University of Dayton Arena events services manager Gary McCans has worked at the famous basketball facility since it opened in 1969. He’s seen hundreds of players and nearly 1,000 Flyer games. Don May, Ryan Perryman and Keith Waleskowski are among his favorite players.
McCans, who will retire in May, recently added a new name to his short list: Scoochie Smith.
Smith, the Flyers’ standout junior point guard, has become one of the more popular players to wear a UD uniform. So it came as no surprise that McCans’ granddaughter Meghan wore number 11 for her sixth-grade basketball team in Arcanum.
When it came time to do a school project on an “interesting person,” Meghan’s choice was obvious: Scoochie.
“I said to him one day, ‘My granddaughter has to do a project and she picked you,” McCans said during an interview this week. “She’s done a lot of research, knows why you wear number 11, your birthday, how you got your name, but she would get extra credit if she could interview you.’ ”
Scoochie — whose birthday is Nov. 11, or 11/11 — agreed to help out.
“My son videotaped (the interview) and he asked her more questions than she asked him. What position, can you dribble with either hand, can you go left and right … almost 40 minutes with her,” McCans said. “Scoochie is just an amazing young man.”
Meghan got a 100 on her project.
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