Fielder’s Choice

I got a surprise call last week from a former classmate at Hamilton (Ala.) High School.

Jeff Clark was looking for some help in remembering a few records and stats from our basketball-playing days.

Come to find out, he is one of this year’s inductees in the Marion County (Ala.) Sports Hall of Fame.

I was stunned — not that he was being inducted but that it took this long. The first class was inducted in 1994. That was 27 years ago.

“I thought you were already a member,” I told Jeff.

He was the top scorer and best overall player on our 23-7 team, which then held the school record for most wins in a season.

I was a starter, too, but not a big scorer. Coach Freddie Burnett liked to rely on me for defense. I think I held the record for taking the most charges, including one that knocked me out cold versus rival Winfield my senior year.

I do recall hitting doubledigit scoring once or twice as a senior.

Jeff went on to play college basketball at Mississippi College in Clinton and become a minister. I went on to play some independent and church league basketball and softball and become a journalist.

He’s pastor of Venture Church. It’s based in Hattiesburg but has other campuses in the south Mississippi area.

It’s been 42 years since we laced up the white Converse, high-top tennis shoes to play for the Aggies.

Thank goodness, I had a couple of old high school yearbooks in my office as Jeff started to ask me questions about our days on the court.

I couldn’t answer or find the answers to all of his questions. I gave him the telephone numbers of Coach Burnett and Les Walters, longtime editor of the newspaper in Hamilton who is full of information about Aggie athletics or knows where to find it.

My good friend Jeff will be inducted into the Marion County Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday night, Aug. 7. I hope to make the trip across the state line on I-22 east for the ceremony.

Another good friend, James Dodd, is also of the inductees. “Big Chick,” as I call him, is the former owner of the KFC in Hamilton and a longtime fan and supporter of Aggie athletics.

All of us old athletes like to relive our playing days.

But in the case of Jeff and I, we even have a hard time remembering all the scores and records and such. More so these days, we just cherish the relationships we built during those junior high and high school years of practices and games.

The wins and the losses mattered, but looking back, it was the overall experience that mattered most.

We didn’t realize it at the time, but high school athletics helped build us into better people — the hard work, the teamwork and the never-quit approach to competition.

We’ve carried that bond of being teammates since 1979. We don’t see or talk to each other regulary, but the bond is still there. We’re all either already 60 years old or nearing it, and we will keep carrying that bond.

If it’s the way it’s supposed to be, your teammates will forever be your teammates.