Awesome Story about Chris in the Box Elder Newspaper

I need to get something off my chest: Despite my friendly demeanor toward them, I’ve always thought of golf club professionals as little more than socially acceptable drug dealers.

And Eagle Mountain golf professional Chris Marx is no exception.

Okay, okay, golf hasn’t necessarily destroyed families or societies, but it’s just as addictive. I dare anyone to ask a golfer the following question: “Have you ever thought seriously about giving up the sport?” The answer will be, without hesitation, “Every time I play. It’s the most miserable sport known to man.”

But without fail, every golfer hits one shot per round that keeps them forking over money into the pockets of their local club professional.

But, I had the privilege of talking with Marx the other day over lunch and learned that even though my opinion of golf pros hadn’t changed, I learned that even they can be contributing members of a community. (And, for those of you wondering why a fine, upstanding member of Brigham City would be having lunch with me, the answer is: Yes. He did lose a bet.)

Anyway, while at lunch, Marx told me about his experiences as the coach of a little league basketball team.

He told me of one game, where his group of talented, yet overmatched young athletes faced certain destruction at the hands of a Bear River team that had been scoring in bucket-loads on other teams.

Marx said the kids were discouraged before they even set foot on the floor. So he told them there was another way to play: If you can’t stop them from scoring when they have the ball, keep them from having the ball. Marx made a deal with his t eam that if they kept Bear River under 50 points, he would buy them all drinks. In order to help them with the goal, he started a contest to see which group of kids could stall the longest.

During a time out, Marx said one of his players related how the Bear River kids were laughing at them. “Look, they don’t even know how to go toward the basket,” was what the Bear River kids were saying while Marx’s team executed a three-man weave at the top of the key for nearly minutes on end.

“Yeah,” Marx told his player, “but they don’t know what we’re doing, do they?”

“No,” his player said as a wicked grin spread across his face.

By the time the last buzzer sounded, Bear River had 48 points on the board. It was far more than Marx’s team had on the board, but that didn’t stop them from erupting into cheers and whooping and hollering as they left the floor.

Marx also related another time, when his sq uad faced a similar test at a tournament at Weber.

His team was being decimated and they were starting to get very discouraged. It was toward the end of the game and a comeback was out of the question.

But that didn’t mean Marx couldn’t turn it into a win.

Marx said that he had a couple of players who felt they needed to take the bulk of the shots, so with two minutes left in the game, he made them a deal: If all five players on the floor got a shot off, regardless of whether or not they made it, Marx would run ladders at next practice and they wouldn’t have to.

Just before the final buzzer sounded, Marx said, the last player heaved his shot toward the hoop.

It fell unceremoniously to the floor as both teams started celebrating. Marx’s team celebrated making their coach have to run ladders, and their opponents celebrated the win.

Marx said at both games, the crowd looked around incredulously, or shook their heads. “Poor kids,” they must have said. “They don’t even know what’s going on.”

After hearing Marx’s tales, I wiped a tear from my eye. I felt like I had just finished watching a Disney movie.

Assistant pro Doug Brown, who was at lunch (Marx lost to him, too), who hadn’t said much, said mockingly, “We didn’t win a game that season, but in our hearts we were undefeated.”

We all shared a laugh over that, but I couldn’t help but think that when my kid is old enough to play basketball, I want Marx to coach him.

What an amazing learning experience for those kids, and what an amazing coach, to snatch victory for his players from the jaws of embarrassment, to teach them that there are more ways to win than scoring the most points, and to help them forget about the almighty scoreboard and have fun at a time in their lives when fun should be the only thing they focus on.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. And with villagers like Chris Marx helping to raise our kids, we ought to be alright.