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Show ( --i- , v -V,; i ... . y ) ' J S .) I s J " I A BASKETBALL BATTLE occurs between Gary Swim, center, and another eager, just in front of the basket. The Cagers K'. .' - ' .N- ... " ,1 i . THE SKILL of dribbling gets worked on by high school basket-1 basket-1 taller Gary Swim, right. 11th and 12th graders have been working on basketball skills at a clinic at Uintah High School. were taking part in a drill designed to improve their offensive offen-sive skills. Basketballs are being dribbled, fired away, waved goodbye from one hoopster to another, rebounded, missed miss-ed turned over and various other assorted items in a basketball clinic at Uintah High School this week and memories of basketball clinics of the past have returned to the surface. One such basketball clinic took place in the early 1960's and the location was Union High School and the instructor of the camp was the high school basketball coach, who meant business and the only thing on his mind were two words, play ball. The lockers were for only the fortunate fortu-nate few and the rest had their clotiies sentenced to a hanging, which consisted con-sisted of putting the shirt, pants, shoes, socks, etc., on a hook and then pulling a rope that was attached to a hook all the way to the ceiling. The rope was tied down on another hook and the clothes were supposed to be safely stored away. However, there was always some evil minded person, who untied the knot and the clothes slammed against the floor for a slam dunk of the unbasketball kind. The tired basketball basket-ball player would return to the locker room and his clothes were scattered all over the floor and the phantom rope untier was no where to be found. However, let's get back to the subject sub-ject at hand and that is that ten letter word-basketball. Dribbling is always a favorite subject for coaches to lecture lec-ture on in length. Dribble with your left hand, dribble with your right hand, dribble behind your back, dribble between bet-ween your legs, dribble two basketballs, basket-balls, dribble both of them behind your back, dribble both of them between Hi ' v , V i i j T; r : A) .. Yt ;'V - l K ' . . .. s V i J s l i ? . - I V r r - f v DRILL occurs and taking A total of 15 high school basketballers 3 Blakl M e basketball bouncing action are have been competing in the basketball rVYYYVYVVyVW your legs and etc. and etc. However, many youngsters who dream of becoming the next Doctor J (If you have to ask who Doctor J is you will receive an F- in the course of basketball. Julius Erving is the name and he plays for the Philadelphia 76ers.) wish and hope that they can perform magic with the basketball and some succeed, but some just have problems learning to dribble the basketball with one hand, let alone two. Basketball clinics are an important item in sports because it gives a youngster first hand knowledge of the bouncing sport and it is especially important im-portant for the boy who is always the last to be chosen on the team. The basketball youngsters, who have all the basketball facts down and sealed in their basketball minds already have a vast amount of knowledge as far as basketball is concerned and the ones who need it the most are the hoopsters who get chosen last and with a little bit of help they can catch up with the rest of the basketball faithful. Youngsters get acquainted with the round object in elementary school, but they get educated in the sport of basketball in junior high and youngsters get divided into three groups, the good, the bad and the we-don't-really-want-you. The good ones are the first ones picked for basketball teams and the bad ones are saved for the second to last choices and the we-don't-really-want-you cagers are the last ones to be chosen. The we-don't-really-want-you cagers become telephone poles in the basketball basket-ball game of life as they remain firmly on the bench or on the court as the ball is never passed in the youngster's direction. He hopes and wishes for the ball to come his way, but the only time it arrives is due to a mistake. The youngster gets the ball and fires away and misses and his friends punish him by never letting the ball come close to his location on the court. If the ball won't come your way, make it come your way. Let defense become the name of the game. Take the ball away from the other team and then it is your ball to do with what you wish. Pressure the other team member who has the ball. Wave your hands and pressure, pressure until a turnover takes place. Sometimes opposing players get a bit upset with this type of defense because failure to come into contact with the ball results many times in slapping someone's leg or arm, but that is the price that is paid in the game called basketball. This reporter was one of those we-really-don't-want-you players. When I was a sophomore the seniors would give the me the ball when they felt like it and if I missed they acted like they wanted to sentence me to a life of bread and water and a deflated basketball. I decided that llth grade was going to be a different story and it was as I slapped, grabbed and delivered gentle bumps to get the basketball into my -hands as the only way I got the ball was to take it. The game as a bit more enjoyable that year. My senior year was my season in the sport of basketball. After years of never getting the ball to come my way I became a ball hog. Once I got it, I kept and shot it away from my favorite spot and watched it drop through the hoop. .Many times I stayed more than three seconds in the spot, but in the war called P.E. basketball, there are no referees, just survivors. n ' ; 1 w . ! , ' i J I -I,' - . ... -; i f : ;!W' ! I Hi , V - -I r J - BRUCE GILMORE jets to the hoop as he tries to score two points, or is it four points prior, the third day of action in the basketball clinic at Uintah High School. j t . .. i -f i x i i .'4 V, ' ' j r ' j 1 i 1 f i i THE BAT, under the direction of a Dodger baseballer, connects con-nects with the baseball in a Pinto League contest. |