6^th Grade
Summer Reading 2008

Walk-On Life From the End of the Bench
by Alan Williams

Directions:  Answer these questions on loose-leaf notebook paper.

Chapter 1

1.     Where did Alan Williams play high school basketball?

2.     How much playing time had Alan had in his 120 collegiate games?

3.     What does being a walk-on mean?

4.     When talking about his basketball experience at a Division I college, Williams said, “Being a walk-on was one of the most rewarding, yet ______________ experiences of my life…”

5.     He learned more about what personal quality than ever before?

Chapter 2

1.     In Alan’s freshman year of basketball at Wake Forest, with what famous NBA player did Williams get to play a pick up game?    

Chapter 3 

1. What is the name of the famous basketball camp that Williams attended?

2. Who is the director of the camp?

3. How many of his players have gone to the NBA?

4. Why do players go to this camp? (2 reasons)

5. What extremely famous basketball player went to this camp?

6. After Williams didn’t get offers from coaches after his second camp, what did Garf suggest that Williams do?

7. Did it work?

8. How did Williams get to stay on the team after Prosser became the new coach of Wake Forest?

Chapter 4

1. With whom did Williams work out before his freshman year in college?

2. To Williams this person had a lot of what?

3. Who was the only person that called Williams by his name?

4. What does the General, the equipment manager, not like?

5. What did Williams not get that hurt his feelings?

6. What was in Williams’ locker after his shower?  Who put it there?

7. How was Williams’ locker labeled compared to the other players?

8. Name identities of O’Kelly that showed he was a good person.

Chapter 5

1. What was the difference between high school basketball and college basketball?

2. What embarrassed Williams in the basketball game? (2 actions)

Chapter 6

1. What did Williams have trouble doing? (2)

2. What had Williams been in high school that made it hard to be smallest, slowest, and weakest in college where he is not to shoot?

3. What was the workout skill that Williams did well?

4. Name four things the Lord did for Williams his freshman year.

Chapter 7

1. What was very important at Wake Forest?

2. What would happen if a player skipped class?

Chapter 8

1. When it came time for team picture, what did Coach Odom do when the walk-ons didn’t have a jersey for the picture? (This showed Williams that Odom had character.)

2. What did Williams have to do when his warm ups were way too large?

Chapter 9

1. What record did Williams set when he was a sophomore in high school?

2. What did U.S.A. Today say about Williams?

3. What upset Williams about his practice jersey his first year at Wake Forest?

4. What did Williams learn is the “True Treasure” instead of a label on a jersey?

Chapter 10

1. What did Williams’ dad say was vital for an athlete?

2. What did Williams’ dad have new for every game in high school?

3. Confidence is the result of what?

4. What did his dad write at the bottom of the index card?

Chapter 11

1. At the home game what did he forget to ask the coach before he went in?

Chapter 12

1. What bad news did Williams get?

Chapter 13

1. What did Williams get to do again after Coach Odom resigned?

Chapter 14

1. Who was the new coach?

2. What kind of coach did Williams say the new coach was?

Chapter 15

1. What did Williams have a very difficult time doing?

2. Williams wanted a tape of his playing time for the first ten games to give his father for Christmas.  How long did the tape last?

Chapter 16

1. What did Williams do for the summer to get ready for the new season?

2. What bad news did the coach have when he returned for preseason?

3. What did Williams tell Coach Prosser?

Chapter 17

1. What had Williams feared as a child?

2.  What is Williams having trouble seeing his sophomore year?

3.  Which players is the most supportive in the pick up game his sophomore year?

Chapter 18

1. Who told Williams about walk-on tryouts?

2. Who came to the tryouts to support him?

3. What news did the coach have for him?

Chapter 19

1. How was the team spoiled on travel games?

2. Of what about his mission trips did these traveling games remind him?

Chapter 20

1. What does his mother do for him everyday?

2. Why is father special?

3. What did Williams tell Andre when he asked why Jesus let bad things happen to good people?

4. What did he find out about his father after the mission trip?

5. What did Phillip Yancey say about suffering?

6. Weakness is the place where you experience what?

7. At the senior year UNC game for whom did the coach tell the players to play?

8. The trials that test your faith develop what?

9. When does Williams look at his index card from his dad that says take one day at a time?

Chapter 21

1. Name three things that make Prosser a successful coach.

2. What did Prosser say was more than their names on the back of their jerseys?

3. Prosser was their toughest _______________ and biggest ___________.

4. Name three things that Prosser made the players do to remind them of what is most important in life.

5. What does WIN mean?

6. Prosser started every practice talking about what?

7. The seven steps on the ladder stood for what?  How did it relate to life?

Chapter 22

1. When are players made?

2. What happened to the team when the freshman overslept?

3. What did they do to show the players are behind each other?

Chapter 23

1.     During his junior year in college, where did Williams take his teammates?

2.     What did Williams tell Steve Lepore when he said he wasn’t good enough for God?

3.     What information did Williams get from Europe a year later?  What did it remind Williams to do?

Chapter 24

1. Of what does the long hall to the court remind Williams?

2. Why did Chris Paul, a high school point guard deliberately miss his last free throw?

Chapter 25

1. How did the teammates make Williams feel like they were “together”? (2)

Chapter 26

1. Why couldn’t Josh Howard go to the Ranger baseball game with Williams and Steve Lepore when Josh came to join the Dallas Mavericks?

2. How did Williams compare Josh giving up his seat on the famous leather chair in the dressing room to Jesus?

Chapter 27

1. Why couldn’t Williams’ dad come to his game, the Coaches versus Cancer Charity Classic at the Madison Square Garden?

2. What did Williams ask the announcer Dick Vitale to do for him at the game?

3. What did Dick Vitale do? (2)

Chapter 28

1. What is the job of a walk-on?

2. What move did Williams make that got him mentioned on the local news?

3. What three things did Williams do when he got to play in Dallas?

Chapter 29

1. What sad event took place in this chapter?

Chapter 30

1. Out of 4,000 hours of basketball, how much did Williams play and score?

2. What was special to him in the last game?