John Bartlett: From Water Bottles to the Scoreboard

 By: Brandon Wile

John Bartlett enjoys working on his game at home.

Last season, John Bartlett had done everything he was asked to do for the St. Thomas University men’s basketball team — keep the stats, run the clock and take care of the players during games.

But this season, John is taking a much different approach to the team as he is hoping to fill the net with points rather than fill the bottles with water.

For the first time in his five years at St. Thomas, John decided to tryout for the basketball team. After coming to the University in the fall of 2005, John had graduated from high school as an accomplished athlete but didn’t feel his game was up to par with the university level.

“When I came to university I thought about trying out, but I had a lot of self-doubt and wasn’t doing well academically so I decided not to.”

It wasn’t until his third year when John decided to get involved with the team. Still lacking the confidence to try out, he signed up to do the stats for the Tommie’s games.  

The following year John was promoted and became team manager which inevitably opened the door to accomplish his goal of one day being a player on the team.

“Being the team manager gave me a lot of experience. I built strong relationships with the players; I became familiar with the team’s plays and competition in the league.”

John’s big break came in the winter of 2008 at practice when the team was short players.

“Coach asked me suit up one practice and I played pretty well. I think I surprised a lot of people because I could actually compete with them,” joked John.

That practice was the opportunity that John needed to prove to himself that he had the skills to play at the university level.

As the season came to an end and summer approached, John decided to train during the off-season in an effort to make the basketball team in his final year of school.

“I biked everyday to work, tried to get to the gym as much as I could to get in shape and I was taking over 100 shots a day to try to work on my game,” said John.

It wasn’t all easy however, as John was battling with himself to try to stick to the months of difficult training.

“I questioned if it was all worth it on numerous occasions. Playing in some tournaments I felt as if my skills weren’t up to par and the fitness aspect was definitely a struggle.”

As the months progressed, so did John’s fitness and as tryouts rolled around all the hard work in the summer was paying off.

The weeklong tryout was a grueling process and John knew that it would be a challenge to crack the team with seven returning players.

As tryouts progressed, John’s constant effort caught the eye of coach Dickinson.

“He has a work ethic that I respect and I hope that the rest of the team is driven by his output,” said Dickinson. “He is great for team chemistry.”

As final cuts were announced John was both excited and anxious. Had all his hard work been wasted or had he accomplished a goal that had been five long years in the making?

As he opened the gym doors and approached the bulletin board he was extremely nervous. As his eyes ran across the page he finally saw his name; he had made the team. No longer was he the team’s trainer but rather an official player.  

“It’s a life goal, to play one of your favorite sports at the next level,” said a proud John.

With the season approaching quickly, the 5’11” guard cannot wait until the first game when he can don the Green and Gold and represent his school.

“When you throw on that jersey and have friends and classmates watching you just get a certain feeling, it’s a rush.”

With the season only weeks away John is hoping to get as much playing time as possible but isn’t concerned about having a diminished role as he has already accomplished his most important goal.

“People have expressed that it’s hard trying to get back into something once you have been away for so long but I like to think that I proved them wrong. It’s as simple as putting your mind to something and not letting anything get in the way.”

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Posted by Brandon Wile on Sep 28, 2009. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.