--- advertisement ---

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Local Sports

Local sports in the Panhandle are not just a game, they are a lifestyle. Our community eats, sleeps and breathes cheering on our local athletes.
News13 is On Your “Sidelines” bringing you more than the score.
News13’s Stephen Gunter is committed to giving you stories of the Panhandle’s top athletes, intriguing match-ups and unusual sports you may not even know exist.
sgunter@wmbb.com

Friday, February 16, 2007

Like Father, Like Son

SPRINGFIELD - Rutherford Rams’ senior point guard Dre Ross leads the team in scoring, has a silky smooth jump shot, a killer crossover and a coach that he’s not afraid to call Dad.

“He beat me when I was younger,” Rams’ coach Rhondie Ross said.  “I was fat and out of shape.  If I dropped some pounds I could get’em.”

Coach Ross and his son, Dre, haven’t played one-on-one in quite some time.  Now, Dre leads the Rutherford on the court, while Rhondie coaches along side it.

“I explained to him when he was very young an in-coming freshman that it was going to be pretty hard,” Coach Ross said.  “I told him not to put me into position where I had to discipline him because I know the rest of the team was watching.”

Don’t think, for a second, that Coach Ross gives special treatment to his son.

“He stays on me harder cause he knows people would say stuff like that,” Dre said.  “So he’s stricter on me.”

Coach Ross played high school hoops at county-rival Bay High School and has coached all four years that Dre has attended Rutherford High School.  But the bond between father, son and basketball started well before the middle school and recreational leagues and has grown stronger ever since.

“We spend a lot of one-on-one time in here when a lot of people are out having fun,” Coach Ross said.  “We spend a lot of time working on his individual skills.”

“It has made us a lot closer,” Dre said.  “But it has it’s good times and bad times.  We butt heads and get in a couple arguments.”

Arguments that always end up as smiles.

The Rams are having their best season since the 1993-94 season when Rutherford advanced to the state final four.  This year’s team is only two wins away from that mark and Coach Ross needs his son to perform like the prototypical “coach’s kid”.

“That’s what college coaches like to say,” Coach Ross said.  “He has a good basketball IQ, he’s fundamentally sound.  But it’s a process.  If you saw him as a freshman you would never think he was the player he is today.”

Dre leads the team in scoring averaging 23 points per game.  He will take his talents to the University of South Alabama in Mobile next year.

The Rams are in action again on Tuesday night in the regional semifinals when they host Wolfson High School from Jacksonville.

(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Page 1 of 1 pages