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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2012 > January > 25
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Dayton Flyers: “Everybody likes to see a story get a happy ending.”
While there were many moments to remember from Dayton’s victory over Xavier Saturday at UD Arena - at least if you were a Flyers fans - the most heart-warming one had to be when Ralph Hill - the once little-used sub - came out of the game after making some key plays in crunch time and got a standing ovation from the crowd.
“I think fans just like seeing someone go out and play hard,” Hill said. “You don’t to be spectacular.”
Asked if —considering his back story - there wasn’t a little more to it that that, he thought a few seconds and finally admitted: “Yeah, maybe it has something to do with a little guy trying to make a big step. Everybody likes to see a story get a happy ending.”
As for Hill’s story, that was my column in today’s newspaper.
Here it is below:
Xxxxxxx
IT’S ALL STARTING TO CLICK FOR RALPH HILL
That old saying finally is ringing true for Ralph Hill.
“I’d tell him his bread always lands jelly side up,” Vickie Bradley, Hill’s mom, said with a little chuckle. “I called it having favor in your life. When things are going wrong - when our bread falls - it lands jelly side up so it’s not a complete disaster. It’s still salvageable.”
And that’s never been more true for the Dayton Flyers’ 6-foot-6 sophomore than the past few days.
This time last year he found himself relegated to an end-of-the bench Siberia. His entire freshman season he played just 23 minutes. For 29 of the Flyers’ 36 games he never left his seat.
But this past Saturday he felt the warmth of the crowd when - after making several impressive plays in crunch time against Xavier - he returned to the bench and got a standing ovation from many in the sold-out crowd of 13,435 at UD Arena.
“I’ve got to be honest, it felt great,” he said. “It kinda sent chills to my spine.”
Afterward, as she does every game, Bradley - who raised her only child as a single parent and always has been his unbending backbone - waited with the other Flyer families for the players to emerge from the dressing room.
“When he walked out he looked like he might have grown an inch,” she said quietly. “His chin was up. He had a glow about him. His countenance was lifted. There was a confidence. I was just so proud of him.”
That glow was still there Monday as Hill made his rounds on campus.
“Unless I wore a Dayton (basketball) sweatshirt or something, people didn’t really know me when I walked around here last year,” he said as we sat and talked in the Torch Lounge in Kennedy Union. “This year is a little different and today has actually been a great day. A lot of people have come up to me and said ‘Great game.’”
And then, as though on cue, two elderly professors taking part in a nearby reception honoring Father William Joseph Chaminade - founder of the Marianists - went out of their way to pass in front of Hill and smile and nod appreciatively.
A few minutes later, a woman taking photos of the festivities turned her camera toward him.
He didn’t see her, so he didn’t pose. But he still was smiling.
Feeling His Pain
As a high school senior at Westerville North outside Columbus, Hill came to Kettering for the Flyin’ to the Hoop tournament two years ago and put on a show. He scored 28 points, grabbed nine rebounds, had six steals and assists in a victory over Flora Macdonald Academy.
A four-year varsity starter, he averaged 22.5 p.p.g. of as a senior, won Division I All Ohio honors and was recruited by several colleges.
He chose Dayton and joined fellow signee Juwan Staten in lobbying Brandon Spearman and then Devin Oliver to join their recruiting class. But once he got here, Hill’s star suddenly faded and he almost never played.
“I’m not gonna lie, it was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to face next to losing my grandfather,” he said.
“I went from being the star in high school - the No. 1 option on a team that had to have me to win - to being a guy that the team didn’t need at all.
“My mom would come to ever game and afterward, I’d say. ‘Ma, I can’t do this any more. It’s too tough.’ And she’d listen and let me vent and then she’d let me calm down and give me an unbiased point of view.
“She’d say, ‘Look, you’re not always going to be successful. There are going to be trying times, so get your chin up and move on.”
A manager in the technology department of JPMorgan Chase, she has always been proof of that her son said:
“She’s a strong woman and 99 percent of what you see in me came from her. She instilled the good traits. She’s the one who hammered it in that, yeah, you’re here to hoop it up, but the main reason you’re in school is to get degree. That’ what will get you a job in life.”
Vickie, though, said she knew her son was hurting last season. She was, too:
“When you’re a parent, you feel your child’s pain, same as you do their joy. I knew he felt he couldn’t do it anymore, but I made sure he got a good dose of mom kicking him in the right direction.
“I tried to remind him this is the way life is sometimes. It happens to all of us. Sometimes you have to be patient and wait your turn. He had to humble himself.”
For a while Hill figured maybe he should just turn himself totally toward his studies - he’s a mechanical engineering major - and take a different approach.
“As bad as it sounds, I thought, ‘OK at least I have front row seats to the games,” he said. “But when you’re a competitor, that doesn’t really work, so then I thought about going some place else.”
The feeling intensified when Staten and Spearman announced they were transferring.
Once again, though, mom took a different stance.
“I didn’t want him chasing a basketball,” she said. “To me Dayton is an awesome school academically and the basketball program had been awesome, too…. I always see the glass as half full.”
It Finally Clicks
Hill said his teammates, especially Oliver, his roommate, convinced him to hang on. And when coach Brian Gregory left and Archie Miller was hired, Hill took a wait and see approach.
Thanks, in part, to his mom’s no-coddling attitude, he reevaluated his situation and admits, “I wasn’t ready to play that much last season. Offensively I could play, but defensively I couldn’t accomplish what BG wanted. And now I can say I was playing behind an NBA guy ( Chris Wright) and two other upper-classmen (Josh Benson and Luke Fabrizius,) too.”
The bottom line was he needed to get better. But when preseason injuries slowed his initial progress, he said he still doubted himself enough that he approached assistant coach Kevin Kuwik:
“I asked him, ‘Am I good enough to play at this level?’ And he was like, ‘I’m not going to tell you yes or no. There are some things you need to work on and some things you’re good at,’ and I feel like that was a great answer. If he had told me yes I might not be working as hard as I am now and if he said no, I might have thought, ‘I shouldn’t be doing this any more.’”
Miller said Hill began to really dedicate himself in practice and then when Benson was lost for the season with an ACL tear, he helped fill that void with his rebounding and interior defense.
Over the past three games, Hill has averaged 12.3 minutes a contest, had 14 rebounds, eight points and two assists.
“I’m really happy for Ralph because he’s earned this the hard way,” said Miller, who commended Hill in front of the team after the Xavier game.
“I hope this is just like my mom kept telling me, that everybody has a moment when it finally clicks,” Hill said.” I never wanted the story to end up like, ‘Okay, he didn’t play. He quit. He left because he wanted something easier.’… I wanted my story to end better than that.”
He wanted make sure his bread really did land jelly side up.
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