The 2020-21 season is ready to commence, but it is shaping up to me a season that will be unlike any other in terms of the protocols that will be put in place to protect both players and coaches from the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected our country. Pictured above is a time when things were simpler for me as a fan of college basketball. There was no pandemic to worry about, or social distancing.
In fact, at the ripe old age of 10 in the above photo, it was encouraged for kids like myself to get up close and personal with our favorite college basketball players.
For me, in my hometown of Greenville, S.C., that was of course the Furman Paladins. I can't help but think back to those times and wonder if today's climate, and the pandemic we are all dealing with as a country, and particularly in the both the entertainment and sporting industries, whether it be be collegiate hoops or pro hoops, pictures like the one above will become something of an extinct history.
However, as we all prepare for another potentially enthralling season of basketball on the Southern Conference basketball hardwood, I am sincerely hoping that is not the case. This summer has been an interesting time, and in my interactions with coaches from both the SoCon and Big South, there was a collective, yet hopeful sigh that things will change in time to at least have as close to normal of a season as possible.
With that being said, there is an innocence about the above photo I found this summer in the above photo. It's one that conjures up what all of us who love college basketball like myself, or any collegiate sport for that matter has always held, an innocence about these sorts of relationships.
In 2020, those relationships haven't been tested by just social distancing, but also social injustices that continue to happen within our society, which have spilled over into our sports culture and the things we hold sacred. What I take complete comfort in during these times is the photo above. That innocence, but also the re-assurance to know it never has been a question for me. I've always looked up and held those student athletes of color, or ones of my color in the same awe and regard. It's funny how a picture can bring us peace.
In times of turmoil in our country, I take comfort in the photo of Furman basketball players and how they were just as happy or maybe more to see me as I was to see them. Pictured above are Chris Bass (left), Hal Henderson (middle) and former football standout fullback Billy Stockdale (white shirt) were all guys that at that time were my friends.
Remember what it felt like to look up to someone as a kid. I never looked at skin color or anything of that nature. I haven't changed in that way and that photo is three decades old. Although the older one now, I still look at these athletes I cover with the innocence I had as a 10-year old, but only now, I can help them by writing about them and giving them the coverage they would not normally get at a school the size of a SoCon school.
It's my passion, and it may not seem like much, but that honest innocence I have realized can go a long way in today's culture and what we are witnessing each night as a part of local and national news. I am so thankful that God nor my family let me view the world from what someone on a television or what anyone told me. They let me meet my heroes at that time. But I am also thankful to those young men at Furman when I was that age.
Those African-American student-athletes are responsible for a special sort of love and bond that you don't get at bigger schools. Go to any SoCon school and you find the same. You can make an intimate bond, and instant memories you take with you for the rest of your life.
I know because I have. But it's so much more. You think I cared about the politics of our country in that photo? Do you think that I actually even knew about flags or monuments, and if I had known about them, do you think it would have mattered or kept me from seeking out those African-American student-athletes from Furman University who I gloried in watching as a kid growing up? The answer is always no. It will always be no. One special thing the SoCon has given me is that it has given me the chance to get to know these great human beings as people and to care about them as people and to write their story as people through sport.
That might not sound like a lot, but in a world where we see hate fill the airwaves, whether it be acts of racial injustice or some stupid pandemic or even dumber political arguments, I find myself not understanding what's happened to that same innocence that I still have and those others around me must have had at some point in their lives...Where did they check out? Where were they influenced in the wrong manner?
My guess is somewhere it had to have started at home. I am so thankful my parents let me love on these student athletes, black or white, for the tremendous human beings they all are. I never lost that hunger to seek out a friendship, but the only difference is now I have something to give back for the autographs they gave me as a kid. I have words that I can put together to tell their stories, and I am so blessed by God and thankful to my Savior each day I get to do that. It truly is something special to me.
I know that's a different way to introduce the upcoming basketball season, but I felt it was important to get off my chest and just say I am so thankful that these guys aren't just some people that just run fast and jump high to me on the weekends. They are people I care for...Guys like Carlos Dotson (Western Carolina), Stephen Croone (Furman), Jordan Lyons (Furman) and even a guy
I interviewed the other day--Keith "Mister" Jennings--stand as true testaments of how great this league is, and how rich the relationships can become between both black and white if you just let those friendships blossom. One thing I have always known is that you don't have to be from the same neighborhood to share the same brotherhood. It's true. God made no mistakes.
So, I am thankful more than ever this year for the African-American athletes I have met at both Furman and in the SoCon over the years. Y'all have meant so much to me, and to be able to write good words to your amazing stories has been a blessing that I carry in my heart each and every day.
Next time I will get more in-depth on the preview of the upcoming season. I have shared my predicted order of finish below, but I wanted to share this photo and how it means so many different neat things to me, especially now that I look back at it in a year like this.
I realize we are in a pandemic, but I hope we never get to a point as a nation to where these photos aren't able to be taken because of a virus. If it happened back then, it would have stolen the opportunity for me to really meet some truly awesome human beings, and I am not sure how that might have altered my life. I am so thankful that I don't have the words to convey it.
1. Furman
2. UNCG
3. East Tennessee State
4. Mercer
5. Wofford
6. Chattanooga
7. Western Carolina
8. VMI
9. Samford
10. The Citadel
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