By Dee Britt

Bobby Britt is my son. His decision to play for his uncle at Hendersonville High School was a family decision.

The story really begins when Bobby was a junior. He had played JV and the night he was trying out for varsity he called me from the gym. He was kind of lisping as he told me he had had his front tooth knocked completely out. He said it was in a Dixie cup next to the gym bench. I called the dentist and was told that Bobby needed to jam the tooth back in so that the tooth would not die. I called and told him this so when I got to the gym he was in the locker room doing as the dentist had instructed. When he came out of the locker room covered in blood we headed to the dentist. In about an hour he was done. When we got in the car I said: “Son you have had a rough night and you look a little pale. Let’s head home and get you to bed.” He replied, “N, Dad I need to go see if I made the team.” So we headed back to the gym. I pulled up and everything was closed up and all had gone home. The roster was posted on the door. When he came back to the car he said, “Dad, I didn’t make the team.”

I don’t remember much past that night but it was pretty tough on all of us. There is always a negative side to High School sports which we sometimes forget about.

About a week later after the family had heard the news Bobby Wilkins (who our Bobby was named after) called and said if we wanted Bobby could come to Hendersonville High School and play for him. Of course Bobby would be a senior and he was torn about leaving and going to a brand new school filled with students he didn’t know. The other side of course was he could play basketball and complete one of his dreams.

We had two older children. Jeff was 18 years old and still at home and 20-year-old Shannon, who worked and had her own apartment.  It was decided my wife would move to Hendersonville with Bobby and live with her Mom and Dad for the school year. They were great people and loved their grandkids so it was a natural choice for them to make. Mr. Wilkins was the principal at the elementary school and my wife had worked for him during her high school years so he hired her as a substitute for that year. Without her salary it would have been tough to pull the move off.

Two things that I remember early on were Mr. Wilkins complaining of no hot water when he wanted to shower in the mornings and Bobby having to adjust to a smaller high school environment. The school that Bobby attended in Winston Salem was much larger and there was less supervision so on Bobby’s first at HHS he planned to sneak off at lunchtime and go to Taco Bell. He gets in his car and lights a cigarette (he was a teenager not an angel) and suddenly he hears a tap on his window. His uncle, the assistant principal and coach, told him to get his butt out of that car and to get it (his butt) back in the school and pronto!

I was at home with Jeff and his biggest complaint was that I was too cheap when it came to the food budget. I remember he called his Mom one day and demanded that she make me spend the extra dollar and buy Marie Callender pot pies and not Banquet!

During the season I would leave each evening and drive to Hendersonville (2 1/2 hours one way), get there watch the game and drive back home to Winston, arriving around midnight. I never missed a game the whole season.

Of course on the weekends I stayed with them and would come home on Sunday evenings.

If I remember correctly they lost the first three or four games and my faith was shaken slightly. Eventually the team got into a rhythm and things got better. It was a special feeling to be there for the state championship game In Chapel Hill and get to see Bobby help his team bring home the championship—and also win the most valuable player award.

It was an adventure that has stayed with me through the years and never for one minute did I regret the decision. Except maybe that one time I was going home from a game in Robbinsville, took a wrong turn and I knew I had made a mistake when I saw a sign that said: Welcome to Tennessee! I got back to Winston around 4:00am.