Apaches News
Wed, Jan 20, 2010 - [Men's Basketball]
By JOE BUIE, Staff Writer, Tyler Morning Telegraph
 
One of the most important basketball workouts of Byron Maxson's life may have been in April 2007.
    
That's when he first played in front of Mike Marquis, who now coaches Maxson at Tyler Junior College.

The workout was in New Orleans, which was still reeling from Hurricane Katrina. The deadly storm, which hit the morning of Aug. 29, 2005, claimed the life of Maxson's grandmother, 56-year-old Nancy Maxson.

Byron, now a redshirt sophomore for the Apaches, and the rest of his family evacuated New Orleans a day or two ahead of the storm -- before I-10 was shut down.

"We left early in the morning, so we had time to get out before they locked the bridge," said Maxson, whose Apaches play Lon Morris today at 7:30 p.m. at Wagstaff Gymnasium.

Maxson said his grandma opted to ride out the storm and ended up at the Louisiana Superdome, where she died.

"… She (was) thinking (nothing) was going to happen this time and she came up short," Maxson said.

His life turned upside down, Maxson wasn't able to finish high school until 2006-07 at John McDonogh, a public school in New Orleans.

"To see the things that happened, it was just shocking," Maxson said. "My grandma … that just motivated me to play basketball."

Maxson signed with TJC in the spring of 2007, but was not able to enroll until the beginning of 2008. After redshirting that year, the 6-4, 185-pound wing has been a valuable member of the Apaches for the past two seasons.

He is coming off maybe his best performance in TJC's 91-77 upset of No. 5 San Jacinto last Saturday. Maxson fill his stat line with 24 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two steals.

He was the catalyst for TJC's 22-0 second-half run with eight points, two steals and one assist.

Maxson and his coach shared a special embrace as the clock was ticking down in front of the home fans.

"Life has provided him every avenue to quit and be bitter, but yet here he is on the verge of graduating from TJC and reaching his dreams of playing Division I because he continued to persevere," Marquis said. "You really want to root for him. He's gone through a whole lot more than making a jump shot."

Maxson averaged 8.0 points per game last season off the bench. He was excelling in the sixth-man role this season until Brad Gay broke a bone in his non-shooting hand on Jan. 6.

Maxson has started the past two games, scoring 10 points in a loss to Bossier Parish before his breakout against San Jacinto when he nearly doubled his season scoring average.

"He's matured a great deal," Marquis said. "He's really learned to trust people … . Basketball-wise, he's really gotten himself under control, and through a lot of hard work he really improved his game. He always played with great energy, now he's starting to play with a lot of confidence."

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SMOKE SIGNALS

: The Apaches are 11-4 overall and 4-3 in the Region XIV North Zone. Lon Morris (11-7) improved to 3-4 in the South with an 84-62 win over Bossier Parish. … The Apache Ladies enter today's 5:30 p.m. tip-off against the Lady Bearcats at 15-4 overall and 4-3 in league play. TJC pounded San Jacinto 90-54 last Saturday. "It was a good confidence-builder," Apache Ladies head coach Trenia Jones said. … The Lon Morris women (8-11, 3-4) are coming off a 74-67 loss to Kilgore. "They are one of those teams that's hard to read," Jones said. "One night they will be a post-oriented team and one night they will be a guard-oriented team."