Frost Heave players form close bonds
Toolbox
By Anna Grearson Times Argus Staff - Published: March 29, 2007
When the Vermont Frost Heaves held their first open practice at Montpelier High School at the end of October, the possibility of a championship was an unspoken hope. Tonight, the Heaves arrive at the doorstep of that hope, looking to not just open the door but to step through it with a win.
"We've really talked about the journey, and if you get too caught up in where you're going, you're not enjoying how you got there," Vermont coach Will Voigt said. "I'm a real big believer in that, and that's really what we sold these guys on. We tried to be up front about what the process was going to be like in terms of the fact that we train a lot and we train hard, we spend a lot of time in the gym, and if you don't like that you shouldn't come here because you won't enjoy it. We never sat down and said, 'Hey, with this team, our goal is to win the championship.' We've never talked about any of that. The only thing we talked about was that we want to try to get better and we want to try and do that every day, and the guys really bought into that."
All season over a dozen players from across the country and beyond, alongside three Vermonters, (six Vermonters counting coaches Voigt, Wayne Lafley and Scott Caulfield), have taken the community and the ABA by storm.
"I knew early on it was special because we have a great group of people," Voigt said. "The championship is great, but that's not what I'm going to remember. I'm going to remember Melvin Creddle telling jokes and all of these different personalities and the way that all these primarily inner-city kids and a lot from the south – and they had no idea what Vermont is like – came in and were willing to be open to the experience and grew to love it. That's what makes this a special group."
The Frost Heaves are players from as close as the ski heaven of Stowe and as far as Dakar, Senegal, with fans from the very young to the very old. And the bond among all of them has created something special.
Most of the Heaves continued their collegiate careers with stints overseas and have returned stateside to give this ABA thing a shot. Some will return to the working world following tonight's title game while others will join other teams all over the world.
"My grandmother actually told me about it," 6-foot-4 guard Dana Martin said. "I called her when I was playing in Germany and she told me about a team that was starting in the U.S. in Vermont, and I didn't believe her. I e-mailed Alex Wolff once I found out and basically started from scratch and went to two tryouts and everything's followed from there. It's been a lot of hard work, but it's paid off.
"Most of us had never seen an ABA game. We didn't know what the playing style was going to be like, we didn't know what the competition was going to be like. I think from the start we knew we had a good thing. You could tell with the way the players interacted and the way they worked hard, and I think with that you could tell a good thing was going to happen, but you really couldn't tell we were going to be playing in the finals."
A common bond has been forged between guards Melvin Creddle and Kelvin Parker, who both played their college careers at small Division II schools.
"I just finished playing at a small Division II school, and I didn't have a lot of offers to play basketball afterwards," Creddle said. "Will just saw me at a camp and gave me a chance to play. I didn't have any other offers. All of these other guys played professional ball overseas and I was about to hang up my shoes and Will was like, 'You can come play for me.' I'm glad he saw me."
Creddle has been the team's energy player from off the bench.
"Coach just puts me in the game as a sparkplug," Creddle said. "I just come in and try to make it an up-tempo game and play hard and sometimes it's contagious. Everybody else sees me playing hard and they start playing hard, too."
Voigt stressed the developmental role of the ABA, and Creddle is just one of the players hoping to use this season's success as a launching pad for his basketball future.
"A lot of doors opened up for me because Will is a man who knows a lot of people, and with us winning, I got a lot of looks now, so it's really opened doors now," Creddle said. "We lost our first game, so I was in doubt, but he said he wasn't in doubt that we would have a good season. He's a winner. Wherever he goes, he wins, so I'm going to go out and be a part of it."
Kevin Mickens, a Baltimore, Md., native, is a 6-foot-9 forward who has stepped up his game in the absence of Issa Konare to injury. Mickens side-stepped a European career to spend this winter in Vermont.
"I got here with a call from coach Voigt," Mickens said. "I was on my way overseas, but he gave me a call and said he liked my performance in a tryout, so I ended up staying here all summer. I've been here since August working out, training with coach Voigt, and he liked what he saw so he signed me."
Mickens played two years for George Mason University before taking his game to Portugal and South America and said he doesn't have an off-season. He plans to go back home to train and wait for his agent to work out another opportunity.
John Bryant played with Heaves' guard Tyrone Barley on the 27-0 Saint Joseph's team that made it to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament before bowing out at the buzzer. Bryant will leave after this week for the Knox Raiders, a team outside of Melbourne, Australia, who has already played four games and will play a fifth this weekend.
Bryant came to Vermont by way of a tryout in Oregon for a Chinese team.
"I went to this camp in Oregon, the Chinese Basketball Association Draft Camp, and I was drafted there," Byrant said. "The guy who helped run that camp knows Will and he contacted my agent and my agent told me about it."
All four credit the coach who stands up for his players on the court and has led them to the doorstep tonight.
"Will has preached nothing but winning," Bryant said. "That's what's really helped us throughout the whole season. I love these guys like my brothers. Anybody would do anything for anybody on the team, especially Will. He actually cares about his players and wants to see us do well, not only on the basketball court but off the court."