Setting the Record Straight
Jerry Wainwright, the former assistant at Wake who went on to head his own programs at UNC Wilmington, Richmond and DePaul, liked to joke that the only two places worth recruiting are orphanages and prisons—orphanages because they have no parents, prisons because there’s no alumni.
Wainwright is a funny, funny man.
Actually my experiences with parents have been for the most part very pleasurable. Having gotten to know the player, it’s almost always a charge to see where they came from. Of course I’m not a coach responsible for doling out playing time.
One parent I go back a ways with his N’Earl Godwin, who along with his wife Robin are to thank for Brooks Godwin, the senior walk-on who is well-regarded enough among his teammates to have been named a captain on this year’s team. N’Earl and I coached baseball at Northwest Forsyth Little League when Nate and their older son, Trey, were coming along. We’ve kept up over the years, and I’ve always enjoyed running into him at Deacon Tower or Joel Coliseum.
So I knew to take the email he sent Sunday in the spirit in which it was intended. N’Earl dropped a line to note that it was actually Brooks who scored the final basket of Wake’s 76-40 loss to N.C. State Saturday instead of Daniel Green, to whom I had credited field goal in my game story. My defense is two-fold. By then I couldn’t watch any longer, and the actual play-by-play credited Green.
Brooks Godwin works too hard in practice not to get the props he deserves in a game. I’m glad to set the record straight, and thanks to a proud father for setting me straight. If someone had credited someone else with the timpani part Nate played with the Dallas Wind Symphony, I’d have something to say as well.