Great Human Interest Stories in Sports

Particular · Jan 18, 2020

I came across this story about a kid whose high school injuries only provided for opportunity to play basketball at the D3 level. He went to get a great academic experience.
What happened from there is quite amazing...

With the state’s consistently large crops of high-end talent, Scott Drew and his Baylor assistants make a point to thoroughly recruit Minnesota — at least when it’s not snowing.

In 2017, Drew knew he had to get up to Minnesota as part of Baylor’s hard pitch to recruit a certain Twin Cities star … Tre Jones.

Jones eventually committed to Duke, but it was still a fruitful trip north for the Bears. That’s where Drew found his starting center, in perhaps the least likely of places.

Baylor plucked Freddie Gillespie out of Carleton College and added him to the roster as a walk-on. Three years later, Gillespie is the starting center for the Bears, averaging 9.3 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.2 blocks a game for the No. 2-ranked team in the nation.

“When I was 17, if you had told me this (would happen), I would not have believed you for a moment. I would’ve been like, ‘You must be talking about one of the other people playing in the Twin Cities area, because it’s not me,’ ” Gillespie said via phone this week. “It’s unbelievable. I had no idea. But it makes it even more fun and more exciting.”
Click to expand...

Late-blooming Freddie Gillespie goes from East Ridge role player to Baylor beast – Twin Cities

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Great Human Interest Stories in Sports

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