Eaglet Jim Gainer

From 7-30-14

Several years ago we had a player who came from a very prominent family---we had something that turned him on called "basketball"! Jim had a successful high school career as he helped lead our teams to a 4-year record of 107 wins & 18 losses. During this 4-yr. period our teams won 3 Region Championships, 1 State Runner-up, and he was named to the All-Region team, and received the Best Effort award at the team's annual banquet.

Jim attended Vanderbilt University, where he was studying to be a physician. During a basketball practice at Vandy, he was stepped on by a teammate. Being fed through a straw, losing weight, he was told he needed to drop his aspirations to be a doctor. Jim stated that he had learned to compete in high school, and would never quit! Many years later, my wife, Jan, and I had a chance to visit with Jim and his family in his palatial home on a coastal island. He had become a very successful cardiologist in Savannah, Ga. As we left his house on a beautiful spring day, I couldn't help but feel that my "investment" of approximately 2,000 hours in Jim's life during his high school career had paid off! But then my thoughts turned to some of our young players who had not met with much success in their lives. The following Sunday in church, I told our story to Sam Gainer, Jim's dad, conveying my mixed feelings about my contribution to his son's life, but also my apparent "failures" with some other young people who had not as yet met much success in their lives. His dad responded, "Coach, you gave all of these young people the same opportunity. Some of them just didn't choose to fly very high."