It was a cold winter day, the year was 2002, and Buddy W. was starting to become one of the most recognized athletes on Cape Cod. The Harwich Boys Basketball team (8th grade) had a game on Nantucket, and Buddy had a free-throw contest just a couple hours before the game. The team took the rocky boat ride over the island, while their teammate stayed on the peninsula to shoot free-throws with the rest of Cape Cod's elite shooters.
As the youngsters each took their turn shooting 25 free-throws apiece for the District title, Buddy sat on the side, listening to Boyz II Men, waiting for his name to be called. Once it was, he stepped to the line and calmly nailed 24 of 25 shots to win Districts. No big deal. Next up was Regionals and our beloved Buddy sank 22 shots, while dealing with the heckling parents who knew the only way he'd lose would be to distract him. Buddy tied for second in Regionals, only losing to Barry Badrinath (he's good at everything). So it came to a shoot out for second, two kids, five shoots apiece. The young man who shoot first went 4 for 5, respectively. Buddy walks slowly to the line, and makes all five shots, exactly what the fans expected from someone as clutch as him. He took his hardware and exited the gym.
Now when other 8th graders would call it a day, Buddy wasn't satisfied. He raced to the airport and took a private plane to Nantucket to join his teammates. Arriving a little late, he entered the gym with the game in progress. He took his spot on the bench with his trophy, just chillin'. Then his named was called to enter the game, and give the Rough Riders a spark off the bench. Still off a high from his free-throw performance, he came in and scored six big points and managed to grab a rebound in the process. Us Rough Riders went on to win the game (we won a lot, no big deal), but Buddy was the big winner that day. He showed us all the heart and desire that we should all strive to have. Thank you Buddy, thank you.
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