Up close and personal with former CCU players Gallup, Sexton

It's that time of the year: The annual church league at the YMCA of Myrtle Beach.

I've been part of - and for the first time this year in charge of - a team in the league for probably five or more years by now. Each year the competition level gets better. And this year is off the charts from what I've experienced through one game and heard of other teams' rosters!

Our team draws Nashville Dreams - the name of the bar former Coastal Carolina standout and international star E.J. Gallup co-owns - in our first game. Well, he brought along a few friends.

Former Coastal Carolina player Steven Sexton was on his team, along with former Socastee player Josh Fowler - who played a year overseas in Wales and in college had stints at Coastal and Hight Point. Then there was former Socastee standout Cornell Holmes, who I heard recently was looking to play overseas, and that's by no means a far fetch. They also had some other guys who were pretty good, too, I just didn't know them or recognize them.

Let's see. E.J. can shoot. E.J. can shoot from anywhere. And just when you - in this case I - think you are playing his shot close enough he'll blow by you for a layup. I had played against E.J. years ago when I was in high school - he was a few years ahead of me - in pickup games. And he was good then. He's pretty unreal now. He was planning on going back overseas to play hoops this year but hasn't yet: Thanks E.J.!

Sexton, who I'd never met or played against, was pretty darn good too. Talk about shooters.

Fowler, whom I've played against for years, is a solid big guy, but he fouled out early second half. That didn't hurt. Thanks, big fella!

Holmes quietly - mostly because of Gallup - played real solid and had a few highlight dunks on us when the game was out of hand.

But, in our defense, we hung in there. We got down early and came back to tie the game with about 12 minutes left in the second half at 49. But from that point on it went downhill. I think we lost by 16 or so. But we showed some promise.

Even though we lost, I enjoyed it. E.J. and his guys are really standup fellas. And seeing them up close and personal made me realize how good you have to be to play at Coastal and beyond.

And the YMCA deserves props, as well, because they've run a great league for years now and it's always a great experience. By the way, the new facility is really nice.

Well, that's Game 1. 0-1.

Notes

I was told by a guy I know on another team that former CCU standout Mario Sisinni is playing with them. ... I don't know him personally, but I believe Colin Stevens - who has played in this league before - was warming up with his team after our game was over. ... He wasn't there tonight, but former Coastal assistant coach John Bennett has refereed in this league for a few years. He is working for a local basketball academy here now. Hopefully he's a ref again, because he does a good job.

Comments

[MJ]

What was the final score?

[Dave Wetzel]

It was like 69-53, something like that. After we tied it with about 12 minutes to go it got out of hand. Funny thing is, it's just like hoops at higher levels: turnovers will kill you.