heart sank again as I saw the tears in his eyes.

I must point out that while I was fond of his coach, he was the only coach in the county who insisted that every player on his team would play at least one full quarter per game.

I supported his decision for the regular season games, butI felt that for the tournament you put your most competitive team on the court.

To this day, I feel sitting Chris out for one quarter in the final game cost us the County championship. Also, I felt his teammates who would never play competitive basketball again would have much preferred having the memory of being part of a championship team vs how many minutes they played in their last game.

Chris played very well in his Middle School, freshman and sophomore years. However, he saw his playing time diminish his Junior and Senior years.

To be honest, while Chris was a very good athlete, basketball was not his best sport as he did not grow tall enough to play Under the basket and was not a prolific scorer from the guard position.

His Senior year his team's point guard, (Who had an attitude) was having great difficulty bringing the ball up court against full court presses.

While Chris was not a great scorer, he was a solid ball-handler, passer and defensive player who was good at seeing the whole court.

I decided to ask his coach for a meeting to see if he would allow Chris to play point guard in a practice session to see how well he might do against pressure defenses. His coach, who had always been very friendly, agreed to meet with me.

However, when I went into his office and relayed my request to him he went totally ballistic on me, turning red in the face, yelling and screaming that everybody thinks their kid is a great ball player.

I was stunned with his response and while my first thought was to pound him into the floor, my instincts told me that I was not the reason for his emotional outburst, rather he must be dealing with other extremely stressful issues in his life.

I decided it was best if I didn't say anymore, I just left his office without any more drama.

I was able to view their next practice and after the point guard made several bad passes against the press he had Chris bring the ball up against the press 4 to 6 times.

Chris did an excellent job breaking the press on each of his attempts. And, while Chris's performance did not earn him a starting position or even more playing time, as his coach decided to stay with a point guard who provided the team with more offense.

As a coach myself, I could understand this decision. Also the boy was a grandson of one of the town's (Good Old Boys Club) and could have had a negative impact on his coaching career.

This player's selfishness may have cost us a sectional Championship, as in the final seconds of the championship game we had the ball and were down by 2 points.

This guard threw up a wild shot trying to be the hero vs making a pass to a wide open teammate who had made like six of eight of his last 3 point shots.

To my amazement, at the end of the season awards ceremony, his coach was very complimentary of Chris and awarded him a trophy for his outstanding work ethic.

In hindsight, if I would have had the financial resources I would have supported Chris in his passion for the Shooting Sports and Martial Arts.

My Youngest Son - Clint

Clints’ first competitive sport was baseball, which began with t-ball at age 7 at North Vernon Indiana. He was a very good player but found the game somewhat boring.

When it was time for him to move up to the next level, he wasn't sure if he really wanted to play. I told him it was his choice but if he started the season I expected him to finish it.

After some thought, he decided to play another season. Once again, I was drafted to be an assistant coach. Overall I found it to be a rewarding undertaking but it had its good, bad and ugly moments.

The good was that we had a pretty talented group of players, the bad was that the players did not like each other all that much which was highlighted when our Catcher and First Baseman engaged in a fist fight during a game.

The ugly was the behavior of some parents. As I mentioned earlier we had some very talented players including a pitcher that was a hard thrower whom I was proud of how well he kept his composure.

His parents were divorced, but his dad showed up drunk at every game and hung on the back stop yelling at him on every pitch.

Pitchers at this level were only allowed to pitch half a game. We were having a difficult time finding a second pitcher who could throw strikes on a consistent basis. Enter Clint, who was not strong enough to throw a baseball through a paper sack. However, he could keep the ball in the strike zone pitch after pitch

This rotation worked very well for our team as It kept our opponents off balance by having to face an overpowering pitcher and then face a much slower pitcher messed up their timing.

Clint enjoyed the games much more once he was in the pitching rotation versus playing third base or the outfield where he could go for several games and never have a ball hit to him.

My greatest coaching move of this season!!! It was common practice that if a player was on third base and the hitter made it to first base the player would automatically run to second base and if the catcher threw the ball to second base to try and get the out at second the other team's base coach would send the player on third base to home plate to score a run.

So when this situation came up again. I called time out to keep the batter from running to second base. I then brought the infielders together and told them I wanted the shortstop to move about 10 ft behind the pitcher's mound and if the player on first ran to second, the catcher was to throw the ball to our shortstop.

I told my Shortstop if the runner on third base tried to score I wanted him to throw the ball to home plate. Well sure enough, on the first pitch the runner on first base ran for second and our catcher threw the ball to our shortstop.

Their third base coach, thinking the throw was going to second base, sent the boy on third towards home plate. Our shortstop threw the ball right back to the catcher who tagged the boy out to end the inning.

I looked over at the opposing coach who was standing on the sidelines in disbelief as to what had just happened. He then walked over to ask me if I was the one who designed the play and I responded that I had as I felt that you should not automatically concede anything.

Their coach then congratulated me and many coaches throughout the league also adopted this strategy.

The ugly event involved a boy and his parents. We had 10 players and one boy's parents were upset that their son was only playing half a game on a consistent basis.

The reason he was setting out was that he was an automatic out, he was an automatic out because he literally would not swing the bat.

This all came to a head when he started a game and before he went to bat I told him to swing the bat. However; he then proceeded to take 3 Strikes without taking the bat off his shoulder.

At his next at-bat I walked to the plate with him and told him I didn't care where the first pitch was, I wanted him to swing at the ball. But, once again he struck out without getting the bat off his shoulder.

Finally, at his next at bat, I called his dad to come over to the field and I told the boy in front of his dad that I didn't care if the ball was over his head or bounced on the ground he was to swing at it. But again, the bat did not leave his shoulder. I then substituted another player for him and his dad came to the dugout, called him out, and returned his uniform and we never spoke again.

Clint also enjoyed tennis very much and became quite an accomplished player which peaked with him becoming the number one singles player for the Jennings County team. However; he lost in a very close match in the state tournament against a player who was the favorite to easily win their match.

Clint began his competitive basketball career in 5th grade at Hayden Elementary School where once again I was an assistant coach. Clint was able to earn the point guard position on the 5th and 6th grade team with his ball-handling skills and for his two year span at Hayden they had very good teams.

Middle School basketball was next for Clint. Here, Clint made the team with ease and met a teammate who became a lifelong friend in Trevor Vance. Together, they won a high percentage of their games and were very exciting to watch play.

Trevor was an excellent athlete and great jumper but tended to play somewhat out of control at times.Clint was a good jumper and very composed in his play.

I Remember with some amusement a game where they were leading a very good Madison team at half time that featured a couple of very good black players.

As the teams were walking by me on their way to the water fountain I overheard one of the black boys tell the other “Damn these white boys can jump”.

Clint and Trevor continued their success through high school, with their greatest accomplishment being winning the Sectional championship in their Senior year. However, they were beaten by the eventual state champs (Jeffersonville), in the first round of regional play.

Clint won the award for leading his team in assists his senior year even though he seldom played a complete game.

It wasn't his skill level that kept him from having more playing time. Rather it was his ability to play any position on the court as he could post up inside, was the best point guard and three point shooter on the team.

The coaching staff decided to start other players knowing that they could bring Clint in at any time to replace a player who's having a subpar game and give the team a lift.

I remember a home game against arch-rival Seymour where Clint came into the game and promptly hit 3 three point shots in a row that allowed the team to take control of the game and secure the win.

His mom told me she had been listening to the local radio station which had the football coach on air talking about the challenges his team faced and made the comment “It's not like we have a Clint Brock”. She didn't understand what he meant by the remark and I explained how he would have loved to have such a versatile player as Clint”.

I also coached an AAU team in Brown County when Clint was a junior. Here I was fortunate enough to watch Clint make one of the greatest shots ever in his age group.

There were two or three seconds left on the game clock at the end of the first half and we had the ball out of bounds.

I drew up a double Criss-Cross play where two players would set picks and have the other two come to the ball. However; the other team played excellent defense and it looked like we would not be able to get the ball in.

Clint then made a quick move to the sideline and receive the inbounds pass. Clint had to jump to catch the ball and his momentum carried him across the sideline. Once Clint caught the ball, he made a 180 degree turn in the air and buried the shot all in one motion for a three-point play.

Clint was almost a year younger than his counterparts and if we lived in Texas I'm sure that we would have been pressed to hold him back a year in school. It was very likely that with another year of maturity he would have been able to make a state All-Star team and could have obtained at least a division 2 scholarship.

This was verified, when he told me he had hit numerous 3 point shots on his way to a 47 point game at his college. He also told me that the next week the college removed the 3 point line on this particular court.

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