SamGardner’08 Whenever the opportunity presents itself—and it seems to present itself most often in front of large groups—Guerin Catholic Boys Basketball Coach Pete Smith tells one of two stories about me. The first story focuses on my inauspicious and short-lived high school football career. During one of several lopsided defeats in 2004, I found myself on the front line of the kickoff return team. Within seconds after our opponent kicked the ball, I also found myself pancaked on the ground like Vince Vaughn in the movie Wedding Crashers. Coach Smith watched from the stands as I lay on the ground and an assistant coach politely told me that my days as a football player were numbered. Although Coach Smith claims there is a moral to the story, other than humiliation, I have yet to find it. The second story focuses on my non-existent middle school basketball career. Despite a passion for the sport, as a relatively slow player with no discernible skill set, I was cut from my public school’s basketball team in both seventh and eighth grades. To hear Coach Smith tell it, I came to Guerin Catholic motivated to turn my adversity into a triumph and make my first basketball team. Due largely to the new opportunity Guerin Catholic provided me (and a helpful growth spurt), I started nearly every game I played for the Golden Eagles and ultimately played college basketball at Wittenberg University. Alumni Spotlight Guerin Catholic Class of 2008 Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Wittenberg University Class of 2012 Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Class of 2015 Sam Gardner ’08 and Katie (Regan) Gardner ’10
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