LJ b BB: Game-changer

Reed calms everyone down

while setting up the offense

against UC.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

I'm a team guy. I'm not for one individual doing all the scoring or dominating in some other way.

No one individually is bigger than the team collectively. There is no "I" in "team".

Yes, I know. I believe all these things.

When I played basketball and baseball in high school, baseball on non-school teams, and basketball my first two years in college, I was a team player. Our coaches drilled that into us. Hot-dogging was frowned upon, and we looked down on anyone who tried to bring the glory upon themselves individually.

These values are especially important in high school and youth sports. Because sports are life, or at least part of life, and the lessons our young people learn while playing athletics, they'll apply them in their lives outside of sports.

I hate to say it. But having said all this, I have to say it. Reed Farley...is a game-changer.

We all know that. Anybody who has followed La Jolla High basketball this year knows it. And it was made especially evident during the Vikings' recent streak of six straight Western League losses without him.

It was punctuated with the Vikings' two-point win over UC Feb. 12 upon Reed's return.

Reed will be the first one to tell you that he plays for his teammates. Coach Paul Baranowski preaches this: Play for each other. Don't play for yourself. Farley totally buys in.

But as one of the Vikings' assistant coaches said before the game at UC Thursday night: "They (other ball-handlers) had a tough time with him out."

It's not just Reed's ability to score. It's not just his ability to jump a lot higher than most of his teammates, and slam crushing dunks down on the opposing team that get his teammates fired up.

I hate the word, but it's swagger. I'll call it confidence. Self-assurance.

Farley was back out there last night walking methodically, placing his enormous size-15 sneakers down one step after another. He wasn't in a hurry. He...just...feels...comfortable out there.

And that confidence reassures his teammates. You can see it immediately in their play. "We have Reed with us," they don't say with their lips, but they do with the more-confident manner in which they carry themselves on the court, too. They don't look harried.

A technical skill that Farley also brings is his ability to control the ball--bringing it down court, holding it while eyeing the offense and setting it up. UC wasn't pressing when he had the ball. They were too busy getting down court to defend.

A fine wine will not be hurried. (I don't even drink wine.)

To change metaphors: There is joy in Mudville once again.


Copyright 2015 Ed Piper