www.armymwr.com

All-Army men rally from 0-4 hole to Armed Forces Basketball silver

By Tim Hipps
FMWRC Public Affairs

JOINT BASE FORT MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. – Members of the All-Army men’s basketball team nearly came to blows before they came together to win the silver medal at the 2010 Armed Forces Basketball Championships.

After losing four consecutive games by scores of 96-73 to All-Navy, 84-82 to All-Marine Corps in overtime, 68-66 to All-Air Force, and 80-49 to the Marines, the Soldiers were one game away from elimination and implosion.

“We were jawing and scratching to fight each other,” said Sgt. Ron Bartley, 34, of Fort Lee, Va., a five-time All-Army guard who was named to the All-Armed Forces Team. “We were at wits’ end. We had worked so hard and this was our home gym, and for us to be 0-4, I mean, we were ready to throw blows. … We said everything we had to say, ate breakfast, and coach gave a speech that kind of put some tears in our eyes, and we said: ‘What have we got to lose?’”

“We went through every emotion imaginable,” added Cpl. Llewellyn Smalley, 37, of Fort Meade, Md., who was named All-Tournament and All-Armed Forces. “At that point, we were extremely low. We were so quiet. We weren’t communicating with each other. But our coaches kept having faith in us, kept having belief in us, kept telling us ‘to just keep playing, it’s going to click, it’s going to click.’ Coach [1st Sgt. Marcus] Hall and Coach Smith, they kept us together when things were about to fall apart.”

The Armed Forces Tournament format, however, provided All-Army with two more chances to walk away as champions. The first three days of pool play determined the seeds for a double-elimination format that began on Thursday, when All-Army got thrashed by All-Marines.

All-Army head coach Capt. David Smith sensed that his team had enough talent to reach the finals if the Soldiers would come together.

“We just had to refocus and talk about being a family and making defense our number-one priority and it’s not about any individual, it’s about all 15 of us in that locker room,” Smith said. “And if we believe in ourselves, no matter if anybody else does, we can do it. We had a turnaround where we looked each other in the face and said: ‘We have to play with heart and we have to play defense.’ And that’s what we did.”

Smith told his troops they had to do five things to win the championship: sweat, bleed, overcome conflict, fail and succeed.

“We did all of that in a very short period of time – about four days’ worth,” Smith said. “We had 12 guys that wherever they’ve been, they’ve been the man, and it’s hard to mesh that sometimes.”

Facing elimination on Friday, Smalley had 33 points and nine rebounds to lead All-Army to an 85-77 victory over All-Navy. CW2 Aaron Stuart of Fort Polk, La., had 14 points and seven rebounds. Bartley added 13 points and seven assists.

“We got that one win and it was like an avalanche, like a snowball effect,” Smalley said. “We kept rolling, and bam, next thing you know we’re in the championship game. We just played with nothing to lose. I still can’t believe it.”

Facing elimination again on Saturday, Smalley scored 27 points to lead All-Army to a 79-66 victory over All-Marine Corps. Pfc. Roy Binion of Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, had 14 points and 16 rebounds. Second Lt. Paul Nelson of Taylor, Mich., added 14 points off the bench. Spc. Will Lewis of Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., chipped in with 10 points and eight rebounds. Bartley tallied 11 points and seven assists.

In Sunday’s championship game, All-Air Force soared to a 44-24 halftime lead on the strength of suffocating defense and a barrage of uncontested dunks. The Airmen clung to a 60-40 lead on 2nd Lt. Matt Holland’s dunk with 12:46 remaining, but the Soldiers refused to back down.

“Our coaches and our players just believed in each other,” Smalley said. “We knew it was going to be tough from Jump Street because Air Force is a really good team, they have a really good coach over there in John Bailey, and they’re a very well-disciplined team. We didn’t anticipate being down 20, but that’s how it went, and we fought hard and fought back.”

Binion’s 3-pointer from the corner tied the score at 66 with 5:11 remaining, and Bartley’s 3-pointer pulled All-Army to 70-69 with 3:42 left. And the Army-partisan crowd roared.

“I thought that we were going to pull it out,” Smalley said. “I knew they were a mentally tough team and they weren’t just going to roll over and hand it to us, but when we came back we had Mother Momentum and the house on our side as the underdog.”

After committing two turnovers, Bartley followed his own missed shot with a layup that got All-Army within 76-73 with 1:12 remaining. All-Air Force Staff Sgt. Sedric Whitaker of Edwards Air Force Base, La., answered with a hook shot with 43 seconds left and the Sailors added three free throws to secure the gold.

“Coming back from down 20 with 10 minutes to go, that takes a lot out of you,” Smith said. “Ron played his heart out and he was spent. The big fellow, Lewis, played his heart out, and Binion – they all laid it out on the floor and that got them back in it, but it was probably just a little too much. If we hadn’t dug such a big hole, we probably would have been fine.”

Senior Airman Jammar Major led All-Air Force with 20 points and nine rebounds. Holland added 15 points.

The Soldiers were proud to salvage silver from their frustrating week.

“We were down and out,” Bartley said. “Nobody believed in us but us. It was just us against the world. For us to come out of that and win silver medals, you can’t beat that. The guys came together and we preached that family thing. It was a case of blood, sweat and tears.”

“At least we made it competitive,” Smalley concluded. “We came up just a little bit short. I couldn’t be more proud of this team.”

Ridgewood school district prepares to welcome back students
Construction at district schools will not delay next week’s opening day.
Read more on The Record

Summer rain caused flooding in Justice Center
Due to the Justice Center flooding, UNCA’s women’s volleyball team practice at Asheville School. The flood occured on May 28 and damaged the main arena floor.
Read more on The Blue Banner

Superintendent’s Corner: Schools were busy this summer, now ready for fall
The floors are polished to a gleaming shine, bulletin boards are going up and teachers are beginning to walk the halls with trails of laminating film following them, as well as a few excited new students and moms chattering away.
Read more on The Record and Herald News

• Comes with twelve new charcoal gray tiles. Each measuring 2′ x 2′ for a total of 48 square feet.
• Each tile measures 3/8″ thick. Borders are included. Perfect for ages 3+.
• Provides a cushion to hard floor surfaces in gyms, exercise rooms, trade shows, playrooms, etc.
• “We Sell Mats” branded items are sold specifically by “We Sell Mats”
• This item will interlock with all 24″x24″x3/8″ EVA foam “We Sell Mats” tiles.

This item by “We Sell Mats” is designed by our product engineers with quality, durability and value in mind. Because all “We Sell Mats” branded items are sold specifically be “We Sell Mats”, you can always be confident that you will receive a quality product at a great price. Comes with twelve new charcoal gray tiles. Each measuring 2′ x 2′ for a total of 48 square feet. Each tile measures 3/8″ thick. Borders are included. Perfect for ages 3+. Provides a cushion to hard floor surfaces in gyms, e

Rating: (out of 19 reviews)

List Price: $ 59.99

Price: $ 29.99

144 Square Feet ( 36 tiles + borders) ‘We Sell Mats’ Charcoal Gray 2′ x 2′ x 3/8″ Anti-Fatigue Interlocking EVA Foam Exercise Gym Flooring

• Comes with thirty-six new charcoal gray tiles. Each measuring 2′ x 2′ for a total of 144 sq.ft.
• Each tile measures 3/8″ thick. Borders are included. Perfect for ages 3+.
• Provides a cushion to hard floor surfaces in gyms, exercise rooms, trade shows, playrooms, etc.
• “We Sell Mats” branded items are sold specifically by “We Sell Mats”
• This item will interlock with all 24″x24″x3/8″ EVA foam “We Sell Mats” tiles.

This item by “We Sell Mats” is designed by our product engineers with quality, durability and value in mind. Because all “We Sell Mats” branded items are sold specifically be “We Sell Mats”, you can always be confident that you will receive a quality product at a great price. Comes with thirty-six new charcoal gray tiles. Each measuring 2′ x 2′ for a total of 144 square feet. Each tile measures 3/8″ thick. Borders are included. Perfect for ages 3+. Provides a cushion to hard floor surfaces in gy

Rating: (out of 12 reviews)

List Price: $ 179.99

Price: $ 89.99

More Exercise Flooring Products

Question by D: How thick should padded floor be in an exercise room?
I am looking to purchase interlocking padded flooring for an exercise room in my home. There are several thickness types. What should be the minimum thickness for the padded floor, it will be used for cardio, aerobics, and yoga. Also anyone know of a good place to purchase the flooring?
The room has hardwood floors I am just looking for padding to put on top of the already existing floor

Best answer:

Answer by Gumadand
The thickness should be 35 cm using 16 mm steel bars, this is an exercise room therefore don,t use slipery tiles use rough marbles.The curing is of concrete is very important for seven days.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Best answer:

Answer by wolfatrest2000
It shouldn’t be a problem at all. Move the furniture as far away as possible from your starting point. Once you’ve worked up to the furniture, move it to your starting point and finish the job. Don’t drag the furniture across the floor until it’s finished though, you could move the flooring around.

What do you think? Answer below!

Summer Hire 2010

Image by heraldpost
A summer hire working in the Patton Fitness Center, mops the weight room floor. Other tasks include conducting a major walkthrough of the facility in the morning, wiping down machines and ensuring that the field is in top condition. (Photo by Jonathan Ochart, USAG Baden-Wuerttemberg Public Affairs)

Weight up!

Image by patrickkeane
Have you stubbed your toe on a weight you left laying on the floor in your dark basement recently? Not willing to spend that bucks for a weight tree?

Why not make one? The total cost for this one is just under dollars in hardware store parts!

Parts list:

(6) 1/2" by 8" long black nipple pipes (natural gas line works best)
(6) 1/2" flanges
(30) wood screws, about 1" long (four per flange, six for the hinge)
(1) door hinge
(1) piece of scrap lumber as tall as your ceiling, or so

Directions:

Easy enough! Secure the flanges onto the lumber, evenly spaced, giving enough room for each weight of each size using four wood screws per flange.

Next, use a pipe wrench to attach the 8" pipe nipples into each flange. Optionally use thread compound to make turning them a bit easier.

Attach the hinge to the top of the lumber, mount it from the back using three wood screws.

Rest the lumber against a joist, a post, or some other sturdy structure, at about a 5-10 degree angle, or so.

Secure the lumber in place by attaching the other half of the hinge to the wall, post, joist using three wood screws.

Your done! Add your weights!

And so, 20 minutes and 20 dollars, and no more stubbed toes. Your weights and other equipment are safely stored away.

Summer Hire 2010

Image by heraldpost
A summer hire working in the Patton Fitness Center, mops the weight room floor. Other tasks include conducting a major walkthrough of the facility in the morning, wiping down machines and ensuring that the field is in top condition. (Photo by Jonathan Ochart, USAG Baden-Wuerttemberg Public Affairs)

Weight up!

Image by patrickkeane
Have you stubbed your toe on a weight you left laying on the floor in your dark basement recently? Not willing to spend that bucks for a weight tree?

Why not make one? The total cost for this one is just under dollars in hardware store parts!

Parts list:

(6) 1/2" by 8" long black nipple pipes (natural gas line works best)
(6) 1/2" flanges
(30) wood screws, about 1" long (four per flange, six for the hinge)
(1) door hinge
(1) piece of scrap lumber as tall as your ceiling, or so

Directions:

Easy enough! Secure the flanges onto the lumber, evenly spaced, giving enough room for each weight of each size using four wood screws per flange.

Next, use a pipe wrench to attach the 8" pipe nipples into each flange. Optionally use thread compound to make turning them a bit easier.

Attach the hinge to the top of the lumber, mount it from the back using three wood screws.

Rest the lumber against a joist, a post, or some other sturdy structure, at about a 5-10 degree angle, or so.

Secure the lumber in place by attaching the other half of the hinge to the wall, post, joist using three wood screws.

Your done! Add your weights!

And so, 20 minutes and 20 dollars, and no more stubbed toes. Your weights and other equipment are safely stored away.

Floor Tiling Made Easy Guide
Want to be able to tile your own floor while saving time and money?
Floor Tiling Made Easy Guide

A Complete Guide to Exercise for Seniors
Written by a doctor and personal trainer this is a guide to exercise for seniors. It includes useful tips and takes readers through a complete work-out. Each exercise is demonstrated with pictures and can be modified to suit different fitness levels.
A Complete Guide to Exercise for Seniors

Five Good Reasons Why you Should Choose Rubber Flooring

When you think of flooring options for a given room in your home, you think of some of the major options for flooring materials, like different types of hard wood flooring, laminate flooring, vinyl flooring, marble flooring, tile flooring, stone flooring, even bamboo flooring and cork flooring. For whatever reason, rubber flooring seems to be one of the least appreciated and acknowledged of the flooring options although it is quite a viable one.

In most cases, rubber flooring is not necessarily the type of flooring that you want to put in your living room or kitchen, but there are some areas of the house in which rubber flooring is the perfect option. Such is the case for kids’ playrooms, garages, basements, and other such areas. Rubber flooring is an excellent option for home gyms or workout rooms as well.

If you are considering rubber flooring for any room or area in your home, here are five good and plausible reasons why it is the best flooring option for your needs.

Reason #1: Rubber Flooring Absorbs Sound

Unlike wooden flooring, linoleum and even carpet flooring options one of the best things about rubber flooring is that it absorbs sound. For this reason, it is perfect for rooms like the gym in the home, where weights are constantly picked up and dropped to the ground. Aerobics and Pilate’s workouts, jumping jacks, and other things are all absorbed into the ground so you don’t have to worry about disturbing the spouse, the kids, or the guests in town while doing your early morning workout.

Reason #2: Rubber Flooring Absorbs Impact

If you fall down on rubber flooring, you might get a little bit sore. Will you break a leg or sprain an ankle? Chances are that you probably will not. Rubber flooring is great for athletes and athletic facilities because you don’t get the same resistance that you get with other, harder types of flooring out there.

Reason #3: Rubber Flooring is Good for the Environment

Rubber is recyclable, unlike many other types of flooring out there. This not only makes it much easier (and perhaps even more profitable) to install rubber flooring, but it makes it much more of a sensible idea for the Earth conscious person looking for flooring options for a room in their home or business.

Reason #4: Rubber Flooring is Safer

The safety of rubber flooring is one of the main reasons why rubber flooring is such a good idea for not only gyms but child playrooms as well. With rubber flooring, you don’t have to worry about slipping and falling when carrying heavy, awkward, or dangerous objects in your hands (such as weights in a gym). In addition, if you do fall for some reason, you won’t have to worry so much about breaking or fracturing, or even spraining anything on your body. Rubber helps to absorb the impact.

Reason #5: Rubber Flooring is Easy to Clean

One of the downsides to having expensive wooden or marble floors in any room in your home or office is that it is really difficult to clean them. It takes more than a wet rag or a wet mop to clean a hardwood floor properly and safely, while taking the best care of it that you can. Luckily, when it comes to rubber flooring you do not have to worry about that, which makes it perfect for garages and even dog rooms or mud rooms, rooms that do not normally get cleaned all of the time but need to be able to be cleaned easily. It resists marking and marring, and it is easy to wipe down as you go if need be as well, with nothing but a mild soap and water solution.

If you haven’t considered rubber flooring for your home gym, playroom, garage, or basement you probably should. These are five very good reasons why rubber flooring makes an excellent option for those who need durable, stain resistant and long lasting flooring options for certain rooms in their home. You can install it yourself or you can choose to hire a professional to take care of the trouble or you. Either way, rubber flooring is definitely an option you should consider.

This article is sponsored by My Dream Home Registry, the gift registry for everything home. Visit them on the web at www.mydreamhomeregistry.com

Best answer:

Answer by sniper
Not sure if I’m on the same page as you but have you considered laying blocks on the garage floor, back filling with fill dirt, pouring a slab and framing from there up to the desired height?

Add your own answer in the comments!

100819 ArmedForcesHoops8328copy

Image by familymwr
Spc. Thomas Hughes of Fort Bragg, N.C., drives for two of his six points during All-Army’s 79-69 loss to All-Air Force in pool play of the 2010 Armed Forces Basketball Championships Aug. 18 at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va. (U.S. Army photo by Tim Hipps, FMWRC Public Affairs, cleared for public release, not for commercial use, attribution requested)

www.armymwr.com

All-Army men rally from 0-4 hole to Armed Forces Basketball silver

By Tim Hipps
FMWRC Public Affairs

JOINT BASE FORT MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. – Members of the All-Army men’s basketball team nearly came to blows before they came together to win the silver medal at the 2010 Armed Forces Basketball Championships.

After losing four consecutive games by scores of 96-73 to All-Navy, 84-82 to All-Marine Corps in overtime, 68-66 to All-Air Force, and 80-49 to the Marines, the Soldiers were one game away from elimination and implosion.

“We were jawing and scratching to fight each other,” said Sgt. Ron Bartley, 34, of Fort Lee, Va., a five-time All-Army guard who was named to the All-Armed Forces Team. “We were at wits’ end. We had worked so hard and this was our home gym, and for us to be 0-4, I mean, we were ready to throw blows. … We said everything we had to say, ate breakfast, and coach gave a speech that kind of put some tears in our eyes, and we said: ‘What have we got to lose?’”

“We went through every emotion imaginable,” added Cpl. Llewellyn Smalley, 37, of Fort Meade, Md., who was named All-Tournament and All-Armed Forces. “At that point, we were extremely low. We were so quiet. We weren’t communicating with each other. But our coaches kept having faith in us, kept having belief in us, kept telling us ‘to just keep playing, it’s going to click, it’s going to click.’ Coach [1st Sgt. Marcus] Hall and Coach Smith, they kept us together when things were about to fall apart.”

The Armed Forces Tournament format, however, provided All-Army with two more chances to walk away as champions. The first three days of pool play determined the seeds for a double-elimination format that began on Thursday, when All-Army got thrashed by All-Marines.

All-Army head coach Capt. David Smith sensed that his team had enough talent to reach the finals if the Soldiers would come together.

“We just had to refocus and talk about being a family and making defense our number-one priority and it’s not about any individual, it’s about all 15 of us in that locker room,” Smith said. “And if we believe in ourselves, no matter if anybody else does, we can do it. We had a turnaround where we looked each other in the face and said: ‘We have to play with heart and we have to play defense.’ And that’s what we did.”

Smith told his troops they had to do five things to win the championship: sweat, bleed, overcome conflict, fail and succeed.

“We did all of that in a very short period of time – about four days’ worth,” Smith said. “We had 12 guys that wherever they’ve been, they’ve been the man, and it’s hard to mesh that sometimes.”

Facing elimination on Friday, Smalley had 33 points and nine rebounds to lead All-Army to an 85-77 victory over All-Navy. CW2 Aaron Stuart of Fort Polk, La., had 14 points and seven rebounds. Bartley added 13 points and seven assists.

“We got that one win and it was like an avalanche, like a snowball effect,” Smalley said. “We kept rolling, and bam, next thing you know we’re in the championship game. We just played with nothing to lose. I still can’t believe it.”

Facing elimination again on Saturday, Smalley scored 27 points to lead All-Army to a 79-66 victory over All-Marine Corps. Pfc. Roy Binion of Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, had 14 points and 16 rebounds. Second Lt. Paul Nelson of Taylor, Mich., added 14 points off the bench. Spc. Will Lewis of Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., chipped in with 10 points and eight rebounds. Bartley tallied 11 points and seven assists.

In Sunday’s championship game, All-Air Force soared to a 44-24 halftime lead on the strength of suffocating defense and a barrage of uncontested dunks. The Airmen clung to a 60-40 lead on 2nd Lt. Matt Holland’s dunk with 12:46 remaining, but the Soldiers refused to back down.

“Our coaches and our players just believed in each other,” Smalley said. “We knew it was going to be tough from Jump Street because Air Force is a really good team, they have a really good coach over there in John Bailey, and they’re a very well-disciplined team. We didn’t anticipate being down 20, but that’s how it went, and we fought hard and fought back.”

Binion’s 3-pointer from the corner tied the score at 66 with 5:11 remaining, and Bartley’s 3-pointer pulled All-Army to 70-69 with 3:42 left. And the Army-partisan crowd roared.

“I thought that we were going to pull it out,” Smalley said. “I knew they were a mentally tough team and they weren’t just going to roll over and hand it to us, but when we came back we had Mother Momentum and the house on our side as the underdog.”

After committing two turnovers, Bartley followed his own missed shot with a layup that got All-Army within 76-73 with 1:12 remaining. All-Air Force Staff Sgt. Sedric Whitaker of Edwards Air Force Base, La., answered with a hook shot with 43 seconds left and the Sailors added three free throws to secure the gold.

“Coming back from down 20 with 10 minutes to go, that takes a lot out of you,” Smith said. “Ron played his heart out and he was spent. The big fellow, Lewis, played his heart out, and Binion – they all laid it out on the floor and that got them back in it, but it was probably just a little too much. If we hadn’t dug such a big hole, we probably would have been fine.”

Senior Airman Jammar Major led All-Air Force with 20 points and nine rebounds. Holland added 15 points.

The Soldiers were proud to salvage silver from their frustrating week.

“We were down and out,” Bartley said. “Nobody believed in us but us. It was just us against the world. For us to come out of that and win silver medals, you can’t beat that. The guys came together and we preached that family thing. It was a case of blood, sweat and tears.”

“At least we made it competitive,” Smalley concluded. “We came up just a little bit short. I couldn’t be more proud of this team.”

All-Army Coach David Smith

Image by familymwr
(U.S. Army photos by Tim Hipps, FMWRC Public Affairs, cleared for public release, not for commercial use, attribution requested)

www.armymwr.com

All-Army men rally from 0-4 hole to Armed Forces Basketball silver

By Tim Hipps
FMWRC Public Affairs

JOINT BASE FORT MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. – Members of the All-Army men’s basketball team nearly came to blows before they came together to win the silver medal at the 2010 Armed Forces Basketball Championships.

After losing four consecutive games by scores of 96-73 to All-Navy, 84-82 to All-Marine Corps in overtime, 68-66 to All-Air Force, and 80-49 to the Marines, the Soldiers were one game away from elimination and implosion.

“We were jawing and scratching to fight each other,” said Sgt. Ron Bartley, 34, of Fort Lee, Va., a five-time All-Army guard who was named to the All-Armed Forces Team. “We were at wits’ end. We had worked so hard and this was our home gym, and for us to be 0-4, I mean, we were ready to throw blows. … We said everything we had to say, ate breakfast, and coach gave a speech that kind of put some tears in our eyes, and we said: ‘What have we got to lose?’”

“We went through every emotion imaginable,” added Cpl. Llewellyn Smalley, 37, of Fort Meade, Md., who was named All-Tournament and All-Armed Forces. “At that point, we were extremely low. We were so quiet. We weren’t communicating with each other. But our coaches kept having faith in us, kept having belief in us, kept telling us ‘to just keep playing, it’s going to click, it’s going to click.’ Coach [1st Sgt. Marcus] Hall and Coach Smith, they kept us together when things were about to fall apart.”

The Armed Forces Tournament format, however, provided All-Army with two more chances to walk away as champions. The first three days of pool play determined the seeds for a double-elimination format that began on Thursday, when All-Army got thrashed by All-Marines.

All-Army head coach Capt. David Smith sensed that his team had enough talent to reach the finals if the Soldiers would come together.

“We just had to refocus and talk about being a family and making defense our number-one priority and it’s not about any individual, it’s about all 15 of us in that locker room,” Smith said. “And if we believe in ourselves, no matter if anybody else does, we can do it. We had a turnaround where we looked each other in the face and said: ‘We have to play with heart and we have to play defense.’ And that’s what we did.”

Smith told his troops they had to do five things to win the championship: sweat, bleed, overcome conflict, fail and succeed.

“We did all of that in a very short period of time – about four days’ worth,” Smith said. “We had 12 guys that wherever they’ve been, they’ve been the man, and it’s hard to mesh that sometimes.”

Facing elimination on Friday, Smalley had 33 points and nine rebounds to lead All-Army to an 85-77 victory over All-Navy. CW2 Aaron Stuart of Fort Polk, La., had 14 points and seven rebounds. Bartley added 13 points and seven assists.

“We got that one win and it was like an avalanche, like a snowball effect,” Smalley said. “We kept rolling, and bam, next thing you know we’re in the championship game. We just played with nothing to lose. I still can’t believe it.”

Facing elimination again on Saturday, Smalley scored 27 points to lead All-Army to a 79-66 victory over All-Marine Corps. Pfc. Roy Binion of Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, had 14 points and 16 rebounds. Second Lt. Paul Nelson of Taylor, Mich., added 14 points off the bench. Spc. Will Lewis of Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., chipped in with 10 points and eight rebounds. Bartley tallied 11 points and seven assists.

In Sunday’s championship game, All-Air Force soared to a 44-24 halftime lead on the strength of suffocating defense and a barrage of uncontested dunks. The Airmen clung to a 60-40 lead on 2nd Lt. Matt Holland’s dunk with 12:46 remaining, but the Soldiers refused to back down.

“Our coaches and our players just believed in each other,” Smalley said. “We knew it was going to be tough from Jump Street because Air Force is a really good team, they have a really good coach over there in John Bailey, and they’re a very well-disciplined team. We didn’t anticipate being down 20, but that’s how it went, and we fought hard and fought back.”

Binion’s 3-pointer from the corner tied the score at 66 with 5:11 remaining, and Bartley’s 3-pointer pulled All-Army to 70-69 with 3:42 left. And the Army-partisan crowd roared.

“I thought that we were going to pull it out,” Smalley said. “I knew they were a mentally tough team and they weren’t just going to roll over and hand it to us, but when we came back we had Mother Momentum and the house on our side as the underdog.”

After committing two turnovers, Bartley followed his own missed shot with a layup that got All-Army within 76-73 with 1:12 remaining. All-Air Force Staff Sgt. Sedric Whitaker of Edwards Air Force Base, La., answered with a hook shot with 43 seconds left and the Sailors added three free throws to secure the gold.

“Coming back from down 20 with 10 minutes to go, that takes a lot out of you,” Smith said. “Ron played his heart out and he was spent. The big fellow, Lewis, played his heart out, and Binion – they all laid it out on the floor and that got them back in it, but it was probably just a little too much. If we hadn’t dug such a big hole, we probably would have been fine.”

Senior Airman Jammar Major led All-Air Force with 20 points and nine rebounds. Holland added 15 points.

The Soldiers were proud to salvage silver from their frustrating week.

“We were down and out,” Bartley said. “Nobody believed in us but us. It was just us against the world. For us to come out of that and win silver medals, you can’t beat that. The guys came together and we preached that family thing. It was a case of blood, sweat and tears.”

“At least we made it competitive,” Smalley concluded. “We came up just a little bit short. I couldn’t be more proud of this team.”

Tough All-Army Defense

Image by familymwr
(U.S. Army photos by Tim Hipps, FMWRC Public Affairs, cleared for public release, not for commercial use, attribution requested)

www.armymwr.com

All-Army men rally from 0-4 hole to Armed Forces Basketball silver

By Tim Hipps
FMWRC Public Affairs

JOINT BASE FORT MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. – Members of the All-Army men’s basketball team nearly came to blows before they came together to win the silver medal at the 2010 Armed Forces Basketball Championships.

After losing four consecutive games by scores of 96-73 to All-Navy, 84-82 to All-Marine Corps in overtime, 68-66 to All-Air Force, and 80-49 to the Marines, the Soldiers were one game away from elimination and implosion.

“We were jawing and scratching to fight each other,” said Sgt. Ron Bartley, 34, of Fort Lee, Va., a five-time All-Army guard who was named to the All-Armed Forces Team. “We were at wits’ end. We had worked so hard and this was our home gym, and for us to be 0-4, I mean, we were ready to throw blows. … We said everything we had to say, ate breakfast, and coach gave a speech that kind of put some tears in our eyes, and we said: ‘What have we got to lose?’”

“We went through every emotion imaginable,” added Cpl. Llewellyn Smalley, 37, of Fort Meade, Md., who was named All-Tournament and All-Armed Forces. “At that point, we were extremely low. We were so quiet. We weren’t communicating with each other. But our coaches kept having faith in us, kept having belief in us, kept telling us ‘to just keep playing, it’s going to click, it’s going to click.’ Coach [1st Sgt. Marcus] Hall and Coach Smith, they kept us together when things were about to fall apart.”

The Armed Forces Tournament format, however, provided All-Army with two more chances to walk away as champions. The first three days of pool play determined the seeds for a double-elimination format that began on Thursday, when All-Army got thrashed by All-Marines.

All-Army head coach Capt. David Smith sensed that his team had enough talent to reach the finals if the Soldiers would come together.

“We just had to refocus and talk about being a family and making defense our number-one priority and it’s not about any individual, it’s about all 15 of us in that locker room,” Smith said. “And if we believe in ourselves, no matter if anybody else does, we can do it. We had a turnaround where we looked each other in the face and said: ‘We have to play with heart and we have to play defense.’ And that’s what we did.”

Smith told his troops they had to do five things to win the championship: sweat, bleed, overcome conflict, fail and succeed.

“We did all of that in a very short period of time – about four days’ worth,” Smith said. “We had 12 guys that wherever they’ve been, they’ve been the man, and it’s hard to mesh that sometimes.”

Facing elimination on Friday, Smalley had 33 points and nine rebounds to lead All-Army to an 85-77 victory over All-Navy. CW2 Aaron Stuart of Fort Polk, La., had 14 points and seven rebounds. Bartley added 13 points and seven assists.

“We got that one win and it was like an avalanche, like a snowball effect,” Smalley said. “We kept rolling, and bam, next thing you know we’re in the championship game. We just played with nothing to lose. I still can’t believe it.”

Facing elimination again on Saturday, Smalley scored 27 points to lead All-Army to a 79-66 victory over All-Marine Corps. Pfc. Roy Binion of Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, had 14 points and 16 rebounds. Second Lt. Paul Nelson of Taylor, Mich., added 14 points off the bench. Spc. Will Lewis of Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., chipped in with 10 points and eight rebounds. Bartley tallied 11 points and seven assists.

In Sunday’s championship game, All-Air Force soared to a 44-24 halftime lead on the strength of suffocating defense and a barrage of uncontested dunks. The Airmen clung to a 60-40 lead on 2nd Lt. Matt Holland’s dunk with 12:46 remaining, but the Soldiers refused to back down.

“Our coaches and our players just believed in each other,” Smalley said. “We knew it was going to be tough from Jump Street because Air Force is a really good team, they have a really good coach over there in John Bailey, and they’re a very well-disciplined team. We didn’t anticipate being down 20, but that’s how it went, and we fought hard and fought back.”

Binion’s 3-pointer from the corner tied the score at 66 with 5:11 remaining, and Bartley’s 3-pointer pulled All-Army to 70-69 with 3:42 left. And the Army-partisan crowd roared.

“I thought that we were going to pull it out,” Smalley said. “I knew they were a mentally tough team and they weren’t just going to roll over and hand it to us, but when we came back we had Mother Momentum and the house on our side as the underdog.”

After committing two turnovers, Bartley followed his own missed shot with a layup that got All-Army within 76-73 with 1:12 remaining. All-Air Force Staff Sgt. Sedric Whitaker of Edwards Air Force Base, La., answered with a hook shot with 43 seconds left and the Sailors added three free throws to secure the gold.

“Coming back from down 20 with 10 minutes to go, that takes a lot out of you,” Smith said. “Ron played his heart out and he was spent. The big fellow, Lewis, played his heart out, and Binion – they all laid it out on the floor and that got them back in it, but it was probably just a little too much. If we hadn’t dug such a big hole, we probably would have been fine.”

Senior Airman Jammar Major led All-Air Force with 20 points and nine rebounds. Holland added 15 points.

The Soldiers were proud to salvage silver from their frustrating week.

“We were down and out,” Bartley said. “Nobody believed in us but us. It was just us against the world. For us to come out of that and win silver medals, you can’t beat that. The guys came together and we preached that family thing. It was a case of blood, sweat and tears.”

“At least we made it competitive,” Smalley concluded. “We came up just a little bit short. I couldn’t be more proud of this team.”