THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 3, 1996 TAG: 9602030432
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
I plucked the basketball from the air, 77 feet from the hoop at the other end of the floor. I turned. I heaved, the ball that is, downcourt to beat the buzzer. It came nowhere near the backboard, let alone the basket.
Eight times I fired away the other day in Norfolk Collegiate's gym, till my arm gave out. Nothing but air. Polite kid that he is, Ryan Welsh never once chuckled - audibly, anyway - as he watched.
Then again, Welsh, king of the king-sized shot, wasn't so hot himself in our long-toss contest.
Welsh at least hit the backboard on his fourth try. And then on his seventh, it almost happened. Magic. Like last Saturday, when Welsh banked in an almost-length-of-the-court prayer for Norfolk Collegiate against Benedictine.
Welsh's seventh re-creation of that miracle rattled the backboard and grazed the front of the rim, unlike Saturday's shot, which was a direct hit.
The first quarter was nearly over when Welsh, playing defense on the right side of the lane, intercepted a shot that had been blocked by teammate Jody Balaban.
Three . ..
He dribbled once to gain control, and as he glanced at the clock, Welsh considered passing to Balaban. But seeing only 2.9 seconds left, he decided a shot was his only option.
Two ...
He stopped, stepped toward the basket and, like the centerfielder he is in the spring, let fly an overhanded, arcing bomb with his right arm.
One ...
Barely missing the ceiling, the ball slammed into the middle of the painted box above the rim and plunged into the net - the longest, coolest field goal this area's likely to see for a while. Worth three points, to boot.
Unfortunately, it didn't help the Oaks, who were routed 55-31, and it wrecked Welsh's concentration the rest of the game.
``I felt tingly, sluggish. I just felt weird,'' Welsh said. ``Mentally, I wasn't there. I just kept picturing myself making that shot. I kept thinking, `Wow! Did I really do something like that?' ''
The first hint that Welsh, a 6-foot-3 junior and the Oaks' leading scorer, fell mentally off his game came immediately after the shot. After being mobbed by delirious teammates, he disappeared through a side door and headed for the locker room while everybody else returned to the bench.
A couple seconds later, finally realizing it wasn't yet halftime, Welsh made a sheepish return.
``I don't know what I was thinking,'' Welsh, a Virginia Beach resident, said with a laugh. ``I just ran out the door, I was so excited.''
It sparked an entire week of excitement for Welsh.
A cheerleader's father caught the shot on video, so the clip wound up on all the local TV stations and on ESPN.
Practically everybody who saw it and who knows Welsh has called him. Which meant his mom took to leaving the phone off the hook at night so Welsh could hit the books in peace.
``A celebrity for the moment, I guess,'' Welsh said. ``I'm enjoying it. It'll all die out eventually. This is my 15 minutes of fame.''
Yeah, but you never know if Welsh's bull's-eye won't live on in one of those $9.99 ``wackiest shots'' video compilations or something.
Welsh has his own favorites: the woman who tossed one in behind her back while falling out of bounds; the guy who swished a blind heave from the opposite foul line; that kid who barked like a dog on an in-bounds play to distract the opponents as a teammate stepped free for a layup.
Not that Welsh needs a video to remember. No way he'll ever forget.
Not by a long shot. ILLUSTRATION: VIDEOTAPE COURTESY OF TOM WOOD
Last Saturday, Norfolk Collegiate's Ryan Welsh grabbed the ball,
checked the clock and let fly . . .
Some 77 feet away, the ball caromed off the backboard and into the
net. The Oaks lost the game but won national renown.
by CNB