Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 2, 1995 TAG: 9507040017
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Hilliary Scott never dreamed he would play pro basketball after his graduation from Roanoke College. So, when someone offered him a job with the Celtics, he got on a plane and flew east.
And what did he see when he arrived?
``Sheep,'' he said. ``Lots of sheep. Lots of green fields. Lots of hills.''
That's because Scott didn't go to Boston. He went to play pro basketball in Ireland for the 1994-95 season. He's going back to Dublin in September for a second season. Scott averaged 25 points, 10.5 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 3.5 steals per game for the Killester club team.
It isn't those numbers he talks about, nor the $400 a week he earned. The Lynchburg native knows he is richer simply for the experience, like the three trips with his team into Northern Ireland.
``I don't mind admitting I was nervous, very nervous,'' Scott said a couple of days ago at Roanoke coach Page Moir's basketball camp, where the former Maroons Division III All-American has been teaching. ``I mean, these people had been fighting for years, but the Irish players told us [two Americans play on each team] there had been a truce.
``We cross the border and there's a checkpoint. A soldier with a gun comes up to the bus and checks us out. In downtown Belfast, soldiers are walking around carrying guns. That sort of makes you wonder. Then, the third time we went to Northern Ireland, in February, the checkpoint was gone. That was much better.
``We're riding in Belfast on the bus and suddenly there's this BOOM ... BOOM ... BOOM. I'm terrified. Someone's shooting at us. I'm down in my seat with my head under my arms. I said, `Let's just get the food and get out of here.' Then the Irish guys on the team told us it was only fireworks. It was a holiday in Northern Ireland.''
Scott, 22, found he was closer to home than he thought in the Irish capital of 1 million residents. He lived in an apartment with former Virginia Tech player Gerald Kennedy, who was a teammate of Moir with the Hokies. The night Scott's team played the Tolka Rovers, one of the opponents also was a familiar face.
The Rovers' center was Boones Mill resident and former VMI center Lewis Preston. ``We got to be good friends,'' Scott said. ``It really is a small world.''
Scott's American teammate was Randall Mounts from St.Augustine (N.C.).
``They expected a lot of us,'' said the No.5 scorer in Maroons history. ``The style of play is a lot like rec league ball here. It's very physical, more than I was used to here. There are a lot of soccer and rugby players who play basketball in Ireland, too.''
Scott and Mounts were paid to play, and they also received their housing and travel - mostly by bus - gratis. However, the Irish players in both divisions of the nation's pro hoops league aren't paid to play. One of Scott's biggest adjustments was to playing only one game and having two practices a week. That limited schedule is for a good reason. The Irish players in the league hold full-time jobs.
Scott and his fellow Americans in the Irish league spend their days teaching classes in school. They teach basketball, and often it's a very basic course.
``We Americans are sort of considered experts in the sport over there,'' Scott said. ``Basketball is just now beginning to become a popular sport. The kids are really getting into it. I sort of compare basketball in Ireland with where soccer is in this country. You see what European soccer players can do with the ball and it's amazing. They look at our basketball the same way.''
He recalled one day when he went to teach a class of girls about his sport. He talked about dribbling, then realized not many of his students could do that proficiently, or had even tried it.
``It's amazing to teach someone who maybe has never touched a basketball before,'' Scott said. ``You teach how you use fingertips, how you shoot, how you play defense. They know basketball, and they like it. They just don't know much about playing it. ... It's helping me, because teaching and coaching are what I want to do when I quit playing.''
Scott said it isn't rare to see youngsters on the Dublin streets ``wearing a Chicago Bulls sweat shirt, Orlando shorts, a Celtic T-shirt and Air Jordans.'' He said the Irish marvel at the state of basketball in his homeland. Little wonder. Scott said the national arena in Dublin is the only one that has a seating capacity similar to the one at his old high school, E.C. Glass.
He said none of the gyms in which the Irish pros play is as good as Roanoke's old campus facility, tiny Alumni Gym. One site was a converted barn where one basket was anchored only by sand surrounding the base of the portable stanchion. There was no clock, and the score was kept by a man flipping numbers on a board at one end of the floor.
There was another night when Scott found himself shooting free throws in a game at a gym where the bleachers rose straight up behind the basket. The basket was attached to the wall with guy wires that were reachable from the seats.
``When I started to shoot, these kids shook the backboard by grabbing the wires,'' Scott said, laughing. ``I told the official about it and he said, `You made it anyway.' He didn't care. It's part of the game.''
A religion and philosophy major at Roanoke with a mathematics minor, Scott was headed to Tennessee State as a graduate assistant coach under fellow Roanoke alumnus Frankie Allen. He still wanted to play, however, although he wasn't thrilled about offers his agent suggested in Honduras and Tunisia.
``Northern Africa? No way,'' he said. ``Ireland sounded good. The only bad thing is it rains every day.''
Scott said that besides his wiry 6-foot-5 frame and lack of bulk being a problem in trying to play inside in a physical game, his biggest difficulty was adjusting to the slower pace of Irish play. In his first few weeks, he repeatedly hit his teammates in the head with look-away passes.
``It is a different game, and it's mostly because Irish players don't play as much as we do,'' Scott said. ``They're more like robots at times, but they're learning. They haven't had two foreign players on the teams before, and I think one reason they did that was not only to improve the game, but so that they could learn more about the sport.''
Scott never thought he would have to go so far to be a teacher, either.
by CNB