I grew up in Lansing, Michigan and my Uncle is the infamous Paul Cook who was inducted in to the Michigan coaches hall of fame for 500 career wins. That's really incredible! More incredibly, my Uncle Paul just celebrated his 86th birthday and in honor of this auspicious occasion Lansing Eastern High School dedicated the court to him. This is pretty awesome! Back in the day, Uncle Paul coached many great players that inspired me throughout my basketball career. The amazing part of his coaching career at Eastern lies in the fact that he coached Jay Vincent in the late 70's who played against Magic Johnson at the biggest rivalry game in Lansing history. My Uncle Paul was a very animated coach as we watched him coach his teams. After his amazing career coaching boys high school basketball he moved to the girls side of coaching. By then, I was too old to play for him but envied the girls and boys he coached and watched him for years from afar. The things I learned I still carry with me! Thanks Uncle Paul.
Paul Cook married my mom's sister and they had 13 children because they are a good Catholic family. Growing up we were close to all our cousins and had an amazing softball game at the annual family picnic (my mom's other sister had 8 kids and we were 5 strong)! Uncle Paul would pitch and I could always smack his pitch for a base hit! But somehow, I always saw the smile of pride on his face with my base hit and the efforts of all of us.... Happy Birthday!
We all have our mentors....
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