The Long Shot: the Story of Kevin Kane

A person who is considered obese is almost never considered to be an athlete or even expected to do any physical activity at all. But what happens if a kid that is not the slimmest or the strongest or the most athletic defies all odds and becomes a hero? What happens when a whole town gets flipped on its head because nobody knows how to react when the most unlikely of heroes steps up in a big situation and just keeps succeeding? Would this be classified as a miracle? A legend? A fiction or a fantasy? To me it would be classified as real life. My name is Kevin Kane and this is my story.
The obvious place to start my story is to tell you my background. I have already told you my name is Kevin Kane. I live in Clearbrook, Minnesota; I am currently a senior at Clearbrook High School. I have achieved high grades throughout my school years. I have already decided I will be going to college to major in the field of physical therapy. Now all of this is just fine and it has probably made a pretty good impression on you but to me not much of this really matters. What really matters to me is one particular game that my school has a reputation for having a reign of tyranny over for the past ten years. What is it? Basketball. Basketball is the one thing that I care about the most. It has been my passion ever since I was little and it is the one thing that I know I can fall back on even when things are at their worst. I have been playing the game of basketball for Clearbrook since the basketball program starts being offered by the school in fourth grade. Even before that however I would go to the local basketball courts and find some kind of game to jump in. Like I said earlier basketball is kind of a big deal in Clearbrook, and everybody wants to be the basketball star and be adored. That’s the dream at least right? So continuing on I am now in my fourth season of varsity basketball for the Clearbrook Bears. That statement can be a bit misleading though because I have never actually stepped onto the court for a varsity game. Now people may question how this could happen when I have already shown that I have a deep love for basketball and one could assume that someone who loves basketball as I much as I do would play. That is sadly not the case however because I have a problem with obesity in my family and unfortunately I was not lucky enough to somehow avoid it. I have been fighting obesity my whole life to this point and no matter what I do I just can’t seem to keep the weight off. Now this is no reason for anyone who may be reading this to feel bad for me in any way. I don’t believe in excuses and I don’t want to go through my life feeling sorry for myself just because I am a little bigger than everyone else. Now it is obvious where the problem is now with my love for basketball. Obviously a kid who is on the heavy side is not expected to be an athlete and be very effective in any physical thing they do, but the following story will prove to you that the unlikeliest of hero can come out at any time and surprise everyone.
The obvious place to start is at the beginning of the playoffs. Clearbrook had just finished up its tenth straight undefeated season in league play. This is an amazing accomplishment and it felt good just to be a part of for the first two years but last year and now this season I would just sit on the bench and wish I could somehow do something to help our team win. Our team was on its way to the playoffs where we would face competition that just couldn’t challenge us for the first two rounds. I knew that those games would be just like all the others where the team would feel no pressure and just keep rolling on. However it was once we would get to the league final when things would start to get interesting. That is where our school’s “reign of tyranny” comes to a screeching halt. You see our team can beat all the teams in our section and in our league rather easily but it is when the regional championship comes along and we are playing for a chance at state playoffs where things start to come to a halt for us. Because every year we would run into our rivals of Richville Academy and we would usually get upset by one or two points and it would be a very tough loss to swallow. Our goal was to not let this happen this year.
As was predicted we cruised through the first two rounds of the playoffs and then won the semi final in a relatively easy fashion by handing the other team an eighteen point loss. Then to our delight we got the news that Richville had lost and we would be heavy favorites to win the Championship and move on to the state playoffs for the first time in six years. The regional championship game worked out just as we had planned in going into the fourth quarter we had a comfortable twenty-two point cushion. The fourth quarter started and against all advice from the assistances Coach Stevens put both Washingtons out onto the court. “Omaha! Omaha! Omaha!” Coach shouted and all the players reacted by setting up the isolation play where the Washington brothers would work their magic and get to the rim for an easy two points. The play was working as usual with DeShawn driving hard to the basket when he was cut off by the other team’s biggest player. DeShawn went up to make an acrobatic shot and drew contact in mid air. The ball took a friendly roll and went into the basket as the gym went into a raucous applause and DeShawn would have felt like he was on top of the world. If he could’ve stood up.
You see what went unnoticed was that after the play the big goon of the other team didn’t just foul DeShawn he landed on him hard. With DeShawn on the ground writhing in pain Coach Stevens went to go check on him, and you could tell from his initial reaction the result wasn’t good. The game went into an injury timeout and an extreme quiet fell over the gym as the whole crowd knew what an injury to a Washington brother would mean to our basketball team. After about five minutes DeShawn had to be taken off on a stretcher. The rest of the game finished out without any retaliation from our team, and Demetrius being taken out of the game immediately following so he would not be at risk of getting injured. We escaped the regional championship with a narrow sixty-eight to sixty victory that was lead by some superior clock management down the stretch by Dustin White our next best player after the Washington brothers.
After the game Coach gathered the whole team for his post game talk with us that was usually filled with excitement from the win, but today his usually up beat personality was completely deflated.
“As you all saw DeShawn went down with an injury in tonight’s game,” Coach Stevens began, “and I feel like I should inform you that he broke his right leg when he was fallen on and recovery time for a break of his severity is expected to be about twelve weeks.”
“TWELVE WEEKS!” exclaimed Lucas Anderson the teams leader in rebounds and blocks, “Who do you expect to run the point the rest of the playoffs coach? You do realize we clinched our first state playoff appearance in nearly ten years and now you are telling us we are going to be making that appearance without a point guard who also happens to be our leading scorer?”
“Listen boys I know this situation sounds insurmountable and I realize it will be a very tough scenario for us but we have to keep our heads and come out next week in the first round of the states and give our best effort,” Coach spoke with the tone that radiated confidence and was the main reason he had gotten the job in the first place, “Everyone bring it in. I want everyone to rest this weekend and we will have practice after school on Monday to prepare for Wednesday’s playoff game.” With that were allowed to go and I got home to get sleep after the action of the previous day’s game.
When I woke up the next morning social media was buzzing about the news of DeShawn’s injury. There were questions of if this was a sign that Clearbrook was not meant to be in a state playoff game, questions of who would take up the large amounts of minutes that DeShawn would play and even ridiculous ideas from some people who were attempting to brainstorm ways that DeShawn could play on his broken leg. When I turned on the TV to put on ESPN the local news was the first thing to come up and the top story was…yes you guessed it the injury of DeSawn Washington the basketball star that had led Clearbrook to s state playoff appearance. This large spike of activity only lasted about two hours in the morning however and once everybody was beginning to calm down about the situation Demetrius put out a tweet that read, “All of you have been asking who will pick up the slack now that my brother is injured and won’t be able to play. I think the answer is obvious. #IWill.”
Demetrius did all that he had promised in that tweet in the next two weeks with three of the best performances of his life including three games where he had more than forty points and sixteen assists per game. It was because of his inspired performances that Clearbrook High School would be going back to the Minnesota State Championships.
My best friend Claire O’Connor was the first and only person to congratulate me on being part of the team that made the state championship.
“But I didn’t do anything at all this season.” I argued.
“Bullcrap,” Claire retorted, “We both know that you are much better than you get credit for and even if you don’t get to play the way you play in practice surely pushes all the other kids harder than anything else could.”
“Claire you may be the only one that cares about how well I practice,” I responded defiantly, “Not one person but you cares that I practice hard. All they care about is what shows up in the stat column and for me all that a shows up is a big fat zero under the word minutes.”
Quickly Claire responded, “Kevin you might not realize it but people will eventually notice you for all the work you put into this team and all the time you spend pushing these other kids to the limits. Believe it or not your chance is coming.”
Little did I know it would turn out that Claire would be right as usual, but in a much bigger way than either of us could have ever imagined.
That Friday the State Championship was upon us. We were about to play in front of easily the biggest crowd that a Clearbrook basketball team had ever played against in the school’s history. Everyone on the team was nervous as a wave of the pregame jitters came over the team. Our coach was the one to step up and break the silence in the locker room. “Okay I want everybody to really listen up,” he began, “This game is no different to anyone in this locker room than any game before this. The people outside this locker room might feel it is different , but you guys are the ones that really matter so as long as you guys treat it like just another game that’s all it will be. So go out onto that court and play your hearts out like you do every other game.”
With a new wave of confidence after coach’s speech we headed out to do our normal routine. As I normally would I participated in the pregame warm ups and as I looked into the stands the first person I could pick out was Claire O’Connor sitting right next to my parents who had undoubtedly picked her up and brought her. She smiled at me and I smiled back as I got the ball passed to me and proceeded to shoot a jump shot from about six feet behind the three point line. It swished through the hoop and a couple of the people sitting nearby turned their heads because they thought it was quite a sight to see a kid who doesn’t look all that athletic swishing extremely long range three pointers. I took about two steps backwards once I got another ball I launched up another shot that just like the first one went straight through the hoop. This turned even more heads and you could hear the people on that side of the floor start to buzz with excitement as they started to generate talk about that number fifty-three that just made a long range three from almost half court with ease.
This buzz died down at the end of warm ups when the national anthem and the lineups were announced. The start of the biggest game in Clearbrook high School history was just seconds away. Whistles blew and the referee threw the ball up and the game began with Lucas Anderson winning the opening tip off to Demetrius. He wasted no time getting up the court and hit a quick three pointer to give Clearbrook the early lead. Then less than fifteen seconds later Lucas got a rebound and made a quick outlet pass to Demetrius who went down and hit another three pointer that sent the crowd in to a frenzy of applause. It looked like there was nothing in the world that could possibly stop Demetrius like he had decided that tonight would be the night that he would write his name into the history books. Unfortunately fate had another idea in mind. I say this because the next time the other team came down the floor Demetrius had a steal and was off down the floor on what seemed like a routine fast break. However once he laid the ball into the hoop he came out of the air and landed right on the side of his ankle and let out a scream of pain. Everyone in the gym immediately went silent as the shock that the train that was Clearbrook basketball could be derailed so easily. After an injury timeout that lasted about five minutes Demetrius was helped off of the court to the trainer’s room and coach gathered us all into a huddle to give us information on the situation.
“Okay team unfortunately they just determined that Demetrius has just broken his ankle and will obviously not be able to come back into this game. This fact leads me to make a decision on whom to put into his place,” Then he said something I never thought I would ever hear come out of his mouth, “Kevin Kane I want you to go into the game as the three guard and show off some more of that shooter’s touch you had in warm ups today.”
I was completely stunned at this fact as I reached to take my warm up shirt off and stepped out onto the court. As I stepped out there was a large applause as the announcer announced my entrance into the game. I stepped out and took my position in the middle of the two-three zone defense that we were running so that the other team could not just pick on me the whole game because of my lack of speed. Before I knew it the other team had a shot off and Lucas came down with yet another rebound and threw it out to Dustin White who had picked up the point guard duties now that neither of the Washington brothers was available to us. We got down the floor and started running through our plays which I knew like the back of my hand. Towards the end of the shot clock somebody needed to get a shot off and the ball ended up in my hands. “SHOOT!” coach screamed. I heard this and immediately did just that and threw up an open three. It swished right through the hoop and the crowd erupted into applause. My varsity career was off to a great start I was one for one with three points in my first minute. The next possession down the floor I hit another three with no one covering me and with extreme frustration the other team’s coach called a timeout and began to scream at his team. Meanwhile our bench was the exact opposite as everyone wanted to high five me and tell me great job or nice shooting. After that timeout I was heavily guarded up close for the rest of the half and my hot hand was efficiently shut down. It was too late however because the damage was already done as our team had all the momentum and a thirty four to sixteen lead at half time.
Our coach’s halftime speech was pretty much what we all expected as he sang his praises of how we were playing great team basketball and especially made note of my exceptional shooting. I hate to admit it because I am a modest person but I was shooting very well as I was four for four with ten points and five assists. Not too shabby for a player playing in his first ever varsity game.
The second half started with me on the bench to begin and the Cougars jumping out to a quick ten to zero run that severely reduced their deficit. By the time I got back int the game there was five minutes left in the fourth quarter with the score being a completely different story now that our lead had been cut to just four points. The quarter went along with us trading baskets and the Cougars hitting two big threes. This took us to the final minute where the Cougars had a two point lead and the ball. As unfortunate as it was it looked as though Clearbrook was going to choke on the big stage once again. The Cougars came out and spread their players around the floor trying to run out the rest of the clock. Then one mishandle of a bad pass changed everything as the ball flew out of bounds with three point seven seconds remaining on the clock. With this chance coach Stevens took the opportunity to call a time out and draw up a play so that we could get off an organized shot with the little time we had left.
“This is what I want to happen guys. I want everyone to give Dustin some space to work with so we can inbound the ball and he can get off a good shot attempt. Understood?”
“Understood,” We replied as we headed out to face the single most important moment of our basketball careers.
As it worked out the other team knew exactly what we were trying to do and had Dustin triple teamed so it was obvious that he would not be getting the ball. However because they had three players dedicated to covering Dustin I was able to step out and give Luke Baker, who was inbounding the ball another option. Panicked Luke threw me the ball and I was forced to catch it and knowing there was almost no time left I just squared up and shot not even realizing that I was shooing from just inches inside half court. The shot flew through the air and time seemed to slow down as everyone watched in horror as the shot looked to be going short. Clearbrook’s fate would not be that however as the ball gently bounced off of the front of the rim and barely off the backboard and fell through the hoop. It was all over with my shot at the buzzer being the reason for Clearbrook pulling out a sixty-seven to sixty-six victory to return them to their former glory as the Minnesota State Basketball Champions.