You Know it’s in You!
All is In You 
Michael Jordan Didn’t Make Varsity—At First
DURING HIS BASKETBALL CAREER, MICHAEL JORDAN SCORED 32,292 PTS., EARNED SIX NBA CHAMPIONSHIPS AND FIVE NBA MVP TITLES, AND MADE
14 ALL-STAR GAME APPEARANCES. HE IS, BY ACCLAMATION, THE GREATEST BASKETBALL PLAYER TO EVER GRACE THE COURT. IN A SALUTE TO THE NBA STAR’S LEGACY, NEWSWEEK EXAMINES EVERY FACET OF HIS CAREER, FROM
HIS DAYS AS A 5’10” JV HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE WITHOUT A DUNK, TO HIS
72-WIN SEASON. THIS ARTICLE, AND OTHERS ABOUT MICHAEL JORDAN’S LIFE.
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Coaching Michael Jordan
In 1978, Michael Jordan was just another kid in the gym, along with 50 or so of his classmates, trying out for the Emsley A. Laney High School varsity basketball team. There were 15 roster spots. Jordan—then a 15-year-old sophomore who was only 5’10” and could not yet dunk a basketball—did not get one. His close friend, 6’7” sophomore Leroy Smith, did. The team was in need of his length. “It was embarrassing not making the team,” Jordan later said. He went home, locked himself in his room and cried.
Then he picked himself up and turned the cut into motivation. “Whenever I was working out and got tired and figured I ought to stop, I’d close my eyes and see that list in the locker room without my name on it,” Jordan would explain.
“That usually got me going again.”
Jordan, using that sizable chip on his shoulder to his advantage, spent his sophomore year as the star of the junior varsity team. He put up multiple 40-point games and attracted crowds that were unprecedented for a JV affair.
THE SUMMER LEADING INTO HIS JUNIOR YEAR, JORDAN BEGAN TO MORPH.
IN 1979 HE GREW 4 INCHES AND WORKED OUT CONSTANTLY. THAT YEAR HE MADE THE VARSITY SQUAD AND INSTANTLY BECAME LANEY HIGH’S BEST PLAYER, AVERAGING MORE THAN 20 POINTS A GAME. DESPITE HAVING SECURED HIS SPOT ON THE TEAM; JORDAN’S WORK ETHIC DIDN’T DROP OFF.
HIS SENIOR YEAR HE AVERAGED A TRIPLE-DOUBLE AND LED LANEY HIGH
TO A 19-4 RECORD. JORDAN CAPPED OFF HIS HIGH SCHOOL CAREER IN STYLE, BEING NAMED A MCDONALD’S ALL-AMERICAN. HE WASN’T YET HIS AIRNESS, BUT HE WAS WELL ON HIS WAY.
Why Michael Jordan Didn’t Make His High School Basketball Team.
Michael Jordan’s high school basketball career is best known for what didn’t happen.
In the fall of 1978, Jordan didn’t make the varsity team as a sophomore at Laney High School in Wilmington, N.C. He played for the junior varsity instead. After growing six inches, he made the varsity team and starred for two seasons before signing with the University of North Carolina and becoming the dominant NBA player of his generation.
Just Call Him Mike
Back in 1978, Jordan was known as Mike, not Michael. He was more accomplished as a baseball player than as a basketball player. He was an outstanding center fielder and pitcher who would later throw 45 consecutive shutout innings for Laney High School.
He stood just 5 feet, 9 inches as a sophomore. The basketball team returned 11 seniors and three juniors that year, including eight guards. The older players called the reticent Jordan “Peanut” and “Shagnut,” which were not terms of endearment. Nobody had any inkling that a future Hall of Fame player was in their midst.
The Rejection
Laney High School coach Clifton “Pop” Herring had one spot for a sophomore and
filled it with 6-foot-7 forward Leroy Smith, opting to add some badly needed size.
Smith blossomed into a star, going on to play for North Carolina-Charlotte and various European leagues before embarking on a successful business career. But the relegation to junior varsity stung Jordan. “It was embarrassing not making that team,” Jordan later told ESPN. “They posted the roster, and it was there for a long, long time without my name on it. I remember being really mad, too, because there was a guy who made it that really wasn’t as good as me.”
The Response
Jordan threw up a couple of 40-point games for the JV team but never got called up to the varsity as a sophomore. “Never even discussed it,” said Ron Coley, one of Herring’s assistant coaches on that team. But Jordan started growing and he kept working, day after day after day. “He never wanted to lose in anything,” said Ruby Smith, a physical education teacher at Laney. “That was in-born into him. I normally get to school between 7 and 7:30. Michael would be at school before I would. Every time I’d come in and open these doors, I’d hear the basketball. Fall, wintertime, summertime. Most mornings I had to run Michael out of the gym.”
Finally, Stardom
Jordan took flight as a junior. He was assertive now, not shy.
He scored 35 points during his first varsity game. In two seasons for Laney, he averaged 25.4 points, 12 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game. After his junior season, he was invited to Howard Garfinkel’s Five-Star Basketball Camp.
He dazzled college scouts while playing head-to-head against other top high school players. North Carolina coach Dean Smith targeted him as a priority recruit and signed him before Jordan’s senior season.
Finishing With a Flourish
Jordan led Laney to the No. 1 state ranking as a senior, but he couldn’t lead his school to a state title. Rival New Hanover delivered the knockout blow, 56-52, in the conference championship game. New Hanover coach Jim Hebron believes Laney could have gone further had coach Pop Herring used Jordan differently. “He could have played him inside and won a state championship,” Hebron said. “But he didn’t. All he was concerned about was, `How can I prepare him for college?'” Jordan’s consolation came when he poured in 30 points at the McDonald’s High School All-American Basketball Game after the season.
Charlie Engle knows about maintaining momentum.
By D.C. Lucchesi
In Running Man: A Memoir: Engle, Charlie tells the gripping, surprising, funny, emotional, and inspiring story of his life, detailing his setbacks and struggles—from coping with addiction to serving time in prison—and how he blazed a path to freedom by putting one foot in front of the other. This is a propulsive, raw, and triumphant story about finding the threshold of human endurance and transcending it.
A compulsively readable, remarkably candid memoir from world class ultra-marathon runner Charlie Engle chronicling his globe-spanning races, his record-breaking run across the Sahara Desert, and how running helped him overcome drug addiction…and an unjust stint in federal prison.
Running Man: A Memoir | Charlie Engle | Talks at Google – YouTube
After a decade-long addiction to crack cocaine and alcohol, Charlie Engle hit bottom with a near-fatal six-day binge that ended in a hail of bullets. As Engle got sober, he turned to running, which became his lifeline, his pastime, and his salvation. He began with marathons, and when marathons weren’t far enough, he began to take on ultramarathons, races that went for thirty-five, fifty, and sometimes hundreds of miles, traveling to some of the most unforgiving places on earth to race. The Matt Damon-produced documentary, Running the Sahara, followed Engle as he led a team on a harrowing, record breaking 4,500-mile run across the Sahara Desert, which helped raise millions of dollars for charity.
Charlie’s growing notoriety led to an investigation and a subsequent unjust conviction for mortgage fraud. Engle would spend sixteen months in federal prison in Beckley, West Virginia. While in jail, he pounded the small prison track, running endlessly in circles. Soon his fellow inmates were joining him, struggling to keep their spirits up in dehumanizing circumstances.
As an adventure racer and ultra-distance athlete, you can’t run across the country or another continent without being able to keep your focus on a finish line that could be weeks or even months away. But one of this Greensboro N.C. resident’s current challenges may never have a finish line: maintaining the public’s interest in H20 Africa, the charitable component of his historic run across the African continent.
Even in the heat of summer training and racing in the Carolinas, the lack or absence of water is never a consideration. But to many in the heart of Africa, it is a striking reality. Engle’s epic run and Africa’s enduring water crisis are documented in the film Running the Sahara【2008】The film, narrated and produced by Oscar-winner Matt Damon, is being showcased primarily at major marathons until the end of the year. An advance screening in Charlotte gave us the opportunity to talk to Engle about the film and the effort to access water in Africa.
ENDURANCE: How’s the film tour going so far?
ENGLE: It’s awesome, really. There are probably 25 or so dates this year.
We’re selling a lot of the DVD’s, the downloads are going great, and honestly, these events aren’t really rainmakers so much as they are about spreading the word.
ENDURANCE: You’ve said that the running community has been very supportive
of the effort. If that’s like preaching to the choir, how will you spread the word to the “unchurched”?
ENGLE: That’s part of our goal. And what I usually tell people is, look, this isn’t just a running movie… yes there’s running involved, but that’s not what it’s all about. I do believe, though, that if all we ever did was reach the running and triathlon community, we’d reach a huge group of people with this story. I mean, if I was to tell someone ten years ago that I was running a marathon, most of the time, you’d get a response like,
‘I don’t even like to drive my car that far.’ Today, if you tell someone you’re running a marathon, there’s a solid 50-50 chance they’ll say, ‘oh yeah, I did one last year, or I’ve done three, or I’d like to do one.’ They’re not going to say, ‘you’re crazy,’ or anything. That’s a really big change.
ENDURANCE: About the issue of the water crisis in Africa. Is that something that you had in mind before you started the run, or something that came along organically during the run?
ENGLE: The water issue really came about around a year before the run.
I went over to Africa to scout out the route. I’m in this village with about 100,000 people that should have had about 20,000 in it. It’s because all of these nomadic people are being forced into these villages. And there are all these aid agencies over there dealing with HIV, malaria and what have you, but no one’s dealing with the water issue. That’s where the natural relationship between being a runner and needing water really made sense.
Ultimately, Matt Damon and his involvement became critical. Having his name attached to it has really allowed us to raise a lot of money and awareness. A lot of the money we’ve raised – about six million dollars so far – has been not only for water, but also for sanitation. In that part of the world, it’s often rare that someone has that connection.
ENDURANCE: The release of Running the Sahara and the film’s tour are going to help reenergize efforts around the water crisis in Africa. How do you hope to sustain the momentum for this issue?
ENGLE: For me, it’s about finding another project. I haven’t personally come to terms with it, like, ‘now I’m whole, or whatever.’ For me, moving on or maintaining that momentum is about finding the next challenge, goal or project. Sustaining it does mean putting myself back out there. And I’ll tell you, the more people hear this story about the Sahara, I guarantee you, there were at least ten people in that theatre tonight who are going home and deciding that they’re going to do something that they didn’t plan on doing. And for me, it’s like that, too.
ENDURANCE: Most of us have never been without water. Even with the moderate to extreme drought conditions that we faced in North Carolina and many other parts of the U.S. last year, we were never more than mildly inconvenienced. Do you think it’s hard for us here to understand what it’s truly like to be without water or how they could make a difference?
ENGLE: It’s a difficult concept, for sure. Here’s what I was telling a class at an inner-city school about the issue and the water problem. I asked them if they really thought it made any difference if they cut their shower short or didn’t run the water while they brushed their teeth. They all said, ‘no, not really.’
Then I asked them if one vote would or could make a difference in an election.
Of course, they all said, ‘yes!’ So the kids understand the concept that one person can make a difference, they – and we all do – need to learn to apply that lesson to personal conservation. To use the “ultra” terminology, we’ll eventually get there; it’s just going to take some pain and suffering.
Engle and the film will be back in the Carolinas this fall for screenings at Raleigh’s City
of Oaks Marathon and Charlotte’s Thunder Road Marathon. A DVD copy of Running the Sahara can be purchased or downloaded online at http://www.runningthesahara.com/.
(636) How Running Saved My Life (Three Times) | Charlie Engle | Google Zeitgeist – YouTube
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D.C. Lucchesi runs, rides, and writes in Charlotte, NC, with the support of his family and the generous assistance of the folks at New Balance, Fuel Belt, Body Glide, and Run for Your Life. D.C. can be reached at dc@runforyourlife.com.
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