The voice of Salina Central
“When he got home he started calling all of his friends to tell him what he’d just done,” senior Rachel Norris said of her younger brother Brett. “It pretty much made his life, his confidence was through the roof.”
When Winter sports roll around and the athletes who once occupied the gyms and fields are stuck in-between athletic seasons with nothing to do, the Parks and Recreational Department has surfaced with a popular sporting outlet; basketball.
Some groups pride themselves on their athletic prowess, forming teams comprised of starting football players, conditioning on the off season, while others use the hardwood courts like actors on a stage.
“Gunnar wore yoga pants to our game with a sock in the front,” junior Noah Grant said.
Grant, at 5’8”, debuted the season with a slam dunk on a 10 foot goal by leaping off of a teammates back. According to Parks and Recreational rules, however, dunking is frowned upon and left Grant with a technical violation and no points on the board.
Various stunts such as this include, shooting on their own goal, half court, behind the back shots, blind free-throws, and many, out of the ordinary outfits. Though these stunts may seem ridiculous, to recreational league, it’s all been done before
One new feature, however, that caught the referee’s attention was the 4’9”, 11 year old, fifth grader, Brett Norris, who payed with a team twice his size and almost twice his age, disguised as a “freshman, who’s really sensitive about his physical appearance.”
“We told the ref’s that he was really sensitive about his size and that they shouldn’t ask him about it,” Grant said.
Scoring six points in the second half of his opening game, Norris proved to be a key player.
Unable to play the following week in his recreational game because of his prior commitment to another team, one his age, Norris was missed.
“When you score six points in a game you pretty much have to keep him playing,” Grant said.
Even when playing with other grad school kids, Norris is still the smallest.
“Brett’s really small for his age, he usually spends half of the game on the ground,” Norris said of her younger brother.
