The March Madness team, “Grown Men,”  won this year’s tournament. Teammates Ray Willis, Logic Amen, Lamar Hurd, and Ed Haskins share insight on their road to victory. 

Maddie Lee: Where have you played basketball in the past? 

RW: I played professional basktetball in France, Italy, and Australia.  

When I came out of college, I went to the Portland Trailblazer camp. Back then, there was no developmental league for the NBA, so a lot of players would go overseas or play with Athletes in Action.  So, from the Portland Trailblazers, I went to the Athletes in Action team.  And from that, some people saw me play, and the Denver Nuggets had me come to their camp, but I went overseas because a lot of scouts were starting to see me play nationally.  

The first country I went to was France, and I loved it. So, what I decided, instead of trying to do NBA politics, was to just stay overseas and play. The money was good, seeing the world, culture, people, I met a nice lady there. So, I was overseas for about eight, almost nine, years.  

LA: Out of the whole group, technically I’m the one who taught themselves how to play basketball.  I was cut from my eighth grade team, and I’ve never, never looked back.  

The last day of tryouts my coach told me to shut up or something like that, and I said, “Hey you can’t be talking to me like that. You’re not my dad.” And I woke up the next morning, went to the gym, and didn’t see my name on the list, and I got discouraged from then on. 

I didn’t start playing, seriously, until senior year in highschool, freshman year in college playing pick-up games. 

LH: I played at Garfield High School…and that’s it! That’s my career, basketball career. I played JV my freshman year, and didn’t get any playing time.   Sophomore year to senior year I was a starter.  

EH: I played at Clover Park High School and a year at Pierce College, junior college, and walked on to Washington State’s basketball team. After that I went overseas and played in the Philippines for a minute, and came back and started coaching. 

ML: What got you started playing? 

RW:  I think it was just my dad’s interest in basketball.  We were always doing sports in my family.  I loved baseball first.  But I started to grow pretty quick, and so my friends and I decided, oh we’d better  play some basketball too.  And I was pretty good.  

And all I had to do was climb my back fence, and there was a big, big junior high school behind my house.  They had a big gym, so it was easy to take my lunch over and play with my friends.  And that became easier to do because you could do it by yourself, whereas baseball, you’ve got to have someone to play catch with.  It was easy to climb over the fence, guys would come in, and it just became contagious. 

LA: I think probably the first time I played basketball was back in Ohio. My first time I think I was probably in third grade. And this was one of the many things my mom tried to get me involved in to keep me preoccupied so I could expend all this infinite energy that I had.  

And so I just started playing basketball there and I would always go down the street, I remember, and they had a basketball hoop in the back yard of some apartments.  

I started playing when I got older because my friend played basketball.  When I was a senior in high school he started playing basketball, and got really into it, so he started coaching teams, and I was his assistant coach. 

I was always a baseball and tennis and football player. But, it’s always a good way to get in shape because you can always find a hoop game, especially here in Seattle.  . 

LH: I have two older brothers and both of them were athletes , so I probably started first grade, started playing basketball back in the alley with the neighborhood kids. And a lot of my free time was spent playing basketball growing up. And then at 11 years old, I got on to Miller Recreation community center team, started playing organized basketball. 

EH: I was pretty much born with a basketball in my hand.  I’m the youngest of nine and I have four older brothers.  And I’m actually the second shortest, of the boys. So I have four older brothers, four older sisters, and all my family, they’re all athletes.  

So, it was pretty much as far as I can look, as far back as I can remember, it was always, competitive basketball. I don’t remember my brothers ever giving me an inch.  Doesn’t matter how young I was, I’d try to shoot, they’d block it. So it made me a lot tougher.  

ML: During March Maddness, how did you feel about playing against students?  

RW: It was fun.  I liked it because the first two years, I’d just walk over and watch. Then last year, I had torn my Achilles tendon, so I couldn’t play.  This year, Mr. Amen and Ms. Petty were talking about it, so he asked me to be on his team.  The guys are very talented, and the girls too.  

LA: I think it was kind of funny.  Because they were talking a lot of stuff  before the tournament started and during the tournament. And I speak for myself, it’s kind of hard as an adult to guage how much energy to put into it, but we definitely wanted to win.  It showed. I think it’s the first time staff ever won.

LH: It was fun because I can remember playing when I was in high school, and I can almost predict some of the things that they’re going to do.  

LA: It’s basically when you’re playing with people like Ray and people who have played the game for so long, we’d go out, and you just know how good a shot he has and all you got to do is set a screen, and it’s just the kids – you don’t see that screen coming, you don’t see that pick coming and the next thing you know, the balls in there I mean, the first game he almost scored all the points just on jumpers alone. 

EH: I played against some of my players, so that was cool.  I think it was just fun because of the energy of it. All of the kids, you could see them at lunch-time every day coming into the gym and just watching.  And so for me as a coach, getting excited about kids getting excited about basketball is pretty easy. 

LA: I think it’s good that kids and adults have that working relationship. Not necessarily friends, but they have that understanding that they can trust us and work with us and it’s an open door policy almost. I think it’s good for school community.