Columnist Ron Kantowski: There’s something special about summer in the gym

Thursday, July 22, 2004 | 9:24 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

Unless you grew up in some place like Cleveland, where the soot from the smokestacks precluded it, you have probably spent a sultry summer day gazing at clouds with a friend or two or maybe even Judy Collins, and then comparing what person, place or thing you had spotted among them.

Add about 336 teams comprising roughly 4,000 high school basketball players to the cumulus and nimbus formations, and you get Sonny Vaccaro's Reebok Big Time Tournament, which invades (certainly the proper word) the valley for the 10th time beginning today.

The beauty of this high school basketball extravaganza -- or the warts, as the case may be -- is certainly in the eye of the beholder.

The Big Time, to romantic farts like me and UNLV basketball coach Lon Kruger, is just one more reminder that the three-sport high school star has gone the way of the malt shop and letterman's sweater.

Not that it's the only culprit. If you look hard enough this weekend, you can probably find a bunch of should-be shortstops and center fielders throwing a football in some summer high school passing league near you.

"Certainly, kids seem to specialize in and focus on one sport a little earlier today than they did way back then," Kruger said.

The then in his case was 1970. The where was Silver Lake, Kan., population 1,390, about 10 miles from Topeka as the tractor rolls.

"I was fortunate to be from a very small school where all the guys played all the sports," Kruger said. "I was able to turn that into a positive experience."

Positive experience? That's like saying Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins went on an interesting trip 35 years ago this week.

Kruger was such a renowned athlete that he was drafted by both the Houston Astros and Atlanta Hawks and was invited to the Dallas Cowboys' rookie camp. It's too bad the ponds in Silver Lake didn't stay frozen a bit longer, or I'm sure the Canadiens would have been checking him out, too.

"When I was in high school, you didn't go to summer basketball camp. You played baseball exclusively. Even when I was in college, I never played basketball during the summer," said Kruger, who more recently has become a scratch golfer.

"I think kids today miss out by not participating in the other sports and activities. They feel like they have to compete for exposure and scholarships ... so they focus on one sport."

Man, can it be that long since Bo Jackson blew out his hip?

Kruger agreed that it's probably going to be a while longer before another man for all seasons inquires about "that Tour de France thing," even if it's only in an ad campaign.

"I think so," he said. "You seldom see even two-sport athletes anymore. But these times aren't all bad, either. Guys are enjoying their teammates, making progress in the game they love -- there a lot worse things than spending the summer in the gym."

But, the question remains, "Where have you gone, Dave DeBusschere?" A nation -- or at least a segment of the population approaching middle age that remembers when it was possible to play for the Pistons in winter and the White Sox in spring and summer -- turns its lonely eyes to you.

Even before DeBusschere (and Danny Ainge and Deion Sanders), there was Chip Hilton, the protagonist of a series of sports novels for boys written by Clair Bee, the former basketball coach at Long Island University. Bee invented the 1-3-1 zone defense before he invented Hilton, a three-sport star at fictional Valley Falls High who went on to star at State U.

As noted, that was back in the day where big-time jocks could seamlessly move from one sport to the next, as well as hold down a job and date the head cheerleader. It was much more hip to be good at a lot of things back then, rather than great in just one.

But if a guy like Hilton still exists, you won't get to see him at Foothill High this weekend. I spent Wednesday afternoon and part of the evening checking the Big Time brackets, and the Valley Falls Playaz apparently weren't invited.