Charley Shares A Story About His Son That He Has Never Shared With Anyone [PICTURES]

Not sure how to even start this story today so I will go with the gloating angle. Last night, my son Mason, came off the bench for his Greeley West Spartans basketball team in his first ever Varsity game to score 19 points earning 'leading scorer' honors and also logged 10 rebounds in a huge win over Mountainview to kick off the season. But the story I share with you today is one I have only shared bits and pieces of to a few but never the whole story.

Greeley Tribune Story

Charley Barnes, TSM

Back in the early 90's my aspiring dream was to be a Division 1 play-by-play guy. I had done years and years of High School sports with many State Championships called with these pipes. But Division I was where I belonged so I took a job doing a morning show in Salina Kansas at 99KG (KSKG) and was also the official play-by-play guy and voice for the Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes doing Basketball and Football.

Salina Kansas was also the site of the yearly Women's NCAA Big 8 tournament and I was asked to do the play-by-play of the 7 games including the Championship game. This was a major deal for me and it seemed as though my dreams were coming alive and the biggest thing that had happened so far in my career. I chose the head football coach of KSW, Brad Jenkins, as my color guy since we got along so well. (If his name rings a bell it's because he played for Nebraska from 1973-1975 catching a couple touchdown passes in one of their Orange Bowls and also the Sugar Bowl in '74 and '75. He was drafted by Tampa Bay in 1976 but never played in the NFL. As irony would have it, I just found out he lives in Severance.)

Charley Barnes, TSM

Anyway, it just so happened that Mason's due date was the exact same day as the scheduled Championship game. His Mom knew how important this was and so did our doctors so it was agreed that we would "extract" Mason a week early just in case he decided to enter the world on time and I would have to miss the Championship.

Now I know this may sound selfish but it was talked about in great length and if there were no other option I was prepared to miss anything to make sure I was there when he was born. We only did this because of our future and it was agreed by everyone that it was completely normal and he was quite healthy and ready.

If you are still reading this and not already bored to tears, I told you all that to tell you this.

Charley Barnes, TSM

One of the only times we could ever be sure Mason would sleep as an infant was in his car seat in the noisiest gyms you could imagine while his Dad called a game. In 1994 a lady once told me, "That little guy will be a ball player someday." I wish I could find that lady because little did we know that he would indeed become a ball player; a very promising one at that.

But that's the rest of the story. No one knows that he was 'extracted' soley because of a basketball game so I am not surprised a bit to see him doing what he was literally born to do!

Head Coach Tory Hanson has got his hands full with some very promising talent and to watch the new Spartan team take the court last night was very exciting to say the least. Coach Hanson is in his 2nd year and with his tremendous leadership, coaching staff and kid willing to learn and play hard, it's a very promising year for Greeley West.

The Greeley West Spartans face Windsor tonight at 7 PM in round #2 of the Northern Colorado Classic being held in Windsor.