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🏀 Day-2 🏀 👉🏽Detlef Musch and the Nussknacker .. Special Player / Special Family
👉🏽There are not a lot of words here. The pictures tell the story….
👉🏽In the early 80’s, I began coaching playing for the “Fuldaer Turnerschaft” FT-1848 in Fulda, Germany.
👉🏽The club didn’t have a youth program. At practice, I saw a few boys, who seemed decent, playing on the side baskets.
👉🏽When I asked why they didn’t play on a team, I was informed that there was no one to coach them.
👉🏽The “Fulda Roadrunners” were born! We’ll cover that later. This post is about Detlef Musch.
👉🏽As the Youth Program was developing, the Under-16 boys were getting pretty good. One day at practice, two of the players told me about a soccer player that they felt might help the team. Some of you know how I felt about soccer…! 🤦🏽♂️
👉🏽To quiet their nerves, I decided to go watch a practice anyway …🤷🏽♂️
👉🏽What I found was a 6’6” kid standing in the goal!😳
👉🏽Trying not to offend anyone and not to pressure the boy, I introduced myself and told him “You’re in the wrong sport!” … I told him when and where practice was and hoped he’d stop by and give Basketball a chance.
👉🏽He did! …. and from that day until today, he became one of my “All-Time Favorite Players”. It was and remains an absolute joy to cross paths with Detlef. From the very beginning through today, he has not changed. From Day-1, he “allowed himself to be coached”, and for that I am grateful.
👉🏾He was always ready to help on and off the court. When the “DeFeet Sport Shop” surfaced, he helped out whenever he could… (It was definitely nice to have someone around who could easily reach the the shoes on the top shelf in the storage room) 🤣
👉🏾The same goes for his parents, brother and sister in-law. The Nussknacker was always available for our Basketball Club’s Christmas Parties… and even after I departed Fulda, I was able to use Fulda as my Operations Center when I brought my College Team to Germany, or Professional Teams from other cities.They went above and beyond when it came to taking care of the players.
👉🏾Thanks “Det” .. for driving 3+ Hours to spend the day with me.
👉🏾Thanks Lothar and Heike for your friendship and for giving me the “Family Price” for my stay… although I think it’s unfair that you gave Detlef a “slightly” 😳 larger coffee cup at breakfast.🙂
👉🏾”Oops…!”🙄 I failed to mention…. He turned out to be a pretty good player as well … Division-I Scholarship at Davidson College … Played Professionally in Germany (National Championship (2) and National Cup Champions .. Played Professionally in Italy and France … Member of German National Team (together with Dirk Nowitzki)...
👉🏽I hope the video gives you some idea of how much fun it was being his coach!
‼️Footnote‼️ I will probably make a couple of Flashback Videos involving Detlef for the new YouTube Channel (@rayritzingram) … Make sure you check it out… and then … “Like-Subscribe-Share”
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