April 5th: Unsung Player Day

Today is April 5th, which to most might mean nothing more than it’s a Sunday, a great time to sit up in the bed with some coffee and the newspaper, or maybe on the couch (or porch if you live in the warmer states) reading the paper and having some breakfast. Nice way to finish off the week and weekend, especially if like me last night you were watching North Carolina beat Villanova 83 to 69 to earn themselves a spot in the national title game versus Michigan State. But April 5th is a lot more than this nice and cozy morning scenario I just described, it’s the day that most people should remember when watching their favorite team play, because if the superstars and role players do well on the court for your squad, in a lot of ways they can thank the people this day is meant for: Unsung Player Day.
 
For me, an old, old Tar Heel, who has watched the Carolina programs, from football, to basketball, to soccer, to lacrosse, to baseball, and the rest of the many sports that are played at Chapel Hill, I know what it means to root for the greats. And if you know anything about UNC you know that there have been many greats: from Michael Jordan, to Lawrence Taylor, to Mia Hamm, to Sam Perkins, to Vince Carter, to Julius Peppers, to the many others that then went on to play at the pro level for their sports. But behind all of this there are the unsung heroes of those teams, the ones that almost never make it to the field/court and when they do it’s always a thrill for me, because without them the team just would not be as good.
 
For me those young men and women are the walk ons at UNC, the ones that work their back side off to make the team, forget about getting playing time, and have to work just as hard as anyone to stay on the team. They are the ones that most of the time take off their warm ups, but when they do it’s usually with a couple of minutes left, in what most of us call “mop up time”, but what for them is probably as close to being in Heaven as they can be while on earth. What we don’t see of these young men and women is the fact that at every practice they give all they have of themselves to stay in front of someone like Ty Lawson, something that the top scholarship players in the nation cannot do, or at 6’4″ have to defend someone like Tyler Hansbrough, someone who loves to be physical with bigger players than him, and he is 6’9″.
 
How wonderful it is for me to be able to say “thank you” to these players, as for me this is their day. So, next time you are watching the game and it’s getting to be a rout don’t think about leaving to beat the traffic, stay to applaud these guys and gals who work so hard and get so little time on the floor. When waiting for an autograph from your favorite players, the ones that are always on the floor, say “thanks” to the ones that are always on the bench and cheering harder than anyone else. I hate, truly hate, when I hear someone call them “scrubs”, they are the “unsung heroes” of a team, because they help the “stars” become better and better, without complaining or asking anything in return.
 
You might not believe me, but you have to believe the starters at UNC. If you have the possibility of watching a game when the, as Dean Smith would call it, “Blue Team” is in see how Hansbrough, Lawson, Ellington, Green, Thompson, Davis, Frasor and so on and so forth will root for them to score. I have watched many games where the above mentioned players will not sit down to cheer for their unsung team mates, and if they score they will be jumping up and down for them. Why? Because they have earned the respect and admiration of the players we all know, and they have done so by working just as hard as they did while not having the same athletic talents.
 
As we wait for the Tar Heels to play tomorrow night against Michigan State, let’s all say a great big “thanks” to these players:
 
J.B. Tanner – senior guard – Hendersonville, NC
Jack Wooten – senior guard – Burlington, NC
Patrick Moody – senior forward – Arden, NC
Marc Campbell – junior guard – Raleigh, NC
 
They are the “unsung players”, but they are just as much a part of this team as anyone else. Their work is appreciated by all that have practiced with them, and hopefully after this small post of mine, they will be appreciated by any and all that read this. In a school such as North Carolina, where the name on the front of the jersey is much more important than the one on the back, these young men prove that over and over and over again! Today is your day, as well as all the other team’s walk ons, enjoy it, as you have earned the right to have it!

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