Memories, title games and a phone call

As Holy Innocents’ girls basketball coach Buster Brown walks into the Macon Convention Center, he has no trouble remembering the last time he was on the floor of a high school state basketball game. No trouble at all.

First, you just don’t forget going to the finals in state basketball and second, how could he forget what happened the night he got there?

He was a junior at the now defunct Wills High School in Smyrna – playing against Sandy Springs. In the first quarter, one of his teammates took a charge, got his head slammed into the hardwood with such force that blood immediately poured from the back of his head. Right in front of some cheerleaders, who promptly passed out from shock.

In the fourth quarter – inside of three minutes – the manger’s father died in the stands of a heart attack.

Oh, and as for the game, they lost by three.

“I’ve been waiting for 30 years to get back here,” Brown said after last Friday’s 60-51 win over Tri-County. Thirty years…

The scene is a little different now – with the Bear leader now striding with 14 girls in tow – subregion and region champions. A team of overachievers who were picked to go …let’s say 14-8 and out and thanks for the memories.

Two starters quit, another gets hurt and how can you not be proud of where you are and who you’re walking in with? Brown is approached by a reporter who asks, “Did you ever expect to be here?” Coaches have to choose words carefully, but not now. “No.”

He answers other questions but for now he just wants to look around. He’s back. Okay, Richard Nixon is no longer president, the Beatles have come and gone, Vietnam is over, times have changed. But he’s back.

And only Putnam County –those 27-1, fast, athletic Eagles are in the way – with the entire city of Eatonton sitting in the stands, screaming against his young Bears.

One win away. What do you do when your dream comes true? Or if not, what do you say – how do you keep going? He knows this walk into this gym comes with a price – one way or the other.

The place is packed. The Bears students, in from spring break, straggle in sporting their tans. Alumni comes in. Well-wishers, parents, coaching foes.

Such a good scenario that, even though the dream is oh so close, he sits in his chair – THE chair - and thinks, “This is fun.”

But back to the fans. Brown’s wife won’t be there. Period. “I only go when our son comes home and makes me go,” Sandy Brown says. “I can’t take it.”

So while Brown straightens his tie, talks to his girls, remembers just what he saw on last night’s tape, his wife paces the floor in Marietta, watches TV, sits on the couch, anything to take her mind off of what’s going on with her husband’s team.

She’s used to this…being a basketball widow. Her husband, you see, is a very dedicated man. He takes his team from camp to camp, tournament to tournament, often getting home after midnight only to throw in the tape and study it. And study it.

Oh he always calls. The phone always rings; the end is something any wife or fan has to prepare for. A jumping up and down or an offer of condolences, either can happen after The Call.

Two years ago, it was a Final Four loss to Treutlen. At Mt. Vernon three straight trips. Last year, a disappointing region semifinal blemish to Model, ending a 22-2 year without even a drive to Macon.

Twenty-one years he’s been coaching. Twenty-one. The drives, the tapes, the camps, the X’s, the O’s. and now he’s sitting with more than 300 wins under his belt, a number more of a nuisance than anything else, especially with the ragging he takes from his fellow coaches.

“Three hundred wins and you get served first at a restaurant. When you win three hundred, you get to host sub-region tournaments. When you win 300…”

He laughs. But 300-plus wins plus a trip to the big game?

Two hours pass and on the outside, he’s still under control. You see, when you win 300 games, people can shake that off and say it’s because you’re old. But when you win 300 games, and sit in the chair in THE game, then what do you say? Did you say the right thing to those 14 beautiful people who surrounded you in the locker room?

Then again, what do you say? How do you handle it when your dream pops with the shooting of a free throw, the blowing of a whistle and the sounding of a horn?

To quote from Ray Kinsella, “Maybe you just shake their hand, tell them you love them, you’re glad you got to know them and you appreciate them for who they are and for what they’ve done.”

And then you all put your heads down and cry awhile. But they’re not all sad tears. You will be back. And in back of all those tears, a smile is there.

There has to be. You were there. Look at all those who weren’t; many of them still in the stands. Specatators.

“It’s so neat for those kids to be a part of all this. Playing basketball on TV, being in the coliseum, playing in that game.”

You tell your players to use this as a springboard and they will. You don’t come this close and forget. You hold your loved one awhile, then you walk outside, heads up.

As the city of Eatonton gets up and drives back home. The TV crew in Macon gets ready for the next game. Reporters head home and get ready for spring sports. Parents collect their loved ones and hug them all.

And in Marietta, a phone rings. Nervously, Sandy Brown walks across the floor and picks it up.