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SALT LAKE CITY -- Although "winning isn't everything," it's easy to get wrapped up in the opposite mentality. A high school basketball coach inspired a community by showing there is more to a game than the final score.
For that, we gave him a High 5.
A disappointing injury sidelined Waterford senior Kylee Snuffer. She broke her finger early in the basketball season and had to have surgery.
"My season was over," she said.
Bill Tatomer, head basketball coach at Waterford's arch-rival Rowland Hall St. Marks School said, "I could tell how broken up she was about the end of her high school basketball career."
The first time the teams played this season, Coach Tatomer noticed Kylee's passion for the game and her disappointment in being benched. He remembered Kylee, and the second time the teams met he and Kylee's coach cooked up a plan to get Kylee on the court.
She recalls, "I started and had my cast all wrapped up and fumbled the ball and dribbled it off my foot. It was kind of a disaster."
She left the game.
Then, with less than a minute on the clock, "my coach told me to get ready to go. I was going back in, and I was really confused," she said.
Rowland Hall's coach talked the referee into giving him a technical foul. He wanted Kylee to shoot the free throws.
"I was just completely blown away," she said. "I shot with one hand, and I made them both. I was just so grateful."
Tears streamed down Kylee's face as she ran to the Rowland Hall bench, thanking them for her 30 seconds of glory. She was a senior. It was her second to last game.
Coach Tatomer said, "It worked out, and she swished them both. Nobody could have been happier than me."
Rowland Hall went on to lose the game. But as Coach Tatomer taught his team that day, winning is not everything.
In a letter to Coach Tatomer, Kylee praised him for his class, dignity, and heart. That spirit of sportsmanship and camaraderie continued between Waterford and Rowland Hall through the end of the season. Coach Tatomer said he couldn't be prouder of his team.
"This is what it's all about. You get three pages of appreciation for doing what you love to do, so how could you ask for more than that?" he said.
As a thank you for his example, Coach Tatomer received a gift basket from our High 5 partners, Les Schwab.
You can nominate someone for a High 5 here.
E-mail:bwalker@ksl.com
