Next Man Up

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7

First there was Cliff. Then his son Eddie. And now the twins. And a few others in between.

We had a nice boys basketball team at Monroe City, MO high school in 1986. But as this year’s Monroe City team is going to learn, a strong senior class will in time graduate. Our 1986 JV team won four games. 

Cliff Talton

The following year, 1987, we were a young team, a tough assignment in the Clarence Cannon Conference of the day. We played a freshman, two sophomores, a junior and one returnee, Senior Eddie Talton. Not one player stood over 6’1”. 

Early in the season we were not particularly good. Really, we were bad. After Christmas we got better and better. We went into the district tournament with 14 wins and were seeded 3rd. I thought in November we would have been last. By February, I felt we should have been first. All year, Eddie carried the young team on his back, gave them time to develop. He averaged 23.8 points per game and 10.2 rebounds. He was a Warrior.

The big show down that March was to be in the district finals between a state ranked Winfield squad led by two very good 6'5 players and a state ranked Wright City squad. We upset Winfield in the semis by one point. Freshman Clay Talton scored nine straight points to start the 4th quarter and sophomore Chad Holiday hit four straight free throws in the game's final ten seconds. 

We played Wright City in the District finals at Van-Far. We were a huge underdog. They averaged 78 points a game and would eventually finish third in the state.  But by February, for a young team, we played with a swagger. We thought if we could slow them down, we could beat them. We felt we were mentally stronger, more disciplined. We expected to win. 

We had a very strange game plan: unless they had a wide-open layup no one in a Panthers jersey that night but Eddie would shoot the ball. If Wright City double teamed Talton, then our unguarded man was to stand and hold the ball at midcourt. If they don't double team Eddie, feed him the ball and with only one man guarding him he would score at will. No way could they stop him one on one.

We didn't care if we went into the last minute of the game with only four points as long as we led 4-2. Teams that score 78 points per game do not like to have the ball held on them. First, they frustrate, then they panic. Crazy, but it worked. We led the entire first 31 minutes and 53 seconds of the 32-minute game. 

Wright City scored with seven seconds to play to take a 46-45 lead. We called time out. Everybody in the gym knew we would try to get the ball in Talton's hands. Wright City came out of the time out in a defense I have never seen before or since - they tripled teamed Eddie for the inbound pass and had their other two players spread across our free throw line, in essence, two guarding four. It all but guaranteed we would get an open shot for the win; but they were not going to let Talton be the shooter. With no timeouts left, our kids did a great job of adjusting and Corrie Holland hit a jump shot off the right baseline; unfortunately, just after the horn. It was a tough one. That team deserved a better fate.

Flash forward 35 years and Eddie has become Coach Ed, the veteran, bespectacled, mild mannered, wise and benevolent assistant coach of this year’s talented addition of the Monroe City Panthers.

On the past Wednesday evening the Panthers suffered a gut wrenching, season ending Sectional round 45-44 loss to Duchesne. Josh Talton, Ed's son, came oh so close to hitting a half court heave at the buzzer, bouncing his shot off the back iron. It was, ironically similar to the losing score his Dad's Panther career ended on 35 years prior. This team, also, deserved a better fate.

Talton’s twin sons, Seniors Josh and Josiah, like the charismatic and moxy drenched leaders of the Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, were the unquestioned alpha males of a confident troop of highflying ballers that until Wednesday's loss had their sights set dead center on March and the school’s first state basketball title.

You can trace the twin's chromosomal links in a chain that stretches back to 1959 through a third cousin, Big Joe Talton. The family name has become sort of a small-town genealogical juggernaut of hoops—a basketball Jurassic Park. Do they build these guys in some secret underground laboratory? Will the talent pipeline ever die, area schools must be asking?  America's 50 Yard Line: The Indominable Joe Talton (rollingdownhwy83.blogspot.com)

Lisa and Ed Talton

But first there was Coach Ed’s late father Cliff, a man who came of age in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. It was a time when America’s Civil Rights Movement was barreling unimpeded down an increasingly violent and confrontational path, transitioning from the conciliatory civil disobedience strategy under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King to the violent rage that represented a younger generation of Black Power militants who had no hesitation to spill blood in the streets. In the summer of 1968 the winds of social change, years in the making, now fanned the flames of the riotous racial fires of Watts, Harlem and Detroit. Against the backdrop of a bemused society seemingly hellbent on a racial apocalypse and a cultural suicide, Cliff Talton was hired as the first black police officer in the history of Monroe City, MO.

Cliff Talton was a respected man whose life’s work bridged every class and social line of the small town of Monroe City. As the town’s first black police officer, Cliff once told me, he had always felt the burden to be twice as good as any white officer on the force.

Educated in the 1950's in Monroe City's segregated school for "colored children," Mr. Talton was a man who without doubt could reach across the racial lines of this small town, but he was not, I can assure you in the strongest of terms, an Uncle Tom. I always felt Cliff navigated this slippery slope well. He accepted the burden of, due to his race, of “having to be twice as good,” but he never compromised his pride.

Today, I can also assure you, Cliff is resting in salvation, button busting proud of what he sees below on the local hardwoods.

They are naturals, the twins, infinitely disciplined, products of an extraordinarily strong, extremely ambitious family, they know innately how to handle the role of small-town high school basketball stars—to deal with the media, to know what to say and what not to say and when to be humble, and to smile always.

It is about more, of course, than winning basketball games and smiling. They are both warriors, smiling polite warriors, granted, and that burns through to the locals. There is a feral quality to how they play, and an intense desire to win. The Talton twins (ignore all the smiles) are tough and hard.

Like their dad, the twin’s character is palatable upon first greeting, their upbeat personalities energizing. It is easy to be upbeat when you are winning, and these two have known nothing but winning since nine years ago when they and a bunch of their third-grade buddies jumped in Ed’s family minivan and began cruising the area searching for games. As the years have rolled on, they have had to cast a wider and wider net to catch quality competition.

This senior class of 2022 enters post season play with a four-year mark of 99-15. They have never lost to a Clarence Cannon Conference member. They have won the district tournament six years running and qualified for the state final four the last two years. Of their 15 losses, only three have been to schools in their own classification, Class 3, all three in state level play. 

Current Panther Head Coach Brock Edris could gush on and on about the Talton’s, and for good reason. Their family motto could be, “discipline yourself so Coach does not have to.”

“I first introduced myself to Ed my first year as the high school basketball coach,” Edris remembers. “I wanted to meet our youth coaches and Ed was coaching his oldest son’s (C.E.) youth basketball team at the old Holy Rosary gym one evening. We hit it off right away sharing a common vision for the basketball program of Monroe City.”

When the opportunity arose, Edris brought Talton on as a paid member of his staff. “Within a few years Ed was able to join the school staff and become our middle school boys’ basketball coach in addition to an assistant on the high school staff.”

Edris wanted consistency throughout the Panther program, from junior high to varsity, and Talton provided it. “His commitment helped streamline the standards, expectations, terminology, and style of play that we wanted the kids to know before they became a part of the high school program,” Edris says. “Ed is passionate about teaching kids. Not only has he been instrumental in our success on the court, but he has impacted the lives of so many in our school and community. He has been a great friend and mentor to have in my life.”

Family

A deeply religious man who leads a deeply religious family, the Talton children at the time he became a paid staff member of the Monroe City R-8 School District did not attend the public school. His oldest son, C.E. could not play as a 7th grader on the first team at MCJH his dad coached because he attended, with his three other siblings, a small church run school. By the next year, the family made the move in unison over to the public school.

Coach Edris said he knew by that first year that he had something special. “C.E.’s drive to become a great basketball player is one of the best I’ve ever seen,” Edris says. “It was clear that by the end of his 8th grade year, we would need to bring him up to varsity to start at point guard his freshman season. By C.E;’s sophomore season, he helped lead our team to the first district title in a long time.”

“C.E. was, and still is, such a perfectionist,” says his dad. “Once, he was a junior and had a bad game, or what he thought was a bad game. My wife, Lisa, got up in the middle of the night to check on the kids and found that C.E. was not asleep in his bed. She panicked. I didn’t. I knew where he was. I drove up to the gym and told him it was time to come home.” Was dad mad? “Nah, I didn’t tell my wife, but I rebounded for him for a bit.”

This first district championship was a harbinger of good times to come. By 2018, his junior year, C.E. was the best player in the area. “After his sophomore year C.E. improved significantly, He had to. We had lost some talent to graduation,” Edris remembers.

So Talton upped his game to compensate for the departed talent. “C.E. averaged 24.5 ppg and 8 rebounds as a junior, earning Clarence Cannon Conference Performer of the Year honors, All-State, and led us to another district title both his junior and senior seasons,” Edris says. “Unfortunately, we lost in the sectionals C.E.’s senior year by three points. He rolled his ankle bad in the 1st quarter. We taped him up and he gave it all he had like he always did. I felt so bad, to see a one-of-a-kind player miss the opportunity to go to state, he had given so much.”

When it came to getting in the gym, C.E. was like a kid chasing an ice cream truck. His work ethic is still a standard Edris holds up to his current players. “Many mornings I would show up to school around 6:00am and C.E. would already be in a full sweat in the gym getting shots up on the shooting machine. C.E.’s impact on each of the younger players has left a legacy that has been remembered since his graduation and will be remembered for a long time in Monroe City history.”

C.E.

It was obvious instantly, even to the most novice fan in attendance of any MC game between 2017 to 2019, that C.E. was the best player on the floor. With a basketball in his hands and a game on the line, C.E. was a marvel to watch; not only for the way he night after night lit up scoreboards, but more so for the harmonious style of his game. C.E. brought a special grit and a savoir-faire attitude to the basketball court. He mesmerized fans with the simple and pure way he conquered the game; the euphonic sound of the swishing net of another successful jump shot; the soft tap-tap of leather on wood before an explosion to the hoop to complete his signature ankle breaking cross over move, often finished with a following two-hand slam dunk.

For one year Ed’s three sons played together. The younger twins learned well. They knew from the start they would always be viewed through the prism of their brother's' career, and they are ok with that. To this day the twins are C.E.’s biggest fans. “He set the standard,” Josh tells me, “And he set it high,” Josiah chirps in, right on cue.

In March, 2022, as basketball fever grips Monroe City, it would be easy to overlook the oldest of Ed, and his wife, Lisa’s four children, 22-year-old daughter, Ananiah. The 2017 MCHS grad is in the middle of her first year as a first-grade teacher at the MC Elementary School. Her ear-to-ear grin and the enthusiasm in her voice leaves no doubt to the sincerity of, “I Love It,” when she is asked to describe how her first year in the classroom is progressing.

“It is what God has called me to do, to teach. I am blessed to see how my kids learn, and first grade is such a valuable time, they are at a cute age, for sure, but oh so important when it comes to the foundation for their future learning. It is not all warm and fuzzy with me. I am big on personal responsibility, accountability. Sometimes, it takes tough love to get that across to my students, but it will be the most important part of their lives I can help mold. It is how I was raised.”

Talton says she got a late start to athletics, specifically, to basketball. “Through 8th grade I attended the Promiseland School, here in Monroe." 

It was an exceedingly small Christian school that her church sponsored. Both of her parents were very active in running the school. "but we were so small, we didn’t have athletics,” Talton says.

Josh

When the decision was made, at the beginning of her freshman year to move the family over to the public school, Ananiah had growth pains. “I played on the varsity basketball team as a freshman, but to be honest, it was because the team was not very good at that time. I had to learn fast, and I also had to socially adjust to being in a public school setting. I prayed a lot that year for acceptance. It was hard, but you know, it worked out just fine.”

When she got to high school, Talton says she decided it was time to blaze her own trail. “Being a Talton, everyone decided I was going to be a basketball player and I like basketball and all that, but I quickly found that I love track and field.”

Talton threw the shot and discus so well her senior year of high school for the Panthers that she earned a track and field scholarship to William Woods University in Fulton, MO. She improved so steadily over four years of collegiate competition, her junior outdoor season canceled due to Covid, that she departed upon graduation with the school’s second-best mark in both the discus and the weight throw. She is currently the Monroe City Junior High Track and Field Coach.

“Yes, my brothers are great basketball players,” she says, “and nobody cheers harder at games than me, but when you want to talk track and field, it is this girl you need to come see,” she says with another hearty laugh as she taps both thumbs into her chest.

“Here is something I bet you didn’t know,” she challenges me. “Josh finished 7th in the state last year in the discus. I have a picture from when I was in high school and I am carrying my discus across the field to go throw and Josh is right behind me, he is like maybe 8 years old, trailing along and he is carrying his little kid discus. So cute! I tell him now, ‘you think you are good at the discus, but you just remember, your big sister taught you,”’ she tells me, her point accentuated with her customary raucous high pitch laugh.

With the end of the Talton years for Coach Edris approaching, Edris shares with me some of his many fond memories of the twins. “Josh’s physicality and his ability to embrace contact warranted him as a varsity player right away his freshman season and eventually a starter. He just didn’t look or play like a freshman.”

As freshman, for the first time in their lives, the twins were separated. Josiah, says his coach, was just not ready as a freshman. “Josiah was more lean, still very athletic and could shoot the ball well, just not as ready as a freshman as Josh was,” says Edris. “He was able to get some varsity experience, also, but it was later in his freshman year and really not until his sophomore year until he became a varsity mainstay. But he embraced the challenge, he didn’t pout.”

Josiah

Their coach appreciates the different skill set the two bring. “Both Joshua and Josiah have different strengths,” Edris observes. “They complement each other very well. I have been spoiled to coach them along with so many others. Joshua & Josiah started as sophomores on our first final four appearance right before Covid-19 shut down everything in Missouri. Joshua’s steal that year in the quarterfinal game against Kansas City Central as time expired was one of the most exciting and emotional plays I have experienced as a coach and/or player.”

When the twins get together for a little friendly, brotherly competition, Edris says it is good to have an ambulance on standby. Both find losing so disgusting that they refuse, by sheer effort, to lose, “Both like to fight with each other like brothers at times and we have to remind them that they’re teammates like everyone else. But they have gotten better as they have matured. We have had the CCC POY since C.E.’s junior campaign. C.E. as a junior and senior. Bryce Stark as a senior and Joshua as a junior. And we are not done yet.”

But Ed Talton knows it must end and it will soon. And however, it falls, it will be ok. Accept your limitations, all you can do is your best, and when it is over you can feel good about yourself. “I am just enjoying the ride,” says Ed, minutes before the start of the district semifinal game.

Talton’s philosophy for raising his children is to treat them like thoroughbreds—allow them to run until they go too fast for their own good, then pull in the reins. "It is hard, but both my wife and I have learned to let the kids make mistakes. Sometimes as a parent you know this is not the best approach, but they want to try something new and we say, ‘go ahead,’ but there is also a point where we say, ‘no,’ and that is the way it is. I think too many parents don’t know when to say no.”

"You try to teach your kids about family,” continues Ed. “But you never know if it sinks in. My wife and I have tried to stress with all four of our kid's honesty, love and fair treatment of others. We wanted them to understand what brothers and sisters are for; they're for each other. They're somebody to rely on, to help and to protect.”

Strange that it takes so long but in time the youngest coach will grow old. Looking back basketball seems the least of it. As it should be. A father is a man who expects his sons to be as good a man as he meant to be. Thirty-five years ago, I saw a lot of his dad, Cliff, in Eddie and today I see a lot of Coach Ed in his boys.