Last April Landon Brown came over to my apartment and asked/told me to help out with coaching in the boys BYU-I competitive basketball league. And that was that.
A week later I was at the gym for 3 nights straight watching A TON of basketball players doing drills, and scrimmaging. Let me tell you, by the third night my brain was on overload just trying to remember which players we (Mike and I) thought would best benefit our team.
Meanwhile I (this is Ryan) had just finished school and had started a job installing sprinkler systems. Playing basketball in the BYU-I competitive league was the furthest thing from my mind. One of my good friends called the night before the last day of tryouts and told me to come and tryout in hopes that we would end up on the same team. I was reluctant, but figured I would at least give it a shot (literally). When I first got to the gym there was way too many people and I could not see how it would ever be enjoyable. I went through a few drills and wasn't too excited about the idea of playing at BYU-I. About half way through the tryout I saw the prettiest girl I'd ever seen running drills on the north side of the main gym. Immediately I focused more on my performance in hopes of being noticed by this girl. Unfortunately, my efforts were in vain. It probably didn't help that the 500 other guys in the gym that day were trying to do the same thing. Still though, I suddenly was excited about playing because I knew there was a small chance that I could end up on her team.
With the way this league works, the first 7 rounds of drafting are done after the 2nd day of tryouts. These 7 rounds are usually setting a team up for their best varsity players. On the last day of tryouts things become a blur. There are about 100 random names and faces and jump shots floating around in your mind. And sometimes you draft a player with a prayer in your heart :)
Now with Ryan coming on the last day of tryouts, very few (if any) coaches were able to see what he could do. (Confirmation that she didn't notice me at tryouts.) And because he had not played any other season, nobody knew who he was. So in the draft room there were a few names floating around at the end as things were winding down. Luckily for Mike and I Landon Brown (the league coordinator running the show) knew who Ryan Morris was. Landon was surprised Ryan was still in the draft because he is really talented. He said that Ryan was a shooting guard, but could handle the ball well enough to be a point guard. We were still in desperation for a solid point guard for the varsity. So we snatched him up quick!
Practices and games started and Ryan turned out to be one of my most hard working, smart, and talented players. (There is no bias at all in this comment.) At this point in time, I had sworn off all boys for the summer, so of course his refined and entertaining style of playing, his perfect
stroke, and his average of 20+ points per game were completely unappealing to me. Not to mention those big blue eyes, his alluring crooked smile, and his unbelievably defined farmers tan. Pshh, the last thing I was doing was falling for one of my players...trust me :)
Nearing the end of the season neither one of us had mustered the guts to really even hold a conversation outside of, "Ryan, go in for Brant." or "Nice shot Ryan." The usual response to those being a head nod or, "Thanks." We did run into each other at a party once...
It's what college kids call a stoplight party. You are supposed to wear one of three colors to a stoplilght party. Red, yellow, or green. Red meaning..."I'm taken, no chance." Yellow meaning..."it's complicated, try me." And green meaning, "I'm single, so introduce yourself." I ran into Garrett and Ryan here. Like I said I had sworn off boys, so naturally I was wearing red. Ryan and Garrett, like most of the people there, were both in green.. (I was really disappointed to see that Rachel was wearing red at the party. I made sure to play it cool though and didn't show my disappointment in the least.) Garrett and I mostly talked, it was an indirect "conversation" with Ryan. Not sure if that counts as a conversation...but it's the closest we'd come at this point.
Anyways, we had a team BBQ coming up for my boys and one of the girls teams. I was way excited...I took forever to get ready for this hoping Ryan would be there to see me outside of basketball shorts, sweatpants, and a hoody. The BBQ started and Ryan wasn't there. I was bummed a little, but shrugged it off. Hey, what did I care...I'd sworn off boys anyways. BUT WAIT...half way through the party Ryan comes running down the hill dressed as if he was going to a soccer game. Okay, so maybe my heart missed a beat or two..
Even though Ryan and I had never really talked, and our relationship was very much a coach/player relationship, he did manage to interact with me at a BBQ...
To begin this interaction he decided to dump the cooler of ice down my back. Let me point out I wasn't head coach, and we didn't win any championship game. None the less, he was very proud of himself. After that we stood around as a team talking for a long time. Eventually most of the boys headed out. It was the coldest day of the summer probably. Rainy and wet! Ryan was in shorts, and it was obvious he was freezing...but he wasn't leaving...hmmm?
Anyone who knows me knows that I would never go to a team BBQ for a BYU-I team unless I was intersted in someone there. I had just finished a soccer game and it was starting to rain and I figured I would stop by the BBQ just to support the team. When I saw Rachel there I got very excited, maybe we would have our first legitimate conversation. When the BBQ started to wind down, people started to leave and I hung around to help clean up. (If only it was for the right reason.) I knew that I had to do something to break the ice between Rachel and I. When I saw the cooler full of ice, I saw it as my opportunity; we would either hit it off or it would be one of the most awakward moments of my life. It went better than expected and provided an opportunity to hand out after the BBQ.
Finally I, oh so smoothly, managed to move the party back to Brant's apartment. I wanted to see if my allstar would still be hanging around, even with a location change. Plus it was freezing! And it worked, Ryan was still hanging around. At this point Ry and I managed to neglect most of the people there by playing ping pong with grapes and messing around. We then watched a movie at Brant's...Unfortunately for me somebody gave Ryan a nerf gun and plenty of ammo. I am pretty sure I was pelted once every 5 seconds the rest of the night. (It's not hard to see my lack of skill with the ladies, hence the nerf gun and bucket of ice.) And this is the moment that our coach/player relationship headed in a differen
t direction...
For the next 3 weeks we found ourselves finding any excuse to hangout. An example of this would be the night that Ryan rolled his ankle really bad at practice. We felt that me being his coach and all, I should be the one to make sure it was properly cared for...it was a legitimate and professional concern for my leading scorer. And, come on, tourney time was just around the corner.
Another such example would be the night Ryan invited me to come up and play ball with some of the guys at the gym. We ended that night at his apartment going over some plays…or something like
We spent hours talking about anything and everything. But every practice it was back to "Coach" and "Morris."
My favorite thing about Ryan at this point was that he took things really slow, and was a complete gentleman. He was very respectful of me. On top of that, we are both very very very shy, so we played a lot of games...some people refer to those games as, "playing hard to get." Needless to say, getting either one of us to admit our feelings, or show them, was like pulling teeth.
After hanging out everyday and talking for hours on end we finally managed to have that awful dreaded talk...the DTR. (Define the Relationship) I was planning on waiting until after the championship game (which was the next night) and for the season to be over before taking the next step. Ryan, on the other hand, had drawn up a different game plan that I did not know about. Our first kiss took place that night, the night before the championship game. Immediately following the kiss I said really flustered, "Morris, you better be ready to play tomorrow." (with a friendly smirk) And got out of the car.
The next day my leading scorer was colder than a Rexburg winter day; I'd never seen him so off. It appears his head wasn't exatly in the game. We lost by ten. Quite honestly though, the only thing keeping my head in the game was the fact that I was watching Ryan play. I didn't care too much how the game ended, because either way, the season was over and Ryan was no longer one of my players. And the rest is pretty much history...
