University of North Carolina Athletics
Clinic Thrills Large Crowd
March 5, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 31, 2003
By Adam Lucas
There's one surefire way to get a gymnasium full of children to be dead silent.
That's not ordinarily an easy feat, not when they're on the floor of the Smith Center shooting hoops amongst Carolina's full roster of basketball players--shooting free throws under the watchful eye of Raymond Felton, throwing chest passes with instruction from Rashad McCants. It is undoubtedly very cool from a kid's perspective, and if you grew up in North Carolina loving the Heels, it's hard not to wish that the clinic had existed when you were growing up. The kids seem to agree, as the event enjoys a record-breaking attendance of nearly 500 first- through eighth-graders.
That many young voices can create quite a din. But assistant coach Joe Holladay found a way to induce absolute silence while coaching a group of first- and second-graders on the finer points of shooting.
"I want you all to pay attention," he told the group after they rotated to his station. "This last group, I saw Coach Williams sitting up on the top row watching them. He was taking notes on them. We want to make sure we impress him."
Holladay's group fell more silent than the Cameron Indoor Stadium crowd last year after David Noel dunked Casey Sanders through the basket. After all, if Roy Williams is taking notes, you want to do it right, don't you?
Williams did circulate among the attendees, but most of their one-on-one interaction was with the players and with assistant coach Jerod Haase and administrative assistant C.B. McGrath, who--with the help of Carolina's drastically underpaid and underappreciated squad of managers--helped organize the clinic.
The event begins promptly at 9 a.m. with a short address from Roy Williams, who informs the parents hanging around the lower level of the Smith Center that in many years of putting on the clinic at Kansas, the staff learned one undeniable truth: it comes off without a hitch as long as the parents can resist the urge to come down to the floor. Most follow orders, but you can almost see a few muttering, "If he wasn't dang Roy Williams, I'd be going right down there."
Clinic participants sprawl all over the Smith Center floor and into the practice gym, but not before stretching out. Haase orders this year's Tar Heel newcomers to run the stretching drills and tells the campers that whenever he blows his whistle, they are to inform the drill leader that they can't hear him. Every newcomer--especially Justin Bohlander--is subjected to a chorus of "Justin, we can't hear you," from almost 500 mostly high-pitched voices. But then it's 5-foot-11 ˝ (the half is very important) Wes Miller's turn, and Haase informs the campers of a change. This time, Miller is greeted with a chorus of, "Wes, we can't see you."
As with anything involving highly-trained athletes, almost everything about the clinic turns into a competition. Even in what appears to be a harmless basketball relay between their teams of roughly 20 campers, Rashad McCants and Reyshawn Terry develop a good-natured rivalry, with McCants exhorting his line to "Get your hands up!" as they pass the ball back through the line. When his group comes away with the victory, McCants runs down the line giving everyone a high five.
At the other end of the court, where Jawad Williams earns praise from Holladay for being the team's best shooting instructor, full-fledged shooting contests have broken out. Raymond Felton, Phillip McLamb, and Jonathan Miller best Sean May, Jawad Williams, and Damion Grant, but the outcome is overruled when Holladay notices that Felton was, to put it kindly, cheating. "This isn't the World Wrestling Federation," a smiling Holladay tells the campers after noticing that Felton is knocking the other team's basketball away to keep them from shooting.
In a later contest, Felton's team comes from three baskets behind in a race to ten to emerge with the victory, prompting a victory celebration from the campers--complete with cartwheels through the lane--as wild as any post-Duke victory scene. The losers, Holladay and Felton are quick to point out, have to serenade everyone with the Barney song, which May and Williams perform admirably.
All the attendees receive a Carolina basketball t-shirt, a media guide, and a 2003-04 team poster. The squad signs autographs for 30 minutes before heading off to a noon team meeting, and then, exactly at noon, the assembled parents finally get what they want--access to the Smith Center floor. Pictures are taken, shirts are admired, high fives are exchanged. It is all, however, done with a minimum of noise.
After all, Roy Williams might be taking notes.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly, click here.
