Former PHS Student Gives Insider's View on Aggie Basketball

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    The snow is just about ready to set here in Cache Valley and that can only mean one thing – seven months of winter. Let’s face the truth, Utah State is the best school in the country, but the winters would be unbearable if it weren’t for our one saving grace – Aggie basketball.

    Any true blue fan would be able to withstand a second ice age in order to go to a game in the Spectrum. Lining up hours before the game just to get a decent seat, painting faces and screaming so loud you lose your voice for weeks are just a few requirements expected of USU fans. However, it’s one thing to just be a spectator. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a part of the program? I did.

    I have always dreamed of what it would be like to be a member of a nationally ranked, finely tuned winning machine, and I had a chance to make my dream come true two weeks ago at walk-on tryouts.

    I came into the tryouts with a hint of overconfidence because I was a young, 19 year-old guy who had played varsity basketball in high school, granted that I started a whole two games and my team finished with a whopping record of 5-16 my senior year, but I tried to not let that all go to my head. I took my first step down the tunnel of the Spectrum with my old high school football gym bag and found an orange stadium seat to lace up the same shoes I’d played with in so many pickup games and church ball scuffles.

    There were about 30-35 guys trying out along with me that day. To start off, the assistant coaches ran us through some very basic drills such as one and two-footed layups, passing exercises and jump shots. At first, I kept thinking of how easy these would be for me, for I had done them every day in practice during the previous four years.

    Due to my lack of practice and staying in shape over the summer and fall, though, watching me attempt a 15-foot jump shot must have been like watching BYU play against TCU in football last week.

    By the time I shook off the rust and started playing a step above Jr. Jazz level, the coaches called us in to make the first cuts. Judging from my rocky performance, I knew that my number would not be called, and I would not be asked to stay and compete longer. As the coach was listing off numbers that were not mine, I felt like I was about to wake up from my dream until the last number was called. To my surprise, I had made it through the first cuts.

    From that point on we played scrimmage games with the 15 remaining players. Competing with these great players, I could feel how much everyone loved USU basketball by how hard they played and how intense the games got. By the time they called the tryout to a close, I was physically spent. The coach called out three numbers who they chose to keep, but this time I knew for sure that I was not going to be picked.

    My number did not get called, but I left the Spectrum with a new love and appreciation for the guys on the team. Seeing the system from the inside-out has imbedded an even deeper passion for Aggie basketball. To know that I even got to play on the same court as such names as Ed Epps, Jaycee Carroll, Gary Wilkinson and Tyler Newbold is an honor to me.

    Not everyone is cut from that same material, so my place is standing amongst thousands of blue-clad fans screaming the Scotsman where I can still be a part of the Aggies’ winning tradition.
 

Attributions
By Steven Clark