Winning spirit

Take five minutes to talk to them and you can easily recognize why any football coach would want George Hamilton and Grant Bruscoe on his team.

Even if the pair wasn’t exactly interested in being there themselves.

Bruscoe and Hamilton currently lead Coach Adam Fisher’s East Valley Knights in receiving, but the biggest catch of the season belongs to the head coach.

“Every year I have to call Grant and almost pull him out for football – it’s kind of a running joke around here,” Fisher laughed. “Both of these guys are extremely well-rounded. They’re both three-sport athletes and they both excel at three sports.”

Despite that initial reluctance, both players bring a sense of joy and a strong work ethic to the Knights, who bring a 4-2 Greater Spokane League record into West Valley’s homecoming game tomorrow night.

“I’m really glad the coach talked me into coming out,” Bruscoe said. “Looking back, I’m so happy to have been a part of this team.”

Hamilton agreed.

“I don’t think either one of us would say that this is our favorite sport – we’re both more baseball players at heart,” he said. “But I’m glad I played. We’ve been able to help the football team, and that feels good.”

Fisher likes to see his athletes play multiple sports – high school is a time to be cherished and one of the few times in life when an athlete can sample a wide variety of experiences.

“They’ve done studies that show that less than one percent of athletes will go on and play beyond high school, either college or professional sports,” he said. “I think the kids get so much more out of sports if they try a number of them.”

Bruscoe is convinced.

“I look at it now and I think I’m a better baseball player because I played football,” he said. “It gives you that edge that baseball doesn’t. I love it. I’m a little sad to see it almost gone.

“Not taking anything away from baseball’s intensity, but in football, the play isn’t over until the whistle blows. It gives me a competitive edge in intensity.

“I’ve grown a lot as both a player and as a person because of football.”

For Hamilton, playing three sports gives him something his other passion, music, does not.

An outstanding bassoonist and saxophone player, he uses sports as an avenue of expression.

“I’m a pretty expressive guy out here,” Hamilton said of the football field. “I’m the kind of player who wears his heart on his sleeve and I play with a lot of emotion. That’s different from music. In music, I have to keep that emotion inside and express it through the instrument. That’s very different.”

For both players, the depth of their feelings for football became apparent in the first weeks of the season. Both were injured and missed games. Bruscoe injured an ankle in the first quarter of the season opener with Coeur d’Alene and was out for the next two games. Hamilton was recovering from surgery and missed the first two games entirely.

“For me, it was so difficult to be standing on the sidelines and not able to play,” Bruscoe said. “I probably came back and played too soon. I get a lot of inspiration from my brother, who has cerebral palsy. I think, in a lot of ways, I play for him, and I definitely appreciate the fact that I can get out here and play.

“And I think football teaches you the difference between playing hurt and being injured. I think you learn that internal toughness.”

Hamilton learned that lesson as a sophomore, when surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee forced him to miss both the basketball and baseball seasons.

“That killed me,” he said. “Missing basketball was hard enough, but baseball is my passion. My brother played summer ball – and his summer season was, like, 65 games long. I couldn’t even go watch him play because it hurt too much to not be out there myself.”

Both players insist that the winning attitude the baseball team found this past spring, winning the Greater Spokane League championship, has carried over to football.

“It helps that most of the baseball players all play football,” Bruscoe said. “I think we brought that willingness to do what it takes to win – whether it’s doing that last wind sprint or whatever.

“We came into this season with the attitude that we were the best team in the GSL and we still believe that. We don’t believe anyone is going to beat us.”

Both players want to extend their careers playing baseball.

“I want to play baseball,” Bruscoe said. “If I could find a junior college where I could play both football and baseball, that would be ideal.”

Hamilton wants to double up, too.

“I’m looking at four-year schools and I’m looking for a music scholarship, too,” he said. “I want to play baseball and I’m willing to walk on to get a shot.

“I’ve been in the all-state band as a bassoon player and I think that will be my ticket to college.”