Mar 23, 2007 - 04:11:46 CDT
BySTEVETHOMAS BismarckTribune
Bob Piatz hasn't been in the addition phase of his athletic career for many years.
He's been dropping sports since 1980.
But it's going to be a long time before amateur basketball standout fromJamestown reaches zero.
"I'm very competitive when I'm playing sports, when I'm playing golf, whenI'm playing Monopoly with the kids," said Piatz, who is closing in on 49 years of age. "But it's not only my competitive nature. It's still fun to me."
Piatz and his Jamestown Knights of Columbus teammates make up one of 176 teams that are expected to do battle in thr state amateur basketball tournament, which begins today in Bismarck.
They're entered in the monster division - Commercial II-Recreation - which swallows up over half the teams all by itself. As of Wednesday, 106 of the 176 teams entered are in Commercial II-Rec.
Piatz said the Knights of Columbus are fugitives from the Old Pro division, which annually has just a dozen or so teams. When the amateur tournament had two Old Pro divisions, Piatz said the Knights of Columbus were contenders with the older teams -Old Pro Senior Division.
But when the Old Pro divisions were merged a while back the Jamestown players found themselves playing against younger opponents.
"We just thought it would be nice to get different competition and get into a situation here we could play a few more games,"Piatz said.
They've accomplished that. The Knights of Columbus could play six or seven games this weekend if they can stave off elimination.
"We're in our late 40s and early 50s and we were playing guys 10 to 15 younger than us,"Piatz said. "So we decided to go against guys 20 years younger than us."
They've been there before, but at a younger age. Piatz and some of his teammates were on the Jamestown Elks teams that won Commercial I titles in the 1999 and 2000 state amateur tourneys.
As a high school standout at Napoleon and a college athlete at Jamestown, Piatz had a sport for every season - and wrestling wasn't one of them.
He was one of the three Piatz boys who eluded the call of the wrestling room. "Three of us played basketball and two wrestled," Piatz recalled. "Ihas two brothers (Jeff and Randy) who were state champions."
InNapoleon, Piatz played basketball and football and ran track during the school year and took up Legion baseball in the summer. When he moved on to Jamestown College, he remained a four-sport athlete and a fine one. He was named the state college athlete of the year his junior year at Jamestown.
When he graduated from Jamestown College in 1980 two sports - football and track - peeled away immediately. He played amateur baseball with the Jamestown Elks for two decades before retiring after the 2000 season.
Now his two athletic pursuits are slowpitch softball and basketball.
Piatz said he looks forward to the state amateur basketball tournament for two reasons. He savors the competition, and he loves the social facet.
"It's still fun getting together with guys and playing against them," he said. "... And you can see the social aspect of it. You keep meeting up with old friends.It's almost like a reunion each year."
And there have been a lot of years. "I've played in the amateur tournament every year but one since I graduated (from college) in 1980,"Piatz related.
Over the years Piatz has been inducted into the Jamestown College athletic hall of fame and the state amateur baseball hall of fame. He doesn't interpret that as an indication that he's ready for the rocking chair, though.
"This keeps me active," he said of his annual basketball regimen. "I'm a CPAand Isit behind a desk all day. This keeps a little weight off, too."
Besides, Piatz is a relative pup on the Knights of Columbus roster that features four players over 50 years of age, one of whom is 57. "I'm one of the younger ones. I'll be 49 in May." Piatz said.
He issues fair warning that the Knights of Columbus aren't taking the court as a lark. No one will be going through the motions for the Jamestown guys.
"We're older but we're still pretty competitive yet and we're still in pretty good shape," Piatz said.
So it seems. Both Piatz and teammate Wade Davis made the Old Pro IIall-tournament team at last year's state amateur in Minot.
former team mate wrote on Mar 23, 2007 1:01 PM:
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