Columbia Heights boys' basketball coach Willie Braziel observed his players' frustrations during last Friday's game and called timeout to get their minds right.
"Control your emotions," Braziel hollered. "They are just waiting for you to do something so they can call a technical. And if you get a technical, walk this way because you're going to be done for the night."
The Hylanders' starters appeared to get Braziel's message.
Reserve forward Toby Frisby, however, has lived it.
Frisby, a senior captain in football and basketball, never let hard times show. Family problems left him homeless for stretches of his high school career. He lived in extended-stay hotels, a shelter in St. Paul and with friends. Food was sometimes in short supply. He's worn donated clothes and played basketball with inadequate, tattered shoes.
The reward came last week when Frisby signed a National Letter of Intent to play football at Winona State. Frisby, who was also voted homecoming king, serves a vital role as a leader by example for the Hylanders basketball team (14-4), a group in the hunt for its first state tournament appearance since 1930.
The future he long dreamed about has arrived.
"As stuff got more difficult, I realized that stuff isn't always going to be easy and you have to make the best of what you've got," Frisby said. "The whole time I would think, 'This is just temporary. It's not going to last forever. There's stuff ahead of me.'"