Border Crossing

November 6, 2006 - American Basketball Association (ABA)
Vermont Frost Heaves News Release


How are Team Frost Heaves and Team Wolff (including Frank, 5, and Clara, 3) going to co-exist on the Team Bus? The assistant G.M. and I began to riddle out an answer to that question last Thursday, when we left South Burlington for a two-game preseason trip to Quebec City.

Our driver, Mike, welcomed us on board. Felicitously enough, a Robert Frost allusion graced a sign hanging over his seat: I CHOSE THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED, AND NOW I DON'T KNOW WHERE THE HELL I AM.

We weren't even at the Canadian border when a copy of Glory Road made it into the DVD player.

All props to Coach Voigt, who had asked me in advance whether the kids would be in tow, so as to make sure the players' video fare wasn't inappropriate. Glory Road seemed well within the pale. I mean, how scary could a David (Big Daddy D) Lattin dunk be? And it's a Disney production to boot.

Instead I found myself desperately trying to keep Frank from watching while Nevil Shed gets roughed up in the men's room.

"Hey, Frankie, look-that sign is in FRENCH!" only bought me a few seconds.

But it wasn't all vigilant parenting on the ride up. Great moment when Josh Haskins, I mean Don Lucas, I mean-you know who I mean-reaches an understanding with Bobby Joe Hill. There wasn't a player or coach on our bus who didn't understand the Bear's comment: "O.K., you play your game. And you play my game."

That's freedom and unity, the Vermont state motto, which I've been laying on the guys for weeks now as every bit as applicable to hoops. And it echoes Coach V's philosophy of granting players lots of autonomy within a motion offense with strict principles.

And it seems to work against a real live ABA opponent, the Kebekwa, We came away with two wins-a good feeling, even if both engagements will mean very little when we play "les Kebs" two more times for real, in both our season and home openers, over the next 11 days.

The two W's mirrored each other. On Friday night we held a reasonably comfortable six-to-12-point lead for most of the game, only to watch our hosts press to take advantage of the ABA's 3-D Rule, which grants an extra point to a team that forces a turnover in the backcourt. By the time the buzzer sounded, we had barely held on, 91-90.

The next night we stumbled through the first half and wound up down nine at the intermission.

What accounted for the players' desultory first half? Perhaps it was their having seen one of their teammates suffer a seizure in the hotel elevator that morning.

From the moment those elevator doors opened, the guys had watched the drama unfold from where they stood in the lobby. We were distraught and baffled as the paramedics came to stretcher him off. Hours passed. Only updates from Coach Voigt at the hospital kept us apprised of his status.

None of us had any clue about the medical history of this Frost Heave, who shall remain nameless until we've had a chance to discuss with him how public he'd like to be about his condition. It turns out he's an epileptic. We didn't know because he didn't tell us-but then we never asked pointed, insistent questions of him either.

By sifting through his gym bag and doing an Internet search about the prescription drugs we found there, we finally riddled out what had happened. It had been three years since his last episode, and his meds apparently needed adjustment.

Of all the mileposts along the pro sports ownership learning curve, for me it's been this-the in loco parentis factor-that's caught me most by surprise. But in the process of realizing the full implications of taking these guys in, there's been a creeping emotional attachment that has been quite wonderful.

I settled him back in his room around 9 p.m., then made it to the gym at CEGEP-Ste. Foy in time to spread the good word along the bench. Maybe it was relief that led the Heaves to sink eight of 12 three-point attempts in the second half to win 85-73.

Yesterday morning, detained for 10 minutes to settle our hotel bill, I was the last guy to board the bus. By then five-year old Frank, tutored in basic pro b-ball bus badinage, was ready to floor his father.

"What up, dog?" he asked me.

The bus broke up.

When we finally got home to our cat, Alice, and chocolate lab, Peter, Frank tried out his new lingo once more.

"I told it to Petey, too. Because he's a dog."

The Frost Heaves' home openers are Nov. 16 in Barre and Nov. 18 in Burlington. For tickets go to vermontfrostheaves.com, or contact the Flynn Regional Box Office at 802-86-FLYNN or flynntix.org.

Note: OurSports Central no longer actively covers the American Basketball Association (ABA) as a professional league due in part to its inability to publish and play a schedule and the transitory nature of many of its teams. For information on professional minor leagues, please see OSC's basketball section.



American Basketball Association Stories from November 6, 2006


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