Adam Patterson
For the Poughkeepsie Journal
As I said before, I like to think of myself as a slightly better than average judge of character. Liz Milner, a basketball-aholic from Haldane, was the subject of my first very Empire States Game profile, I already had a mental picture in my head after five second of speaking with her.
I knew she was younger than I, but again that's not by much; I'm hardly old enough to buy beer. Her age in mind, I realized one the phone I heard one of the nicest, most polite telephone interviewees I have ever come across. She was eager to answer my questions, but not in the way that assumes she's eager to toot her own horn so to speak. She held no false modesty, but seemed aware of her basketball prowess. She played on several Amateur Athletic Union teams. I played enough basketball in my youth to remember AAU ball was held with a certain reverence us Christian Youth Organization kids could barely understand. Liz was on two teams. I was twice as jealous. Oh, and she played CYO too.
She also seemed, for someone her age, strangely articulate. I can imagine someone like President Obama speaking with a clarity and confidence that she had, and later on in the conversation I found out way; she was being looked up by the Ivy League, which is actually the name of an athletic league between those eight elite schools. The thing is, they don't offer athletic scholarships; you have to have the grades to play there. As it is, she has the grades.
By this time I'm so impressed and jealous I want to hang up the phone. In my youth there was no image of myself that I imagined more than being a star athlete, and working my way into Harvard. But alas, Dean's list at the local community college is the best I did. I blame MTV, and envy Liz.
Adam Patterson is a junior at SUNY Plattsburgh, studying journalism. After attending Arlington High School, he really did make the Dean's list at Dutchess Community College.
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