#FirstDay October 15

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For NCAA Division II Basketball Teams today is the FIRST DAY of official practice.

For 26 years I was blessed to be a coach of a college basketball team. Each team was different, but they all had the first day of official PRACTICE on October 15th. Today the rules are a little muddled on when teams can officially begin practicing. Even though NCAA Division I have a different start day today is still the FIRST DAY for Division II teams.

In those 26 years I have a few memories that stick out. Those memories run a gamut of emotions funny, sad, and poignant.

Here are some first day of basketball practice memories from this old coach.

First Day Memories

My second or third year as head coach at UNC Pembroke we scheduled PRACTICE for 6:00 a.m. On that team we had a player named Kelly Lampkin a transfer from Chowan who was from Kenly NC.

The first drill of the morning was a two-line lay-up drill. Kelly on his first lay-up tore his patella tendon. We had to end practice right then and there to get Kelly to the hospital. I took a wooden chair and got it in the front seat of my car and transported Kelly in a make-shift ambulance. At that time, we only had student trainers, so coaches were de facto trainers. Today Kelly lives in Helena, Montana.

On October 15, 1994, I was coaching at Winthrop University. We actually had two practices that day. We had a “Midnight Madness” at Peabody Gym. Peabody was built in 1916 and it was torn down in 2007. After Midnight Madness was completed, we had a second PRACTICE at 11:00 a.m. When I came home, I learned that a pillar of the community Mike Randall had died while hunting on the first day of deer season in South Carolina. I did a post on Mike and a mutual friend David Angel back in 2015. I still remember Mike each October 15th. He reminds me that every day is a gift.

Shattered Backboard

A legend at UNC Pembroke was born one October 15th at the first basketball PRACTICE in the 1980’s. Dwayne Watson was a young man I recruited out of Fairmont NC. He is a member of the UNC Pembroke Hall of Fame and scored 1,657 points in his career (1986-1991). He had a nickname “Sup” which was short for Superman.  I am not positive of the year but am leaning towards 1988 when Dwayne did something minutes before our first practice that I did not witness.

 I had a fitness expectation that all of our players had to run two miles in a certain time prior to the start of the FIRST DAY of practice at UNC Pembroke.

I had one player who had not met that time and I had agreed to let him try again 15 minutes before our first official practice of the season was scheduled to begin on October 15th. He made his time, and we walked back into the gym to sounds of whooping and hollering. I looked in dismay as I saw the glass backboard located at the west end of the Jones Center in a million pieces on the floor. Dwayne “Sup” Watson went up for a dunk and shattered the backboard. We had to cancel practice that day.

So today I wish nothing but the best to all college basketball teams as they have their First Day of practice. Each team is creating memories.