Kevin Stallings

by Larry Donahue
(Bethalto ill USA)

Kevin Stallings was the most fun to watch high school player I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. At 6ft 5in he played guard and could handle the ball as good as anyone I have seen in my 56 yrs. of watching H.S. basketball.

His passing ability is the best I have seen in all those years, he could no look a pass right on the dot, his teammates had to keep their eyes on him all the time as you never knew when the ball would be coming to you even if you did not think he saw you. I saw him dismantle teams with his dribbling and his passing and scoring. What a great high school player he was, and you could tell by watching him in warm ups and the game that he loved what he was doing.

He played for the late great Virgil Fletcher, the best coach ever as far as I am concerned. Virgil never got excited at game time, always calm and collected. He said practice is where you do the yelling, at game time if they were not ready it was his fault and it was to late , game time was to have fun and do what you knew. It worked for him, the few times I saw a team of his get behind by half time they always came out and took control of the game in the second half. Virgils teams were never out conditioned and it always paid off in the second half.

Thanks Kevin for all the good basketball viewing you gave us.