Don Palmer has been a basketball coach for more than 40 years, longer than Jarrett Cogwell has been alive.
But the two men, Palmer with Hartland and Cogswell at Pinckney, helped two girls have a bit of glory in what for them are otherwise lost seasons.
Alex Rigonan, a senior, and junior Shay Herbert both sustained knee injuries that have put them on the bench this season.
But Palmer suggested to Cogswell that both girls have a chance to shoot free throws before Friday’s game between the teams.
“Alex is a senior, and won’t get on that floor again,” Palmer said, speaking of the Pinckney High School gym. “Shay has at least another year. I talked to Jarrett and said, ‘Let’s do this,’ and the officials said we could do it.”
It’s not the first time Palmer has done something like this. A few years ago, a KLAA tournament game between Howell and Hartland started with one girl from each team taking a pair of free throws in a final farewell.
Rigonan sank both of hers and Herbert split the pair.
“I think it was a good thing to do,” Palmer said. “You want to win, but on the other hand, we have to remember why we’re in (coaching). It’s to help kids become better players and better people.”
The free throws gave Pinckney a 3-0 lead before the opening tip, and for most of the game it looked like nothing more than a nice gesture, especially since Hartland rolled out to a 31-19 lead midway through the third quarter.
The first time the teams played, Hartland won comfortably, by 19 points, but Palmer wasn’t fooled.
“I felt they had outplayed us,” he said.
The Pirates haven’t had a lot of success in the last decade, with injuries and talent issues and several coaches before Cogswell took over.
Trailing 31-19, he put in a unit which had four guards, who harassed the Eagles and took advantage of mismatches and made a run.
The Pirates got to within a point, 40-39, and had a chance to win it on the final possession.junior point guard Chloe Hanifan drove the lane and put up a jumper that bounced off the rim. The Pirates got the rebound, but couldn’t hold on, and Hartland went home with the win.
Pinckney is 8-4 overall, 2-4 in the KLAA West after starting the season 6-0.
“People have to remember this is a good basketball team,” Palmer said. “They’ve lost twice to us and once to Brighton and Howell. Those teams are playing OK.”
Hartland is 10-2, 5-1 in the league, and Palmer is worried that perhaps his Eagles are feeling too much pressure from both the coach and themselves.
Cogswell, meanwhile, is a young coach with a young team with a the-future-is-now outlook.
“We’re building something,” he said. “We know we can compete with anyone, and tonight we showed that. … I told them (after the game) ‘You’d better believe, now. We’re going to do some great things in the league this year.'”
With four more games in the division and the KLAA tournament ahead, that could very well happen.
But a moment before a game to give two injured players a final moment in the spotlight this season made a huge difference to the players and nearly the game.
“I felt good for Alex,” Palmer said. “I’ve known her over the years. I don’t know Shay very well, but I’ve heard good things about her, too.
“If we would have lost by one, I still would have done it,” he added.
Sports is a cutthroat business more often than not. You can look anywhere and find stories of cruelty and things that are a lot less than sportsmanlike.
But there are also good people doing good things because they want to for kids who will never play for them. Their kindness and sportsmanship are a part of sports, and life, that we ignore at our peril.
