If all coaches have at least one thing in common, it’s that they enjoy helping their athletes make progress. Most importantly, there’s nothing quite like watching an athlete meet one of their goals.
I got to see this for myself last weekend, when I interviewed the Shervingtons for this week’s Sports feature story.
Tom Shervington coaches most of his son’s sports teams in some way, whether as a head coach or an assistant, and it’s easy to see why he was plucked from a bench to get his start as a basketball assistant coach: He could be mistaken for San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich on the street, and both men have a military background that shows up in their coaching styles.
Although Shervington doesn’t claim to know basketball as well as Popovich, he’s just as eager to get the most out of any of his athletes, in any of the sports in which he’s involved. This may be most evident in his son, Thomas, a talented athlete with plenty of hardware to show for it.
After I interviewed father and son on Sunday afternoon, they invited me to join them for bocce practice at the Plant City High School softball field, with the rest of the Special Olympics Hillsborough County athletes who were there. I accepted.
Some sketchy Italian food gave me food poisoning, from which I spent roughly half my weekend recovering. By the time I had to leave to go do the interview, I felt well enough to function without constantly running to the nearest restroom. I was good for about two hours, long enough to drive to the school and do everything I had to do; once I left, everything came rushing back.
I started out by simply watching the athletes play a few sets. This also served as a refresher for me, as I haven’t played bocce in years — and, even then, I had played maybe twice in my life. It’s not tough to grasp the concept, roughly 95 percent of which can be summed up by the phrase, “Italian tailgate toss.”
The clay threw most of the players off at first; the balls tended to roll farther than anyone expected. Shervington, firm but encouraging, demonstrated the proper throwing technique for clay surfaces and gave some pointers, on which I also took mental notes. It didn’t take long for the athletes to catch on and start making some great throws.
Once they started getting closer to the pallino (the little white ball that serves as the game’s target area), the athletes grew visibly more confident. When they would hit the pallino (which results in a baci, an automatic two points), they erupted with unbridled joy, jumping up and down with arms raised and grinning from ear to ear. It was contagious.
After a few sets, Shervington invited me to play a few myself. Because bocce isn’t physically taxing, I accepted. My first opponent, whose name was Mike, put forth a good effort. I was thrown off by the clay, too, and made a few throws that rolled completely out of the playing area. One decent throw secured a point for me in that round, though, and I took a break to watch another match on the other side of the area.
Shervington put me in a matchup with Thomas in my next go-around, which was a tough one. I had improved my throwing motion from the first game, but Thomas brought his A-game. Just when I thought I had him edged out for the win, he had one throw left and made it count: a beauty that ended up just a few inches from the pallino, which turned the tables in his favor. If he also were competing in bocce in next weekend’s area games, I’d fully expect him to leave with another medal around his neck.
Mike and I played one more set against each other afterward, and he also had improved noticeably this time. He made some great throws and had the edge on me until later in the match, when one of my throws took a lucky roll and hit for a baci.
It was really cool seeing the other athletes around us improve, as well. By the end of practice, there were some games that came right down to the wire — including one that had to be judged with measuring tape. Everyone was happy by the time they got to the post-practice huddle, which was great to see. After getting sick over the weekend, I needed a pick-me-up.
Also: After speaking with the Shervingtons, Plant City High deserves some kudos for its willingness to work with special-needs athletes. Although many schools and businesses would offer more limited resources, and/or charge a fee to use them, our local high school allows these athletes to use any of its facilities for free, provides equipment and uniforms for free and even maintains its fields over the summer — when none of its own teams are using them — so the athletes always have a top-notch practice environment. Tom had nothing but high praise for the school in this regard, and I couldn’t agree more.