Posted on 01/29/2013 4:03:44 PM PST by llevrok
Derek Brown quietly walked into Auburn Riverside's gym last summer preceded by a swirl of hype.
Friends and basketball players who knew Derek had slipped first-year Riverside coach Jason Brown reports on the high school team's new transfer. He attacks the basket like a madman. He can shoot. He's going to take somebody's spot.
"Of course," Jason says now, "you always have to take that with a grain of salt."
Jason had yet to see the mysterious transfer who spent much of the previous year on Beamer's bench. All he knew was hearsay: Derek could play and his mom died the year before, leaving him to move in with his sister in the Riverside boundary.
Derek, a 5-foot-11 junior, stepped into Riverside's gym for the first time during a scrimmage in the summer. Jason approached Derek in the corner and stuck out his hand.
"Do you believe in God?" he asked.
"Yeah, I do," Derek said.
"I do too. And I believe everything happens for a reason, and it's not by accident that we're meeting each other today. I heard about your mom." (snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
WA state ping
Thanks for that story; it was great...
This happens more than it is reported.
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