baylorles
09-25-2008, 04:30 PM
http://www.mysanantonio.com/
"Fight Club: Baby grows into a star" by Buck Harvey -
She asks two, three times. He keeps saying no. One day, against his better judgment, he relents.
Frankie: “OK, here it is. If I take you on ...”
Maggie: “You won't never regret it.”
Frankie: “Just listen. If I take you on ...”
Maggie: “I promise I'll work so hard.”
Frankie: “God, this is already a mistake.”
Maggie: “I'm listening, Boss.”
Clint Eastwood and Hilary S**** spoke those lines. But the real thing was played out a few years before “Million Dollar Baby” won an Oscar for best picture.
This happened in Shreveport, and its effects will be felt again tonight when the Silver Stars open their conference finals. Then, Sophia Young will be a fighter, not a boxer.
A retired Louisiana fire chief has never been confused with Eastwood's character in the movie. For one, Bo Roberts embraced women's basketball and earned a reputation for knowing it; Eastwood's Frankie had always seen female boxing as a freak show.
But Roberts was just as hesitant in 2001 when a high-school kid called him the summer before her senior year for help. He knew everyone in town who could dribble. Why waste time on a novice?
Young was an exchange student from the West Indies, and she came to Shreveport for an education, not athletics. The closest she had ever come to playing basketball before arriving in the United States was a game in St. Vincent called netball.
An English woman had thought she was bringing basketball to the island. She instead had misunderstood the rules sent to her by James Naismith.
Just as confused was Young. Having to sit out her junior year, she called Roberts, respected in the area for his AAU teams, to tutor her.
She asked two, three times. Only when a high-school track coach asked Roberts' wife did Roberts relent.
“I had a bad attitude about it,” Roberts said Wednesday. “Who was this kid? I told her to be in the gym at 2 p.m., and I decided I'd make it so tough she wouldn't want any more of Bo Roberts.”
Eastwood can guess the next scene. Roberts worked Young until Roberts was exhausted from telling her what to do.
“She didn't have a dry thread on her,” Roberts said. “She was soaked in sweat. And she looked at me with those big, brown eyes, and she told me the most sincere thing anyone has ever said to me. She said, ‘Coach Bo, if you tell me what to do and show me what to do, I promise you I will be better every day you see me.'”
Roberts paused. “After that, she had me wrapped around her little finger.”
Roberts said, “She hardly knew the ball was round.” But she worked, getting better every day Roberts saw her, and she opened district play the next season with 44 points and 22 rebounds.
Roberts says he takes “zero credit” for this. Young is gifted, and she showed that at Baylor when she led the school to the 2005 national championship. She can run, and, at 6-foot-1, she can jump and hold the rim with both hands.
Like another island product who found some success in San Antonio: As it was with Tim Duncan, Young learned the game late yet had a sense of how to play it.
But it was the Maggie attitude that made her special, and the Silver Stars see that now. “Sophia has an unquenchable desire to get better,” Dan Hughes, the Silver Stars coach, said this week. “It's as rare as anything I've ever seen.”
Had she remained what she was as a WNBA rookie, she would still be one of the league's better players. But Young worked as if she were still in Shreveport, expanding her range, becoming an undersized post player who could now be effective away from the basket.
Nothing better defines this than her free-throw progression. Her first season at Baylor, she shot 54 percent, and it went up every year to nearly 80 percent this past season. Monday night, when the Silver Stars eliminated Sacramento, Young made 7 of 8 in overtime.
She's complete, and this matters now against Los Angeles' tall frontline. Hughes can play Young at small forward when the Silver Stars go big.
One outcome is certain now: This series will have a happier ending than the movie did. Young likely won't hit her head on a ring stool.
Instead, she will sweat as she did that first day in the gym with Roberts. She will compete as if losing isn't an option, and her former tutor expects to be in San Antonio to see it all.
Maggie: “You gonna leave me again?”
Frankie: “Never.”
bharvey@express-news.net
"Fight Club: Baby grows into a star" by Buck Harvey -
She asks two, three times. He keeps saying no. One day, against his better judgment, he relents.
Frankie: “OK, here it is. If I take you on ...”
Maggie: “You won't never regret it.”
Frankie: “Just listen. If I take you on ...”
Maggie: “I promise I'll work so hard.”
Frankie: “God, this is already a mistake.”
Maggie: “I'm listening, Boss.”
Clint Eastwood and Hilary S**** spoke those lines. But the real thing was played out a few years before “Million Dollar Baby” won an Oscar for best picture.
This happened in Shreveport, and its effects will be felt again tonight when the Silver Stars open their conference finals. Then, Sophia Young will be a fighter, not a boxer.
A retired Louisiana fire chief has never been confused with Eastwood's character in the movie. For one, Bo Roberts embraced women's basketball and earned a reputation for knowing it; Eastwood's Frankie had always seen female boxing as a freak show.
But Roberts was just as hesitant in 2001 when a high-school kid called him the summer before her senior year for help. He knew everyone in town who could dribble. Why waste time on a novice?
Young was an exchange student from the West Indies, and she came to Shreveport for an education, not athletics. The closest she had ever come to playing basketball before arriving in the United States was a game in St. Vincent called netball.
An English woman had thought she was bringing basketball to the island. She instead had misunderstood the rules sent to her by James Naismith.
Just as confused was Young. Having to sit out her junior year, she called Roberts, respected in the area for his AAU teams, to tutor her.
She asked two, three times. Only when a high-school track coach asked Roberts' wife did Roberts relent.
“I had a bad attitude about it,” Roberts said Wednesday. “Who was this kid? I told her to be in the gym at 2 p.m., and I decided I'd make it so tough she wouldn't want any more of Bo Roberts.”
Eastwood can guess the next scene. Roberts worked Young until Roberts was exhausted from telling her what to do.
“She didn't have a dry thread on her,” Roberts said. “She was soaked in sweat. And she looked at me with those big, brown eyes, and she told me the most sincere thing anyone has ever said to me. She said, ‘Coach Bo, if you tell me what to do and show me what to do, I promise you I will be better every day you see me.'”
Roberts paused. “After that, she had me wrapped around her little finger.”
Roberts said, “She hardly knew the ball was round.” But she worked, getting better every day Roberts saw her, and she opened district play the next season with 44 points and 22 rebounds.
Roberts says he takes “zero credit” for this. Young is gifted, and she showed that at Baylor when she led the school to the 2005 national championship. She can run, and, at 6-foot-1, she can jump and hold the rim with both hands.
Like another island product who found some success in San Antonio: As it was with Tim Duncan, Young learned the game late yet had a sense of how to play it.
But it was the Maggie attitude that made her special, and the Silver Stars see that now. “Sophia has an unquenchable desire to get better,” Dan Hughes, the Silver Stars coach, said this week. “It's as rare as anything I've ever seen.”
Had she remained what she was as a WNBA rookie, she would still be one of the league's better players. But Young worked as if she were still in Shreveport, expanding her range, becoming an undersized post player who could now be effective away from the basket.
Nothing better defines this than her free-throw progression. Her first season at Baylor, she shot 54 percent, and it went up every year to nearly 80 percent this past season. Monday night, when the Silver Stars eliminated Sacramento, Young made 7 of 8 in overtime.
She's complete, and this matters now against Los Angeles' tall frontline. Hughes can play Young at small forward when the Silver Stars go big.
One outcome is certain now: This series will have a happier ending than the movie did. Young likely won't hit her head on a ring stool.
Instead, she will sweat as she did that first day in the gym with Roberts. She will compete as if losing isn't an option, and her former tutor expects to be in San Antonio to see it all.
Maggie: “You gonna leave me again?”
Frankie: “Never.”
bharvey@express-news.net