Courtside (eBook)

A Memoir of Life, Learning, Law & Purpose

Derick Loury (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022 | 1. Auflage
144 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-6678-4298-1 (ISBN)

Infos

Derick Loury shares his autobiographical debut of a small-town boy traveling the Greater Philadelphia area to chase a dream of Division 1 competitive basketball. Loury combines information and narrative to craft a story full of encyclopedic detail and personal experiences. A humble, slice-of-life chronicle of one man's journey of self-discovery. The sport forms the backbone of the narrative and Loury's connection to it which he carries through boyhood and, ultimately, to a career in law enforcement. He reflects on detailed accounts of growing up in Darby Township. The challenges and milestones of a young black child in a predominantly white neighborhood and his first-hand encounter with racist policies geared to protect the rights and privileges of the Southeast Delco School District in eastern Pennsylvania. And the fallout of a historic legal battle that devastated the Darby Township Black Community. It is basketball and faith that resonate strongest in Loury's life, even if they could not solve every problem. While grief and loss at a young age shadowed his performance in school and home, athleticism brought back structure and purpose. His faith brought him to community and he'd continue to give back through sports programs as an adult. His life was enriched through the unique personalities whose experiences and views were deeply impactful. He recounts piecing himself back together after devastating loss on humble fishing trips with his grandparents. The foreword of this book is offered by Jay Wright, a Naismith Hall of Fame Coach and close friend throughout most of Loury's life. Explore eastern Pennsylvania through Loury's eyes, how his experiences culminate in the dedicated and esteemed person today.

In 21 seasons as Villanova's William B. Finneran Endowed Head Coach, Jay Wright has guided the Wildcats to new heights, including NCAA national championships in 2016 and 2018 and four appearances in the NCAA Final Four. The Bucknell University graduate (1983) was enshrined on Sept. 11, 2021, in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Villanova posted a 30-win season for the sixth time in Wright's tenure as head coach in 2021-22, advancing to the NCAA Final Four with a 50-44 victory over Houston in the South Regional Final. The Wildcats own 20 NCAA Tournament victories since 2016, the most in the nation in that span (20-4). Along the way Villanova captured the 2022 BIG EAST Tournament title, extending to nine consecutive seasons its run of winning a BIG EAST regular season or tournament crown. Since the BIG EAST realigned in 2013, the Wildcats have won 263 games, an average of 29.2 per season. In January 2020, Wright was named the Associated Press men's college basketball Coach of the Decade. In 2017-18, the Wildcats amassed a school record 36 victories and secured Villanova's third NCAA national championship with a 79-62 victory over Michigan on April 2, 2018. Jalen Brunson became Villanova's first consensus National Player of the Year in the modern era, joining Paul Arizin as the only VU players to earn that distinction. In 2016, Villanova defeated North Carolina 77-74 when Kris Jenkins drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer to cap a 35-5 campaign with an NCAA national title. The product of Council Rock High School owns a record of 520-196 (.724) in his 21 seasons at the helm of the Wildcats and is the program's all-time wins leader. With 271 BIG EAST victories, he ranks third all-time among league coaches and is 34-14 (.708) in NCAA Tournament play at Nova. His overall record as head coach - including a successful seven-year stint at Hofstra University from 1994-2001 - is 642-281 (.691). This is Wright's second stint at Villanova. He served as an assistant to the late Rollie Massimino from 1987-92. The Wildcats have succeeded on the academic side too. Since 2012, the Wildcats have received Academic All-BIG EAST recognition on 82 occasions and all 13 members of the roster earned that distinction in 2020-21. Brunson was named a second team CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2018 and teammate Matt Kennedy received the NCAA Elite 90 Award at the Final Four. Collin Gillespie was named the BIG EAST Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2022. Every Villanova player who has spent four years in the program since 1975 has earned his degree. In 2018 Wright received the John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award in Los Angeles. He is a two-time winner of the Naismith National Coach of the Year award (2006 and 2016) and in 2018-19 became the first man in BIG EAST history to be selected as the league's Coach of the Year six times. Wright is married to the former Patricia Reilly. The couple has two sons, Taylor (28) and Colin (27) and a daughter Reilly (22). Patty and Jay Wright were honored with the inaugural Saint Augustine Medal in April 2017. Wright's book 'Attitude', published in 2017, was a New York Times bestseller.

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In the tender embrace of Darby Township, where the whispers of the Greater Philadelphia loomed large, Derick Loury penned the inaugural chapters of his life. With the rhythmic dribble of a basketball as his constant companion, Loury unfolds his autobiography, a small-town boy with eyes alight with the glint of Division 1 dreams. This is not merely a tale; it is a tapestry woven with the meticulous threads of encyclopedic detail and the vibrant hues of personal sagas. A humble, authentic reflection of a life's journey, Derick's narrative is a heartfelt sojourn through the corridors of self-discovery. The heart of his story beats to the pulsating rhythm of basketball, a steadfast echo from boyhood to the stern corridors of law enforcement. As Loury takes us by the hand, we tread the storied paths of his youth in Darby Township. Here, amid the laughter and trials of a young black child in a predominantly white enclave, he confronts the jagged edges of racism, slicing through the fabric of the Southeast Delco School District with policies that shield privilege, leaving a community to grapple with the aftermath of a legal storm that would scar its history. It is basketball, that sacred dance on the court, intertwined with an unwavering faith, that casts the longest shadows in Loury's odyssey. For even as the specters of grief and loss loomed, clouding his school days and darkening the doorstep of home, it was the discipline of sport that restored structure to his world, and the solace of faith that ushered him into the arms of community. As a man, Loury's life would continue to be a testament to giving, his legacy etched in the sports programs he championed. Through the mosaic of faces and stories that touched his life, he found a richness beyond measure. Grief's sharp edges were softened by the gentle ebb and flow of fishing trips with his grandparents, where he pieced together the fragments of his heart. In the foreword, Jay Wright, the esteemed Naismith Hall of Fame Coach and a steadfast beacon in Loury's life, offers a window into the soul of a friend. Through Loury's eyes, we journey across the landscape of eastern Pennsylvania, each experience, each trial and triumph, converging to mold the man of honor we see today. Derick Loury's story is an invitation to walk the streets of his memories, to see the world through his victories and defeats, and to understand how a dream, when chased with relentless passion, can define one's destiny.

Textauszug

FIRST PERIOD

IT’S ELEMENTARY KINDERGARTEN IN 1966; I was five years old when I attended kindergarten. All of a sudden, I am being driven to a large, white house full of children from different nationalities. It was quite interesting; however, there were a few neighborhood kids attending Delaware County Daycare located on the corner of Oak Avenue and Chester Pike. We would assemble as a group of children singing and reciting nursery rhymes. Each day we would take a nap close to noon, after we received lunch and a snack.

I would occasionally get into trouble with my buddies, Craig Butler and Richard Womack (who lived in Darby Township) for not immediately going to sleep. If you used bad language you had to wash your mouth out with soap, which was provided by the teacher. The teachers were not nice, and I didn’t enjoy our relationship. I only enjoyed eating cookies with my friends, but most of the time, I couldn’t wait to go home and play with my trucks and cars my grandma bought me.

I was a spoiled brat and so was my brother. I would always go grocery and clothing shopping with my mother and grandmother. After school, if I were not going straight home, my parents would drop me off at my mother’s girlfriend’s house. There were two kids to play with named Levi and Marvin Thompson. We played a lot, vacationed and attended basketball camp together.

In kindergarten we did academic activities such as addition, subtraction and playing outside on the playground. I believe the Delaware County daycare kindergarten was part of the K4 educational system. In most state and private schools, children begin kindergarten at age five and attend for one year. Forty-three of the fifty states required their school districts to offer a kindergarten year. In a typical U.S. kindergarten classroom, resources like toys, pictures and crayons are available for children’s use. The daily schedule varies from town to town, but there are some similarities.

In the morning, we usually did circle time; this included saying the pledge of allegiance, looking at the calendar, and discussing the weather and season that day. Next, we worked on different subjects. In math, we usually did single-digit addition and subtraction, learned to count with “more or less” games, became acquainted with a clock, and learned skip counting to prepare us for one-digit multiplication. In language arts, we learned sight words (like “cat” and “fun”), rhyming, trends and silent “e” sounds. We then learned how to write, form sentences and were required to write three complete sentences by the end of the year. In social studies, we learned about the months, states of the United States, the continents and sometimes about people performing community functions (e.g., doctor, barber, teacher), places (e.g., you go to a hospital when you’re sick or to have surgery or to the park to play).

After a few lessons, we would break for lunch. We either fetched our own lunchboxes brought from home or got a lunch from the cafeteria and ate it in the classroom. Sometimes after lunch, we would have recess—some students’ favorite part of the day—when we could go outside to play on the swings, slides, play basketball and socialize. After recess, we would go back inside to do more learning. Some area daycare schools let children take a nap or do free choice (blocks, tic tac toe, Play-Doh, etc.). When kindergarten was over for the day, parents or guardians come to pick up their child or the children would ride a school bus home.

1967-1972 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: GRADES ONE TO FOUR. FIRST GRADE.

In math, we learned about addition and subtraction of natural numbers, usually with only one digit, and about measurement. Also in the curriculum was basic geometry and graphing, telling time and learning the calendar, and money. In language, we were taught the fundamentals of literacy, including reading sentences, writing very simple statements and mastery of the alphabet. The expectations for first grade have changed due to the Common Core Standards. I understand that the curriculum is typically based on state standards developed by educators in each state. Most states used the Common Core Standards, so most schools across the country are using similar curricula.

First graders were expected to read and comprehend stories ranging in lengths and difficulty. They were also expected to show an improving fluency rate during the school year with ability to easily read stories by the end of the year. Students were also typically introduced to the concept of social studies with an emphasis on establishing ideas of history or civics in either a personal or larger sense. Some states focused on the basics of U.S. history, with a focus on the founding fathers and the period surrounding the American Revolution. Other states required a social study focus on family relationships, leaving community, state and nation. Basic geography was also taught in the first grade. The school’s municipal area and culture, along with basic state geography, may also be focused upon in first grade in some states. First grade science usually involves the discussion of matter, plant, animals, earth materials, balance, motion, the human body and basic health and nutrition. Students are encouraged to observe the world around them and begin asking questions about things they notice. As they become more comfortable investigating the world around them, students will also begin asking better questions and making more advanced predictions.

In the first grade, in 1967, I was enrolled in Darby Township Elementary School. I believe this was a dramatic change for me. If I am not mistaken, our parents had to drive us to school the first day and then we had to catch a yellow bus to school after that. With racism being an issue, being bused through neighborhoods that were not completely policed nor safe, I was afraid and unsettled. It took a while to get familiar with a clash of different classes of people.

I remember my teacher, Ms. Orr—a tall, black and beautiful woman— had a calming effect. She was extremely kind and pleasant in the classroom and greeted everyone in the hallway while we were lining up. Everyone had to walk together from the classroom, lunchroom and playground. Eventually, we all felt good about the new experience.

THE EMOTIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SHIFT AROUND 1968

I was about seven years old in the second grade and everything started to go wrong. A neighbor, Leonard Fuller, died suddenly of leukemia at the age of eight. We embraced him and enjoyed playing with him. He had some kind of mental illness but was high functioning. My grandma took me to his funeral at Claude Edney’s Funeral Home. It was so sad and extremely emotional. I couldn’t sleep or focus on the things that were necessary, especially school.

Third Grade in math, students are usually introduced to multiplication and division, place value to thousands or ten thousands, and estimation. Depending on the school, students may even begin to work on long division. Decimals (to tenths only) are sometimes introduced. Students begin to work on problem-solving skills, working to explain their thinking in mathematical terms. In science, third graders are taught basic physical science and chemistry. Weather and climate are also taught. The concept of atoms and molecules, the states of matter and energy, along with basic elements such as oxygen, hydrogen, gold, zinc and iron, are common in the third grade. Nutrition and chemistry are also taught in third grade. Social studies began a study of the culture of the United States, from the time of Native Americans to the Civil War. Outward expansion and the gold rush is covered as well. In reading, third-grade students begin working more on text comprehension than decoding strategies. Students also begin reading harder chapter books. Third-grade students learn how to work on projects on their own and with others. This may start as early as first and second grade as well.

I was assigned to Ms. Mayo, who taught a progressive classroom in the third grade. She gave lessons in cultivating seeds in a cup and placing them near the windowsill. By doing so she explained if we watered the seeds and allow the sun to shine on the cup, the seeds would start growing. We watched nature produce a growing plant. I think I had a problem focusing and understanding why these lessons were important. I had no patience waiting for that plant to grow. I wasn’t interested in doing homework or asking for help in class when subject matters went sideways. The only good that came out of the third grade was that it was basically a lot of fun—recess, lunch—but in regards to learning, I didn’t capture the purpose behind it. I had no motivation, no incentives and in other words, I wasn’t there mentally; nor did I embrace the school lessons emotionally. I did not pay attention enough to perform at a level where my teachers felt comfortable promoting me to the next grade. So subsequently, I got left back and I do remember my mother having everything to do with that process. I don’t remember repeating the third grade. My mother explained that she also failed along with my older brother.

In the United States, in fourth-grade students are usually nine or ten years old and typically attend an Elementary or Primary School. Standard subjects include math, science, English, grammar, writing, literature, and history, often including history of the founding of the United States. And depending on which State the school is in, subjects may include regional and local area...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.4.2022
• Vorwort: Jay Wright
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Beruf / Finanzen / Recht / Wirtschaft
• ISBN-10: 1-6678-4298-6 / 1667842986
• ISBN-13: 978-1-6678-4298-1 / 9781667842981