On this day, 15 and 11 years ago

After Reading the article the Larry Handsgen wrote in the Dayton Daily News about the death of Chris Daniels in 1996 and noting that it was on a Thursday, it brought back a couple memorable moments from 15 years ago today.

On this day in 1996, the Holy Angels Boys, seventh and eighth grade basketball teams played their last game of the season against Houston. The seventh grade won by six and the eight grade team lost by five after blowing an eight point third quarter lead. After the conclusion of the eighth grade game, there was an extra period for the “scrubs” to play. The Houston 3^rd stringers beat our 3^rd stringers 15-3 in the extra period.  I made a free throw with 20 seconds left to close out our scoring. As I was walking off the court that morning, I had the sense that I was putting on a basketball uniform for the last time, however, that would change in October of 1999.  The eighth grade boys season did not end on that day, the following Thursday, we played our fathers and beat them by four. My Mom and Connie Behr, coached the eighth grade boys that night and I was the only one on either team not to score and I am still upset about it to this day. When you’re Luke Schlater, you do not forget about certain things like these.

Later that night at Houston, Lehman played Russia in High School basketball. Lehman led throughout the contest, however, a scary moment took place midway through the 3^rd quarter, Kevin Geise dove on the floor for a loose ball and collided with a Russia player and Geise got knocked out and laid motionless for about five minutes. He had to be carried off the court on a stretcher. Lehman ended up winning the game by 10, but the game seemed to take an eternity to end.

On the day in 2000, the Cincinnati Reds traded for Superstar outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. I remember sitting at Lehman that day and Mr. Hoying, one of our guidance counselors informed us of the Reds making the trade. I remember sitting at Sara and Bryan’s house that night watching sportscenter and the press conference.