The Hills

BEGINNINGS

The Castana, Iowa high school gym is packed with yelling and screaming basketball fans.  The noise is deafening and the basketball court floor is vibrating from the stamping of feet in the stands.  Pep bands are playing each school’s fight songs trying to out drown out the other band.  It is a western Iowa high school sectional tournament finals, with Castana, the home team playing the Monroe, Iowa team, for the sectional championship.

Dan Williams is exhausted from the hard fought game- he has played the entire game as a forward for the Monroe basketball team.  Sweat from his forehead is running into his eyes and blurring his vision as a time out is called.  There is only ten seconds left on the game clock and the Castana team is leading by just one point.  Castana has the ball out under their own basket.  The Monroe team has called a time out after having tipped a Castana pass out of bounds.  Ray Thompson, the Monroe coach, huddles his player up and tells them to stay calm.  Their main hope of winning the game is to steal the Castana in bound pass and go the length of the court and make a basket.  Dan looks at his fellow senior teammates, Brad Jenkins and Alan Wright and they look at him.  They know they must make the play, or it will be the last game they will play together for the Monroe high school and the only chance for their team to move on to the district finals.  First, coach Thompson instructs his players to immediately foul a Castana player if the in bound pass is successful.  Ray Thompson is a smart coach and he tells his players that he has noticed that the Castana team always uses the same formation and passing lanes when they are in bounding the ball from under their own basket.  Since Dan is their best defensive player, he tells Dan to only momentarily stay with the man he is guarding, then break to the left along the sideline of the court just beyond the free shot line.  He again tells his players that the Castana team always uses that passing lane in situations like this.  He further tells his players that it is gamble, because Dan’s man will also be open if he leaves him and he could get the ball.  The boys agree with their coach that it is their only hope of getting the ball in the shortest amount of time.  The buzzer rings and the players take their positions on the court.  The noise in the gym reaches a new pitch and everyone is standing.  The referee hands the ball to the Castana player to put the basketball in play.  Dan immediately notices the Castana players lining up as his coach described.  The referee blows his whistle and play commences.  Dan bumps the Castana player he is guarding, then pivots and leaves him for his assigned position on the court as directed by his coach.  Out of the corner of his eye he also notices that another Castana player is heading in the same direction as he is.  Like magic, the basketball is there and Dan intercepts it directly in front of the other Castana player. After two dribbles down the court, Dan sees Alan ahead of him streaking down the opposite side line of the court.  Dan throws a baseball like pass cross- court, leading Alan by several feet.  Alan catches the pass in full stride and after only several coordinated dribbles makes the basket with a lay up at the other end of the court. The final buzzer ending the game sounds and the Monroe fans flood the playing floor.  The Monroe high school basketball team has won the game and the sectional championship with a miracle finish    As Dan sees Alan make the lay up, he monetarily drops to one knee and bows his head, thanking God for the victory.  He and his teammates are then mobbed by the Monroe crowd, especially Alan

who has made the winning basket.  Coach Thompson is one of the first people on the floor to congratulate his players.  He goes right to Dan first and gives him a big hug and he is grinning ear to ear, but Dan notices that there are also tears in the coach’s eyes.  It is a proud moment for the Monroe high school coach and for the small Iowa town of Monroe.  It is 1956 and for the town of Monroe, Iowa, its’ high school sports teams are very important to the town and to the farm community around the town.

 Being a starter on the Monroe high school basketball team did not come easy for Dan Williams.  Although there are only 100 students in the whole high school, basketball was taken very seriously.  Every year at least 30 or more boys went out for the 10 positions on the team.   Dan had to work hard to even make the team as a sophomore and spent the whole season sitting on the bench.  His two childhood friends, Brad Jenkins and Alan Wright were also on the team, but they were more coordinated than Dan and at least got to play more as sophomores than he did.   Dan, Brad, and Alan had been friends from their grade school days and grew up together in the golden days of the 1940s’ and 1950s’, living in the farming community of Monroe, a small town on the western side of Iowa, in the Missouri River valley, and located half way between Omaha, Nebraska and Sioux City, Iowa.  Dan’s older brother Bryant, who was two years his senior, was the star basketball and baseball player for Monroe high school, and Dan lived somewhat under his shadow, although Bryant always tried to help his younger brother become a better player, helping him to develop a good jump shot and how to handle the basketball.    From the time they were in grade school, the two brothers spent every spare minute practicing shooting and passing the basketball beneath the basketball hoop, which was mounted