Caleb's Story

I was going to blog about this myself, but I feel that my brother did a better job than I could ever do. So, here are Caleb's thoughts regarding the Jr. Jazz game he coached on Saturday: (Below are all the words of Caleb Metzger)


I would like to tell you a heartwarming story and it has nothing to do with pregnancy or babies. Ashley is grateful for the break in pregnancy blogging overload.

Yesterday I had a Jr. Jazz game to coach. We were only going to have 4 players show up and the rule is that you must have a fifth player by the time halftime ends or you have to forfeit the game. The 2 players we were missing were 2 of our best, so even if a fifth player showed by halftime chances were dismal that we could make a game of it.

The game started and the 4 players on our team kept the game close through the first quarter. They even had a 6-5 lead at one point. The quarter ended at 13-9 in favor of our opponents. We had word in the second quarter that Micah Metzger, a potential 5th player, was nearing the gym but still a ways away. I used all 4 of our timeouts in the 2nd quarter to stop the clock. That wasn't giving us enough time so we committed 4 fouls in the last 2 minutes to keep the clock stopped as well. Then in a moment of genius, our team was going to have an inbounds pass. I told the kid to not pass it in, but hold it, take the turnover, and buy us a few more seconds. No one seemed to know what was happening with this and it took about a minute for the other team to assemble and get the ball in. As valiantly as the 4 players played halftime hit and we were losing 23-11. Halftime was winding down and we wondered if we would have our 5th player in time, just so we could finish the game. With 53 seconds left someone yelled, "there's Micah!" He ran in and that got quite the ovation.(Think Derek Fisher a few years back for the Jazz) Our team started quickly, having the correct amount of players will do that for you, and cut the lead to 6 in the first 3 minutes. Right then something happened that could have ruined the team's morale. One of our best defensive and rebounding players fouled out. This meant we had to finish the rest of the game with 4 players, and we had the full 5 players for only 3 minutes of a 40 minute game! The ref turned to me and said, "If you pull this one out, it'll be a miracle." Our team fought back playing excellent defense and scoring just enough to have the game tied as the fourth quarter ended. This meant we would go to a 3 minute overtime. In the extra period, Micah made a jump shot and a free throw and the other team could only muster a single free throw! At the end of a 43 minute game we had played 40 minutes with one fewer player and in this age group there should be no way to win against those odds. Alas, the score stood at 35-33 in our favor!!! The team and fans were pumped! After the dust had settled and the broken pieces of the opposing team's hearts were swept up, I took a look at the score sheet. In the 23 minutes that Micah had played, our team outscored the other team 24-10, with only 4 players! Micah had personally scored 20 points in those 23 minutes. He had doubled the other team's output in the time he played.

This is a team that does not have the most talent I have coached and probably not the most talent in our league. Athletically, they are not the most gifted team. But they play with the most heart and best teamwork of any team I have seen at this age level. They have finished the regular season with a 7-1 record, only losing to a Dugway team that has played together for a long time. If you want to see some awesome basketball, be at Clark Johnson Jr High in Tooele, Wednesday at 7pm.

I awoke from my sleep early the next morning dreaming that we were playing again and my heart was racing so much that I couldn't fall back to sleep. On the same note, Ashley woke up dreaming about hamburgers, huge chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and having to choose between chili and french fries!!! Oh the excitement of our lives!