 Gilbert Lee Downey By Mary Newton Carter Class of 1974
Boerne High School I don’t really know where to begin, except to say, “Remember all those Boerne Junior High girls, the ones that thought they ‘just might like’ to try out for basketball. That’s where it all started.” Well, Coach Downey, you were the one who showed us we were capable of even more than we thought, at the time. You took all of us under your wing and brought out the best in us in so many ways. At the time, many of us didn’t even know how to run and bounce a basketball at the same time. Sounds simple, but it’s not when you’re 13 years old and had hardly ever handled a basketball in your life. Boerne was a different town then. Most of us were out feeding livestock and doing chores after school, not running off to every kind of sport activity like they do now. Coach took unpolished, gangly, junior high students - and turned us into a pretty decent girls’ team. At first, Coach Downey had to practically walk some of us out onto the court before a game and he said many times later that he was never really sure everyone would still be on the court by the time he got back to the bench. Coach knew there was a good chance one of us would run off the court before the game started because many of us were so shy at the time. That’s only one example of the many crazy situations we gave him to deal with. It’s a wonder he kept his sanity through it all. Do y’all remember when Coach Downey scheduled a basketball game between us, then the Boerne Junior High girls’ team, and the Boerne High School girl’s basketball team? Remember that? Well, he did do that. We played our game against them and they weren’t little wallflowers either; they were mainly seniors and were quite good. I can tell you that both teams played like it were our last game ever and we all played our hearts out. And for those who don’t remember it, guess what? We won! That’s right; those little Junior high girls beat the Boerne High School girls’ basketball team. That was really something. I remember we were a little embarrassed for the High School girls at the time; but very, very, proud of ourselves, and especially Coach Downey for even thinking of doing it, and then us pulling it off. That will always be a great, fun memory. Eventually, we went on to become that high school girls’ basketball team. As I said, we turned out to be a decent team. We had our share of winning seasons - district, bi-district, and regional. Coach Downey gets a lot of the credit for that; he was the one who took us there. Coach stuck it out with us through thick and thin, good seasons and bad over the years. He started coaching us in Junior high and, as you know, went on to Boerne High School and, by our sophomore year, he was our coach there too. Coach ran us up and down the bleachers. He ran us on never-ending laps around the track, and even made us run backwards on the football field. Try running from one end of the football field to the other, from goal to goal three or four times running backwards. Try that sometime when you want to wear yourself out. We’ll always remember the bus rides to and from basketball games, the singing on the way to the game, the pep talks and the screaming and laughter on the way back when we had won - and the quiet rides back to Boerne when we didn’t. Coach Downey always waited patiently after every away game when we got home, sometimes until 1or 2 a.m. He waited till our parents came to get every last single one of us. He even had to get some of us home occasionally, when an alarm wasn’t set. He encouraged us, fussed at us, laughed with us, yelled and demanded more from us, he was patient with us at times and not very patient at other times. He taped our sprained ankles, our jammed fingers and wrists and bandaged our hurt knees. He took care of our occasional bloody nose and scraped elbows and yelled himself hoarse in the process. We thank him for that. We also have coach Downey to thank for all the winning trophies we brought home to Boerne. Mrs. Downey, we thank you also. You went through all this with us too. You were our Mom away from home. We know you remember all those great times. Coach Downey helped make us what we are today and for that we are grateful. We are also grateful to him for giving us so many wonderful memories. We’re so fortunate that he touched our lives and because of him, we are better people. God Bless and take care of you, Coach. We all love you. Your Boerne basketball girls. |
