Six athletes with perseverance
Q: I want to give my kids a pep talk about overcoming obstacles to athletic success. Give me some examples.
A: I'll give you six, but they won't include the often-quoted "Michael Jordan got cut" example. I don't buy into that one. Yes, Jordan didn't make the varsity at Laney High School in Wilmington, N.C., as a sophomore, but it wasn't like the coach said, "Sorry, Michael, you'll never make it. There's the door."
Jordan was a nothing-special 5-foot-9 sophomore trying out for a team that had 11 returning seniors, three returning juniors and a total of eight guards, according to the accounts I've read. The team needed height, and the only sophomore to make varsity was 6-7. Jordan played on the jayvee team, worked hard, got better and, well ... you know the rest of the story.
My six favorites:
• Jeff Skiba of Skyline High School won the Class 3A state high-jump title in 2001 with a prosthetic left leg. The 2002 Skyline graduate was born without a left fibula and had his lower left leg amputated below the knee before his first birthday. But Skiba, who jumps off his right leg, won the title with a leap of 6 feet, 10 inches.
• Johnny Unitas was cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He then worked construction and played semipro football before winding up as one of the greatest NFL quarterbacks with the Baltimore Colts. He died in 2002 at age 69. If you don't appreciate how good he was, ask your grandfather.
• Kurt Warner, 2000 Super Bowl MVP with the St. Louis Rams, was cut in camp by the Green Bay Packers in 1994 and worked for $5.50 an hour stocking grocery shelves until he got another chance in football.
• Wilma Rudolph overcame polio and poverty as a child in Alabama to become the first American woman to win three gold medals in the Olympics. She did it as a sprinter in the 1960 Olympics. She had won a bronze medal in the 1956 Olympics at age 16 after spending much of her childhood bedridden.
• Cyclist Lance Armstrong recovered from advanced testicular cancer to win the past five Tour de France races. The cancer had spread to his lungs and brain and in 1996 he was given a 50 percent chance of survival.
• Finally, I like this one just because it's about a local guy who kept plugging. David Bazzi finished 75th in the Metro League junior-varsity cross-country meet as an O'Dea freshman. He kept running and improving throughout high school and college and went on to win the Pac-10 10,000-meter title in 2001 as a Washington Husky.
Q: Can a high-school wrestling team finish a match with a "minus" score?
A: It's possible, according to Jim Meyerhoff of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, who coached wrestling for nearly two decades at the high-school and college level. A minus score is possible if a team doesn't win any of the 14 matches and is penalized one point for misconduct or unsportsmanlike conduct, or two points for flagrant misconduct — such as throwing a punch or screaming at officials — by a coach, participant or someone on the bench. The additional penalty for unsportsmanlike or flagrant misconduct is ejection from the event and the next event.
Q: Didn't the former sports editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic coach in the Class B tournament one year while covering the team?
A: No. He did both, but not at the same time.
In 1967, Jim Scoggins coached Zillah in the B tournament when he was an English teacher at the school. After making a career change, he covered the 1970 and 1971 tournaments for the Spokane Spokesman-Review, then was named Yakima sports editor in the fall of 1971.
The most unusual media combination we know is Scooter Chapman of Port Angeles, who used to broadcast the Roughrider games at state, then write a story for the Port Angeles Daily News.
"During timeouts, I would be writing my game story and then after a minute I'd have to go back on the air," Chapman said.
"One year, the Port Angeles girls played in the title game and my newspaper deadline was about 20 minutes after I signed off the air," he said. "I made the deadline."
In recent years, Chapman has been radio-only at state games. He writes a weekly column for the Sequim Gazette.
Have a question about high-school sports? Craig Smith will find the answer every Tuesday in The Times. Ask your question in one of the following ways: Voice mail (206-464-8279), snail mail (Craig Smith, Seattle Times Sports, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111) or e-mail csmith@seattletimes.com