The NorthStar Narrative
The NorthStar Narrative
Lessons from the Bench
Stephanie welcomes her 9-year-old son Holton to share his basketball journey and the unexpected life lessons from his recent concussion.
• Holton's basketball passion and why he'd choose to play against Steph Curry
• His dream basketball move involves a behind-the-back crossover into a reverse layup
• The story of Holton's concussion during a church league game
• How sitting out his final game taught him valuable lessons about patience and recovery
• Holton's advice to other injured kids: "If you sit out one game, you can play sports for the rest of your life"
Hi, this is Stephanie Shafer and you're listening to the NorthStar Narrative, a podcast from NorthStar Academy. I want to thank you for joining us. I hope you're encouraged, challenged and motivated by what you learned today. Enjoy the story.
Stephanie:Hey guys, I'm super pumped about the episode this week because I have my son here with me. I've been wanting to get him on the show for a long time, but we just haven't been making it happen yet, even though we live in the same home. So Holton is here with me in my home studio, super excited and pumped to have you. Holton. Holton is nine and a half and he is lots of fun All boy, red hair, sometimes wild, but super sweet most of the time Wink, wink. No, he's lots and lots of fun and I'm super excited to get him on here so he can share about one of his passions. He is super passionate about basketball, and so I can't wait to jump in and just see where this conversation goes. So, holton, thank you so much for joining me today. You're welcome. Are you excited? Yeah, what do you think first about being on a podcast? What do you think this is going to be like?
Holton:I don't know. I'm just glad I don't have to do a podcast in front of people.
Stephanie:You're glad that we get to record and then Ms Armstrong gets to cut it. Yeah, yeah, but maybe she'll leave in some fun stuff, some fun raw stuff too. Yeah, all right, let's talk all things basketball and see what we can find out about Holton in between. Holty, I like to call him Holty. If you could play basketball against any player in the world, past or present, who would it be and why?
Holton:Oof. I don't know Probably Steph Curry, because he's really good at threes and I am too.
Stephanie:Woohoo, yeah, that'd be fun, lots of fun. How tall is he? I?
Holton:don't know, like six something. Yeah, how tall are you? Like four, nine, four, ten, but you're faster, right.
Stephanie:So you can just go right by him.
Holton:I wish All right. What's your dream basketball move?
Stephanie:that you're faster right, so you can just go right by him. I wish All right. What's your dream basketball move that you're working on?
Holton:Like behind the bat, cross over and then I drive in and do a reverse layup.
Stephanie:Wow, that sounds complicated, but cool, I mean. Cool, all right. What's the best feeling in basketball? Making a three-pointer, blocking a shot or a fast break dunk?
Holton:uh, probably making a three and then coming down the court and playing defense and stealing it and getting a fresh break. Layup fun.
Stephanie:Yep layups, probably more your uh game right now, right, right Not?
Holton:dunks. You're not dunking yet, right? Not dunking yet?
Stephanie:Not yet. If you were a basketball coach for a day, what would be your team's nickname and what would your game plan be?
Holton:Okay, nickname the H's for one day, and then my game plan would be the Grizzlies, and they have Steph Curry in my starting five, or Steph Curry, john Morant, stephan Castle, lebron James and maybe Kevin Durant, and they would just be unstoppable. I guess that's my game plan.
Stephanie:Fun, all right.
Holton:So something not so fun just happened to you recently yeah you know what I'm talking about yeah all right, tell us a little bit about it so I was playing some basketball and I was trying to save the ball from it going on a bounce and somebody ran into me and I hit my head on this brown post because I'm playing in a church league and like in the gym in my church has like um, a brown post and I hit my head on the post but I slid. So I didn't think it was that bad but I still played the next half. But after the game I was a little dizzy. But we went to the doctor on Sunday and sure enough I did have a concussion.
Stephanie:Yeah, were you scared when they told you.
Holton:No, I was just really upset because I couldn't do a lot of stuff like have screens and play sports, but yeah, yeah, you were supposed to stay on the couch. Yeah, but that didn't really work out.
Stephanie:Yeah, why not?
Holton:I don't know, I just have. I'm a boy and I have to do stuff.
Stephanie:You just have to do stuff. Yeah, all right, so today was your last game. So it happened last Saturday. Today's actually Saturday that we're recording it was your last game of the season. Yeah, and you play fourth grade basketball, church ball. Who's your coach?
Holton:My sister and the dad, and my dad is the commissioner there, so yeah, of the league because he's on staff at the church right. Yeah.
Stephanie:But so today you couldn't play? Yeah, because your head has to heal.
Holton:Yeah.
Stephanie:And so what was it like to have to sit out of your very last game?
Holton:It was fun but just upsetting that I can't play my last game. But yeah, I enjoyed cheering on my teammates.
Stephanie:Yeah, were you able to cheer them the whole game.
Holton:I mean I was a little upset the first half, but the second half I was.
Stephanie:Yeah, what was the hardest part of sitting on the bench?
Holton:Just watching people play basketball and knowing I can't play.
Stephanie:You can't get in. Yeah, what's something cool that you've learned over this last week about yourself while trying to recover from your concussion?
Holton:over this last week about yourself while trying to recover from your concussion. Just God can do stuff to you. So if it means like having a concussion so you can't play and just overcoming some challenges, then so like you can just experience life.
Stephanie:Experience life in a different way, maybe, yeah, yeah, so what's he taught you? Has he taught you anything new? Like you're like, oh, after this week, I kind of understand this.
Holton:He taught me like that was my first concussion. So he taught me like I'm going to have to do this a long, like I'm going to have to do this a lot, even if it's not a concussion, it's any other injuries, and I feel like, as you know, you practice in basketball, so I feel like that was my practice. And now when I get older and play and could play in the NBA I also play baseball, so the MLB I'll have to do that, so that is the game and this was the practice.
Stephanie:So this concussion was like a practice for maybe other injuries that are coming. Yeah, I hope you don't get another concussion. Yeah, me too, but people get a lot of injuries. You've seen other kids get injuries. Um, so if you have to give any advice, what advice would you give to another kid going through an injury? What would you tell them?
Holton:um, if you play this game and get hurt again, you couldn't play sports for the rest of your life. But if you sit out one game, you can play sports for the rest of your life.
Stephanie:Yeah, because concussions are serious right. You learn that, so you don't want to get concussion after concussion.
Holton:Yeah.
Stephanie:It can really hurt you.
Holton:Especially on top of another one.
Stephanie:So if you get an injury, take care of yourself. Yeah, do whatever it takes. Yeah, yeah, don't rush back. All right, let's talk shoes. You love shoes. Your dad loves shoes tennis shoes, that is. Um so if you could divide, if you could design your own basketball shoes, what would they look like and what would you call them?
Holton:O, I don't know. I would call them the holton special jump man kicks holton special jump man kicks.
Stephanie:All right, what do they look like?
Holton:um, so like the like bottom part of it would be like red, and then the the rest of the shoe would be blue and then all the strings would be red. If it's Velcro, that little thing that connects to the Velcro would be red. Maybe the inside of it, like the pad inside of it, would be red.
Stephanie:So you like red and blue? Yeah, what about gold and blue?
Holton:No.
Stephanie:Notre Dame colors you a big Notre Dame fan? Yeah, me and my dad are yeah.
Holton:What about gold and blue? No, notre Dame colors. You a big Notre Dame fan? Yeah.
Stephanie:Me and my dad are, yeah, notre Dame. I like watching the girls basketball game. They're fun, fun, fun to watch.
Holton:All right.
Stephanie:What's the funniest thing that's ever happened to you during a game or a practice?
Holton:Funniest thing maybe during a game, not not this year, but last year. We went 8-0 last year and I was playing in my last game and I just couldn't stop hitting my shots. And yeah, I don't know, that's not really funny, but it's just something I enjoyed yeah, you're pretty serious, so I know you being serious is fun to you.
Stephanie:Like you're serious on the court, you love to play and love to get better, so that's really cool. All right, what's your ultimate pregame hype song? I don't know.
Holton:I like to move it, move it From Madagascar. Yeah, that's funny.
Stephanie:What if basketball didn't exist?
Holton:If I didn't know it would exist, I would just love baseball a lot, but basketball and baseball are really good, but I might like basketball more. I'm not sure. But if I didn't, if I did know it was a thing, I would be really yeah and like I didn't if it was a thing before, but like the year I was born it just went away. I would be really sad yeah, because you love sports.
Stephanie:Yeah, all right. What's one thing that grown-ups just don't understand about kids who love sports?
Stephanie:Even when they have an injury, like they want to play, but the parents know more stuff because they've lived longer, but it's really hard. They need to understand that. Oh, you just want to play, you want to play. You're so upset, right, yeah, all right. Today at the gym I saw a little cute kid. Oh, he was so cute, but he was a lot shorter than you, so I know he was younger and he came up to you. As soon as he got there he grabbed a ball and I saw him come up and give you a fist bump. I think, yeah, that was so cool. Who was that?
Holton:It. So I'm really good friends with his brother. But we just met because we play basketball together in the same age group nine and 10. So, yeah, and that was his younger brother that plays in the five and six there. But I actually played his older brother today, so our team actually played.
Stephanie:Oh, he's so cute and I thought, oh, I bet he looks up to Holton. So what's your best life advice that you'd give a younger kid? Just picture him. What life advice would you give him If you keep?
Holton:playing sports, you will get really good.
Stephanie:Yeah, so just keep going.
Holton:Yeah, and he already is really good for five and six.
Stephanie:Yeah, he looked really. He looked really good. He had cool hair too.
Holton:Yeah, he had like a mohawk it was really cool.
Stephanie:His brother has the same too. Let's do a lightning round. I'm just going to give you some rapid-fire questions, okay? Okay, you give me the first answer that comes to your mind. Favorite NBA player Steph Curry. Favorite jersey color Oof blue. Best basketball snack. No favorite jersey color white White.
Holton:Okay.
Stephanie:Best basketball snack? Some candy Candy. What's your coolest dunk? The coolest dunk you've ever seen.
Holton:This guy from the Mavericks. He dunked over a car and a lot of people and he's won three dunk contests't contests.
Stephanie:Wow, funniest name for a basketball team probably the penguins.
Holton:We actually played them today the penguins.
Stephanie:all right, the best thing you love about your mom. Uh, I tricked you. I went from basketball, I don't know, can you switch your mind? No, do you love me? Yeah, all right, I love you too, and it's fun to watch you play basketball and to watch you learn and grow. So, just thinking about parent advice overall, if there's any moms listening right now, what parent advice would you give them?
Holton:Don't let your kid play in a basketball game if he has an injury.
Stephanie:You got anything else, kid? No, you're sticking with that. It's good, good advice, all right, as we're wrapping up. So we got to tell everybody you did actually play in the game today. Yeah, 30 seconds. Yep, how did you get yourself in that game? You weren't supposed to play.
Holton:So my mom actually wasn't there, so she would have definitely not let me.
Stephanie:I was actually at a conference, wasn't I?
Holton:There was a timeout 30 seconds left but we still lost. We were down by 11 when my sister took the timeout. So I went to my dad. I was like, please, let me play, please let me play. And my baseball coach's son plays for my team. He's on my team. So he heard me and he was in the stands and my dad looked at him. Cause, like I have baseball coming up. So my dad looked on him to see if I could play or not, because coach Kyle, like if he didn't want me to play, cause baseball. But he actually said I can play. He was just let him play. So I played and I came in.
Holton:Everybody, everybody cheered for me, because everybody really knows me, because I'm the coach's kid and my dad is the commissioner. So everybody cheered for me, my teammates cheered for me and then I tucked in my jersey and I was like I'm ready to go and my teammate passed in the ball and I came up the court. I stopped and I drained a three and then they came down the court, shot it, shot a three, missed it. I got it back and then they tried to steal it. But uh, it was actually out on them and I let it go to waste clock and then I came up and three seconds left and I hit a buzzer beater from like half court and everybody cheered and I was really excited. Even though we lost, it was still a fun moment for me.
Stephanie:Yeah, fun that you got in just for a few seconds, so hopefully you didn't have enough time to get rough and get another concussion, but you going in 30 seconds kind of blows your whole advice.
Holton:I mean it's 30 seconds and I did really good.
Stephanie:Just 30 seconds.
Holton:I can't go a game without. I can't go a scoreless game. Plus, I'm going to tell everybody I made every shot a shot.
Stephanie:Yeah, you only had two. Yeah, good job. I know you're learning some stuff. Life can be hard, but thanks for joining me today telling me a little bit about your day and your basketball journey so far. I know you're going to have fun. All right, thanks, holti. Okay, bye, bye. Thank you so much for listening today. If you have any questions for our guest or would like information about Northstar, please email us. At podcast at NSA dot school, we love having guests on our show and getting to hear their stories. If you have anyone in mind that you think would be a great guest to feature, please email us and let us know. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on upcoming stories.