He hasn't set foot on campus as a student yet, and already Marquis Maze is becoming one of my favorite players, mostly because I heart his mom:
"I benched him when he didn't do well in school," said Maze. "I told him if he didn't have the grades, he wasn't going to get to play sports. In middle school basketball, he came home with a `C' in science. I called the school and told them he couldn't play the next game.
"It was the area championship, and Tarrant had not been there in awhile. The school called and asked me to give him another chance. I said no. I made him go to the game, dress out, but sit on the bench and give his teammates water."
It didn't matter to Chervis Maze whether Tarrant won or lost one game. What mattered was that her son understood the consequences of his actions.
God bless her.
In other news, Bob Newton, long time head coach of the Homewood Patriots (your humble authors' alma mater), has been selected as a member of the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame. So congratulations to Coach Newton. I never played football for him, but he inadvertently taught me more about the game in three weeks of driver's ed classes than anyone has before or since.