I will try to keep this short, but my experience seems to be right on par with everyone else coach Peters got to know through the game of basketball. I feel compelled to share.
My first season as a head coach was at the freshmen level at a northern Cincinnati high school and coach Peters' oldest son, Danny, was my point guard. Coach Pete was Bob Huggins assistant at the University of Cincinnati at the time.
One game in particular turned out to be the toughest loss of my career. Without reliving the details, we had a 1-point lead with one second left AND we had the ball. I made an awful coaching decision at the end of the game that put Danny in a tough situation, we lost. I knew that Danny felt like he let his team down, but he didn't. It was on my shoulders.
As a first year coach, I took every loss to heart, especially this one.
When I returned home, the phone rang. It was coach Peters. It was odd that coach would be calling me at home. He wasn't at our game. We had never spoken on the phone before and I'm not sure how he got my number. But even more puzzling was that it was the night of the Crosstown Shootout - The biggest game of the year for both Cincinnati and Xavier. Feeling badly about the loss, I immediately started apologizing about my mistake and how it wasn't Danny's fault.
But Coach Peters didn't call to talk about his son. He just wanted to tell me that I was doing a great job and never to let the highs get too high and the lows get too low. He didn't know any details of the game or how it ended, just that his wife told him that a young coach was probably at home beating himself up over a last second loss. It was a diagnosis a coach's wife, like Mrs. Peters, was qualified to give.
After I hung up the phone, I put some things away and turned the television on. I will never forget, it was the Crosstown Shootout warm-ups and who is standing right there in front of the bench? Coach Peters.
It wasn't minutes since I hung up the phone with him. I remember thinking... that coach, on that stage, with that pressure just minutes away, just walked out to a tunnel or locker room somewhere and called me, a lowly freshmen coach, to make sure I am doing alright.
There are so many other Dan Peters stories out there just like mine.
-Todd Hummer
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Editor's note: Thank you again, Todd. It's stories like these that humanize our favorite sports figures and help keep fans grounded. If you have a story to share like Mr. Hummer did, feel free to e-mail us at hustlebeltblog@gmail.com.