The good news for Woodrow Wilson senior guard Godfrey Bollin is that he put up some big numbers in the first part of the basketball season.
The bad news is that the Wildcats lost each of those games.
“We’re 0-6,” Bollin says. “That’s bad. The team means a lot more. We want to win. If I scored two points, it wouldn’t matter. Scoring isn’t everything. The best thing is having fun, just playing. And winning.”
Victories were nowhere to be found for the Wildcats in the early part of the season for two reasons. The team played against several Class 5A teams, and several team members who didn’t make their grades were ineligible to play.
Because the usual point guard couldn’t play, coach Mike Kirby had to take Bollin from his usual position, shooting guard, and play him at the point.
Nevertheless, the 6-foot, 1-inch, rail-thin Bollin had a sizzling night against Sunset: 33 points, seven assists, six steals and nine rebounds. He made four of six three-point shots, eight of 18 from two-point range, and five of six free throws.
“That was the game we came closest to winning,” Bollin says. “That was the first time I’ve played the whole game, not coming out until the last minute.”
Through Woodrow’s first six games, Bollin was averaging 21.8 points, 6.7 rebounds, six assists and 4.2 steals per game, making him one of the area’s top 10 producers among Class 4A teams, Kirby says.
“He’s made 18 of 51 three-pointers,” Kirby says. “That’s pretty good for a point guard. And Godfrey has real good vision. He seems to know where everyone is.”
“He has real good court awareness, a keen sense of the game. He plays ball a lot – in the summer, in the spring. He has a lot of experience.”
“Godfrey has become a pretty good student and done a good job for us this season. I’d rather be with him than against him.”
Bollin was no more than 5-feet, 7-inches tall when he came to Woodrow as a freshman. It wasn’t until he grew several inches and added some muscle in the weight room that he was able to move up to varsity as a junior, which is when he started learning a lot about playing basketball.
“I learned to pass the ball more,” Bollin says. “In J.V., I didn’t pass that much. I had to learn to dribble better to play point guard. Coach worked on my attitude, too. It isn’t as bad as it was.”
With last year’s seniors departed, Bollin says things have changed for him.
“Last year, I wasn’t a leader,” Bollin says. “This year, I’m a leader, mainly because they look for me to do most things, to run the team.”
Bollin says the outlook of everyone on the squad would improve with a few victories.
“We can win district if we can get our regular team back,” Bollin says.
Woodrow Alums Hoop It Up
Eric Drury, Woodrow Wilson quarterback in 1987, is working as an administrative assistant with Dallas-based Hoop-It-Up. He recently worked with the company’s newest venture, NFL-sanctioned Air-It-Out flag football.
Drury graduated from Yale University in 1992, toured Europe and played American football in France for one season.
Drury hasn’t lost his athletic touch, either; at a Dallas Stars game a few weeks ago, he won two American Airlines tickets in a between-periods, puck-shooting contest.
Another former Woodrow athletic star, Francie Hansen, is a senior starter and captain of the women’s basketball team at the University of Massachusetts this season.
Gearing Up For Soccer
Woodrow Wilson boys soccer coach Damon Miller lost five senior starters from last year’s distict championship team.
“We will be a little bit weaker this year,” Miller says. “We have a young team, very few seniors. But we’re going to have some talent.”
Returning starters are senior forward Jose Lagunas, senior defender Leonel Moreno, junior goalkeeper Soto Gonzales, forward E.Z. Leguizamo, midfielder Oscar Chavez and defender Felippe Lopez.
“We have about five freshmen coming up to fill in the holes, and you always like to have those freshmen,” Miller says.
The Wildcats were 15-2-1 last year, going to the area round of the playoffs. Woodrow’s season opener is scheduled Jan. 11 at Carrollton R.L. Turner.
