Rebound

Terrance Hampton was sitting in Spanish class when Providence High School boys basketball coach Myron Lowery called him into his office. It was early February 2009, and the Panthers were surging toward the state playoffs with Hampton averaging 20 points and eight rebounds a game.

But Lowery didn’t want to talk basketball.

Instead, Lowery had to tell Hampton that his grades had slipped below Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ eligibility standard for athletes.

Suddenly, one of the county’s most explosive offensive players wasn’t even allowed to put on a uniform for the rest of the season.

“I was disappointed in him,” said Lowery. “He let a lot of people down. I was pretty harsh with him because I knew what was getting ready to happen (to the team).”

And Lowery was right. Without Hampton, the Panthers sputtered to a four-game losing streak to finish the season.

“Not only did I hurt myself from a recruiting standpoint,” Hampton said, “(but) being a junior, which is a really important year (for college recruits), I let down the people that I’m supposed to be in this to win it with. I let (my teammates) down.”

As if that weren’t bad enough, Hampton still had to give his mother, Claudette, the bad news.

“My heart literally just stopped,” said Claudette. “The first thing you think is, ‘What can we do?’ Then you stop and go, ‘It’s done, there’s nothing else you can do except watch him deal with it.’”

The story could have ended there.

Instead, Hampton remained with the Panthers, even if it was from the stands. For the rest of the season, Hampton watched every game, every loss, every heartbreak.

“I felt, in a sense, that I was still part of it,” Hampton recalled. “Never did I feel disconnected from the basketball team.”

It was Hampton’s way of showing his coaches and teammates that he still considered himself part of the program. The reason he was no longer on the court wasn’t a secret. Yet he remained visible, amid all the whispers and finger-pointing.

“I don’t know if I would’ve had the guts to do that,” said Claudette. “(He figured), ‘I can’t run from this. I already messed (my teammates) up. I have to support them.’

“It was probably the hardest personal thing he’s had to face.”

As for the afternoons, let’s just say Hampton didn’t have a lot of free time.

“From that point on, my life became a lot more structured,” said Hampton.

He and Claudette compiled daily schedules and found tutors to help with the schoolwork. Claudette even checked his homework.

“He just needed to grow up,” said Claudette. “It was real simple. He had a good season last year, but he didn’t find the balance. I think he was more committed to basketball than academics, which never works. He averaged 20 points a game last year – that’s great. But he didn’t put in the academic work, and it just spiraled on him.”

The coach’s way or the highway

For Lowery, Hampton’s academic slide simply was indicative of a larger problem: maturity. So even after Hampton saw his grades jump by the end of the 2008-09 school year, Lowery remained apprehensive.

“I didn’t let him in (the locker room) for a long time, even after he became eligible,” said Lowery, who noted that while Hampton had improved his grades, his listening skills and decision-making still needed improvement.

“He was going to do it the way I wanted him to do it,” said the coach.

But Lowery didn’t just throw a rigid set of standards on the locker room floor and let Hampton figure it out for himself.

“We’ve had some heart-to-heart talks that had nothing to do with basketball,” said Lowery. “It has everything to do with life in general, becoming a man, family, life, being a teenager. Those were some of the more intense conversations.

“If he didn’t take care of that, none of these other things were going to happen.”

Slowly, Lowery’s guidance started to make an impact. The key?

“I guess me being more stubborn than he is, if that’s even humanly possible,” said Lowery with a laugh. “It’s been a long, long process.”

The signs that things have changed for Hampton are starting to show. According to Lowery, Hampton’s priorities have changed, and he’s even become more coachable. Take, for example, a harsh postgame speech the coach gave to the Panthers after a 66-50 loss to Hopewell on Dec. 4. Lowery said much of the criticism was aimed at Hampton.

“He sat there and looked us in the eye,” Lowery said. “It was the first time he kind of took it all in. I think that he’s starting to turn the corner.”

His maturation has also shown on the court. Hampton, now a senior, is averaging 22 points, eight rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game.

He was named most valuable player of the Northwestern (S.C.) High Tournament over the winter break and has garnered attention from more than 25 colleges, including Tulane, Anderson (S.C.) College, Wingate and S.C. State. He’s even been offered a scholarship by Charlotte’s Johnson C. Smith University.

“He has his head on much better right now than he ever has before, and that’s the single most important thing,” noted Lowery. “Honestly, he just started playing better because he just started listening better. I think some things all started to click. He started to see that he is very capable of things.

“It’s still a constant thing. I could talk to you next week or the week after, and I don’t know what may happen,” continued Lowery. “It’s not like I’m getting comfortable with what he does. I know it’s a day-to-day thing. That’s just kind of the way he is. But I will have to say, for the last several weeks, he’s communicated better with me than he ever has. He’s been real positive.”

Hampton said sitting out part of last season helped him change perhaps his biggest problem: “My overall mind-set about how I have to go about life and how I need to get things done.

“I realized what I have to do to get where I want to be,” he said. “I just feel like nothing can stop me besides myself. That’s just how I look at life in general.”

Added Claudette, “It may have been the best thing that ever happened to him. It got his attention. It taught him that it can happen to you. Academics are first. You have to have a job after basketball.

“It was horrible last year,” she continued. “It was hurtful – tough to watch your child go through something that publically painful. But if it helps you grow up, makes you better and it teaches you a lesson, then you can’t count it as all bad.”