Family is defined as “any group of persons closely related by blood; as parents, children, aunts and cousins. The reason I define this word for you this evening is because every year before a randomly decided game Coach Juckem’s pregame speech consists of going around the locker room and asking each player what Coe basketball means to them. Answers include such words as trust, defense, team etc. No answer is more correct than any other but the world that I’ve always said was family. When coach asked me to speak tonight about what Coe basketball means to me, once again the first word that popped into my head was family.
I got to thinking about why this was and when this came to be and it brought me back to freshmen year of college my very first day at Coe. I was moving into Greene Hall and was talking with fellow senior Joe Parys. After we established that I was Dan and like North Carolina and he was Joe and liked Duke I asked him about his high school basketball experience. You see at my high school my team did everything together. Not only did we play basketball together but we hung out together, our girlfriends were friends, we were all inseparable. I wondered if all schools were like that because that’s what I really loved about being part of a team, is the close relationships. Joe unfortunately told me that at his high school basketball was something they all liked yes, but at the end of the night after a game they would all do their own thing and part ways. This conversation instilled a fear in me that my collegiate basketball experience and the potential relationships I was going to make wouldn’t compare and or wouldn’t be the same as they were in high school. I started to think that maybe it just would never be like it was, never be the same.
I realized that here I was at this place called Coe some four hours from home in a state that I wasn’t from with 20 some guys who I barely knew and who barely knew me. They were from all over the country and I knew that we for sure had in common was the love for the game. I wondered if that could be enough. After going through preseason my senior year I met with Coach Juckem at his house on the eve of basketball season my freshman year. On that night, October 14 I went over and told coach that I simply could not be a part of the team for the upcoming season because my heart simply wasn’t in it. I told him about my fear that I would never have the same type of relationships with these guys as I did in high school and that I feared my overall collegiate athletic experience wouldn’t compare to my high school one. Coach Juckem offered the appropriate advice to “jump in” and allow myself to be part of something great. However, being a stubborn 19 who was never wrong I didn’t listen and didn’t play my freshman year. Looking back though, Coach Juckem was right but so was I…
I was afraid that my collegiate athletic experience and the relationships I would form would not come close to those memories and relationships that I had made in high school and it turns out I was right! I have been a part of the Kohawk men’s basketball program for three years now and it has exceeded my expectations greatly! I was right when I thought that my collegiate experience wouldn’t compare to my high school one because it outdoes my high school experience in every way. I’m not sure when it happened or how it happened but when I look around the room tonight I see my teammates, I see my brothers, I see my family.
When I look around the room tonight I see people who have taught me a lot about life. I see people that I genuinely trust, and not just on the basketball court with regards to help defense, but a deeper level of trust that involves knowing they will be there to pick me up on my bad days and I’ll be there to help them. I see some of my best friends and people who I know will be at my wedding. I see people who challenge me and who I challenge on and off the court to be the best people we are capable of being.
None of us are blood related so maybe we don’t exactly fit the dictionary definition of what a family is but there is no question in my mind that we are a family. We do everything that a true family does, we eat together, live together, fight, laugh, fail, and succeed, but whatever we do we do it together.
I’ve realized that it was this game of basketball and this little orange ball that brought us all together initially but it will not be what keeps us together five, ten, fifty years down the road. What will keep us together long after the ball stops bouncing and the shots stop falling is the memories we’ve made together, the relationships we’ve formed, and the love we have for one another and for this institution.
Tonight I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all of you for supporting Coe men’s basketball and thank you for being part of our extended family. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the current Kohawk basketball immediate family. So thank you guys for allowing me to be your family, I love you guys…one fist!
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