Tim McGraw
When you drive into Delhi, New York, a sign greets you that says "Village of Delhi." That is a vivid description of this small town in the Catskill Mountains. It is such a unique place for the basketball hopes of 100 junior college basketball programs that dream of spending spring break there playing in the NJCAA Division III national tournament. This is why the backs of our basketball T-shirts read "New York Effort 24/7/365."
Our North Lake College guys have made the journey three times during the past eight years. We finished fourth in 2000 and 2007, and won the national championship in 2006. This summer we have worked hard recruiting to get us a group of guys capable of returning to Delhi. We have had over 140 guys come try out. Thirty guys are enrolled in school to compete for positions on the 2007-08 team.
Part of preparing for the national tournament level is playing a very challenging schedule.
We will travel to Midland Dec. 8 to play Midland College, the NJCAA Div. I defending national champion. We also will play in three difficult tournaments where we are the only non-scholarship team in the tournament. The first tournament is Nov. 9-10 in Fort Smith, Ark., against University of Arkansas-Fort Smith and Carl Albert College of Oklahoma. The second one is Thanksgiving weekend in Pratt, KS., when we play two tough Kansas teams - Pratt and Seward County.
The third tournament is the toughest of all, when we play in West Plains, Mo., in January. Seminole State College from Oklahoma, Northwest Mississippi, and Missouri State-West Plains are the three opponents we will face.
In addition to hosting try-outs throughout the summer, we have hosted two weeks of basketball camps for players ages 8 through 14. Both camps went very well. Camps are a good way for us to increase community awareness of NLC's basketball program, along with raising money for our program.
Seven of our Blazers from this past season will be playing at four-year universities. Among them are Duran Brownlow, a guard from this year's squad who recently signed to play at Dickinson State University in North Dakota. Reece Hartle is walking on at Texas State, and Curtis Scipio will be playing at Jarvis Christian College.
- Tim McGraw is the head basketball coach at North Lake
Photo by Victoria Stafford
Coach Tim McGraw held two basketball camps this summer. Almost
60 signed up for the two
week-long camps, where kids ages 8-11
learned game technique from a championship coach.