Clear Lake Falconhoops

"The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor." - Vincent T. Lombardi

"Service to youth is the rent we pay for the space we occupy on earth" - Jane Deeter Rippin

Many years ago a referee/parent whose sons I had helped coach in the summer noticed I had been updating this web site at 2:30 a.m. This person also seemed to sense the quantity of time this website consumes and asked me why I do this. The short answer to the question is I love the game of basketball, I love these kids, and I am nuts about Clear Lake boys basketball. This website is my attempt to offer genuine encouragement for these young people and to show my appreciation for what Clear Lake Boys basketball has meant to me for four decades.

But why? Obviously I love the game of basketball on the high school level. I watch very few college games until the start of March Madness and I only watch the pros if someone gives me great seats to the Rockets when Clear Lake is not playing.

Between November and mid-March I attend over 115 UIL sanctioned complete varsity boys’ games each season (down from 125 in past years) and most Clear Lake JV and Freshman A games that may beckon to me. In addition to over 30 Clear Lake varsity games each season and the Texas State Tournament in Austin/San Antonio (another 15 or 16 and now 18 great games which are mandatory almost every year since 1960), I try to squeeze in as many tournaments and UIL sanctioned games as I can during the 4 months of the season.

After the school season ends, I sometimes attend as many as 60 complete local AAU games in the Spring and Summer and annually for six years I have gone to Las Vegas for a week in July to watch the Adidas (now Reebok) Big Time Classic Tournament for another 30+ games crammed into 5 days (my record there is ten games in one day in the headquarters gym). There I watched most of the best high school boys basketball players in the nation (highly recommended) along with some Clear Lake players who sometimes keep me scurrying about the city from gym to gym.

I usually coach the Varsity and JV teams in some summer league (in June) and, since 2001, I coach and facilitate attendance at out of town team camps for both the Clear Lake boys Varsity and JV teams (also in June). The Varsity boys have attended Rick Barnes' UT camp in Austin, Bob Knight's camp at Texas Tech, Mark Turgeon's/Billy Kennedy's Texas A&M camp, Rice University camp (Coach Ben Braun) and Doug Davalos's camp at Texas State University.  The JV boys have attended a Great American Shootout tournament in College Station the last 15 years. The few remaining months of the year I suffer from withdrawal but I am a more normal person. Some might question that.

I got hooked on high school basketball early in life as a player growing up in southeast Texas. As an adult, after attending almost all Lake home games and many away games each season during the '70's and early '80's as a parent (both our son and our daughter graduated from Clear Lake in the 1980's but neither played basketball in high school), my appreciation for the game, fueled by the Clear Lake winning tradition, became an addiction.

I missed very few games if work prevented my attendance. Between 1985 and 1990, I missed only 3 home games (due to illness). Since December 1990 when I could not make the trip to Bartlesville, Oklahoma due to work,  I have not missed any Clear Lake boys varsity basketball games no matter where they play. I have been to Las Vegas, Nevada; Huntsville, Alabama (on Thanksgiving Day!); Poplar Bluff, Missouri; Paintsville, Kentucky; San Diego and Los Angeles California; and Fort Walton Beach, Florida as well as numerous Texas cities including Longview, Austin, Dallas, Padre Island, Corpus Christi, Midland, Plano, The Colony, and Fort Worth to cheer the Falcons to victory.

Obviously Clear Lake Boys basketball is a priority in my life and I am a very devoted fan. My efforts have included annual financial support to the school's basketball program and the CCISD Tournament, providing the programs for the home and playoff games from 2002 to 2011, and, as mentioned above, off-season coaching of the boys including summer league play and out of town team camps for the varsity and JV boys.
 
I mention this only as background for what I am about to say. If you go to as many games as I for as many years as I have, you would probably develop more than a novice's level of understanding of the game and you might tend to get into the finer points of the game.

These finer points seem to include, but not be limited to, one's perception of the team, how well the coach has done his job of preparing the team  and execution during game time, and perceptions about individual players. I will not address the fine points regarding team and coach perceptions here but I will address individual player perceptions.

In addition to recognizing the skills and desire a player possesses and his ability to apply those skills to the game, you can often discern a great deal about a boy as a person by the way he plays basketball for one to four years. Included are:
his leadership ability,
how patient he is;
how hard he works;
how self assured he is;
how determined he is to overcome obstacles;
how he performs under pressure;
how quickly he makes decisions; 
whether or not he values teamwork where each person is assigned a role and the rewards when everyone performs their assigned duties together;
how assertive he is;
how much he values and gives respect;
how much he respects authority;
how well he follows directions;
how well he communicates;
whether he values communication or not;
how argumentative he may be;
how disciplined he is;
how focused he is;
his threshold for pain;
how he handles disappointment;
what kind of influence he receives from his parent(s) and support group and how he responds to that influence.

As a result of this basketball experience, these athletes will have values instilled in them that will serve them throughout their lives. It will not guarantee they will become model citizens but it can and often does help assure their successes in life.

Keeping in mind what it was like to be 14 to 18 years of age, this web site represents nothing but the best of intentions on my part to make the Clear Lake basketball experience a positive, more complete one for everyone, the players (both current and former), the fans (both present and absent), and the relatives. I will never intentionally say anything harshly negative about a Lake player on this web site (the refs maybe, but not a Clear Lake player). The opinions here are mine alone. I would claim my views are based on more than a casual understanding of the game however. They are just one fella’s viewpoint though. They should not be considered a negative reflection on the coaching staff, the administration, or the school.
 
There is no hidden agenda on my part to promote one player over another, ever. The players I like most are the ones who work the hardest to achieve what I perceive to be their full potential, not necessarily the best athletes or the best basketball players. I also happen to like the ones who are the most respectful and who have the best sense of humor and the best manners but that has little to do with basketball (I have been extremely impressed with the respectfulness and politeness of the Lake players year after year).  I will strive to present a balanced description of the team and their performance as I see it for I know that each person’s role, including the team manager and the bus driver, is important.

My tendency to nurture these boys will be based on what I perceive primarily on the court. I intend to help promote their well being in some small way by the appreciation we show them. Anyone who knows me in the gym knows this is true. I will not ignore the areas where I believe there is room for improvement though. I will also not allow anyone to turn this web site into a negative experience for these young people.


To play 5A (now 6A) basketball in Texas today, these boys must be prudent enough, mature enough, and tough enough to endure any minor criticism of their performance as a team that they might get from this web site. I hope the parents and the fans are too. After all, isn’t basketball truly one of the games that helps the player learn about life and how to deal with it?