One Of My Favorite Players

Now that the basketball season has come and gone it has come to the point where one of my favorite players career is over and he will be moving on to the college level.  There are not many players who are asked as freshman to  play varsity basketball.

Dante Battle as a freshman was  six feet five his very first varsity game. We all thought as good as he was then by his senior year he would be six nine or better and look every coach in the country will be here after our monster of a basketball player.

The first game at Nash Central as a freshman Pat and I sat on the top row beside this lady and it wasn't to long before we realized she was pulling for Rocky Mount.  It didn't take me long for me to ask 'Do you have someone on the Rocky Mount team?'  It was Dante's grandmother Janice.  I told her then that I like the way he played.

Little did I know then how much the person Dante is today has come from her.  Dante lost his mother in a auto accident when he was only seven.  There are way too many kids in this world we live in that their parents don't have any idea where they are right now.  Grand Ma Janice knew where Dante was and it wasn't on the street corner.

Dante's demeanor of soft spoken and laid back attitude was taught to him and I have never spoken to him when it wasn't yes sir.  The world we live in today where children disrespect their elders there is a warm place in my heart for Dante because of what he has missed without having parents but he surely has listened to those especially Mama Janice and he was able to understand right from wrong.
Dante does have a mother and her name is Janice Battle.

Today Dante is still six feet five never became that Six ten or something player we all thought he would be.  He has been  the MVP of the 2012 state championship game and this year the player of the year in the Big East.  He has  been big enough to be the man for the Gryphons.  He will be heading to Alabama this fall to play at Wallace State.

We all see in Dante that easy going share the ball with my team mates guy. He has never worried that he had already had his growth spurt by the tenth grade. If while in Alabama he stays the person he is off the court but gets a little mean streak in him and maybe a little selfish  who knows what is left for him on the basketball court.

You see I like team players that help make their team mates better.  How many slam dunks I am going  to tear this goal down dunks did you see from Dante?  Not many, when he did it was drop it over the goal or make a layup.  I like players who don't have to show me how good they are. That's why Dante Battle has now been added to the list of my favorite players.