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A Team with Some Pop
Posted: Tuesday March 09, 1999 10:07 AM
The best sub in college hoops has got to be the one who comes in for Issac
Gildea at the College of the Redwoods. Not only does the guy pay Issac's
tuition, room and board, but he also nearly bursts out crying every time
Issac
scores.
In return Issac lets the guy sleep with his
mom.
That's because Issac's sub is usually his 41-year-old dad, Frank, a 6'1",
172-pound sophomore guard-forward. Of course, Frank isn't as quick, strong or
relentless as Issac. Frank is quicker, stronger and more relentless. At week's
end Gildea & Son had helped Redwoods to a 21-12 record and the second round
of the California community college
tournament.
Frank not only plays like a 20-year-old, but he also looks like a
20-year-old. He has 2% body fat, a full head of hair, and he can still dunk,
just like Issac, who was the Golden Valley Conference Player of the Year last
season. "Girls always say, 'I didn't know you had a brother,'" says
Issac, who is two inches taller than Frank. "I'll say, 'That's not my
brother. That's my dad.' And they'll say, 'No,
seriously!'"
No, seriously, Papa G, as Redwoods fans call him, was a stud football
recruit at Kansas State in the late 1970s but blew out his knee before playing a
down. He returned to the West Coast, enrolled in Redwoods in '81 and played one
year of hoops for the Corsairs, bringing his baby boy, Issac, in a stroller with
him to practices. Then he took 18 years off and tried it again. O.K., so he took
a redshirt
life.
"When he said he wanted to play again, my first thought was, Let's not
steal Issac's limelight," says Linda, wife or mother of one-sixth of the
Redwoods team. "But Issac knows how good his dad is. His dad still beats
him one-on-one! Issac wanted him out
there."
To become eligible, all Frank had to do was sign up for 12 credit hours. He took
some personal-growth classes. In one of them the discussion was about
"following your dreams." Imagine
that.
"Sometimes, one of the kids will come up to me and say, 'Coach, I'm
tired,'" says Redwoods coach Bill Treglown. "I always say, 'Look,
Frank works in the mornings [as a middle school gym teacher], comes to class
from 12 to 3, practices all out, goes home and plays father and husband,
has dinner, then starts working on his second job [as a representative of a
fireworks firm]. And he's 41 years old! Now tell me how tired you
are."
Even with all that, the hardest-working player on the floor is Frank. Seventeen
years ago he won Redwoods' Mr. Hustle Award, and he might win it again this
year. Sometimes his game is as good as ever. One night he came out and hit three
straight treys. "That's my dad," says
Issac.
Still, Issac has been without a doubt the Corsair with flair, averaging 20.6
points a game to his dad's 1.4. In fact, Issac's been so good lately, Frank
hasn't been getting much playing time. If you don't sit down right now, young
man, you're
grounded.
Nothing bridges a generation gap like sitting in the back of a bus with your son
and all his friends, learning to get jiggy with it. "Every parent wants to
spend quality time with his kid," says Frank. "It just so happens I
get to spend quality time with my son on the basketball
floor."
About a month ago, before a game at Shasta College, Frank was warming up when he
realized a man was staring a hole in him. The man was an old college teammate of
Frank's. The man and his beer belly were so flabbergasted, he could hardly
speak. "Frank? Frank, is that
you?"
You know, sports could use a lot more Franks. Dennis Rodman whines at a press
conference that he's only going to make $500,000 to play basketball?
Introduce him to Frank. Superstar athletes make sons and never meet them? Tell
them about Frank. I'm 41. The other day I got off the couch and went
skateboarding with my teenage son. Thanks, Frank.
At Redwoods it's a tradition to start the outgoing sophomores in the final
regular-season game. That meant Frank and Issac started together for the first
time all season. Seeing them out there, Linda about lost it. "I really
thought my heart was going to bust open," she says. "A heart can only
contain so
much."
Frank's still has room. After the last two wins, including Redwoods' first
playoff victory in its history last Friday night, he slept with the game ball.
"I'm savoring every moment of this," he says, "because it's all
going to end
soon."
Until then, Papa G, sweet
dreams.
Issue date: March 8, 1999
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