Looking back to those first dealings some 22 years ago, Skeeter feels the same about his old coach:
“I was probably 6 years old and he was my gym teacher. And it was the same then as when he was my coach in high school. He always kept it real.
“A lot of times when someone has some success, people put up a façade and tell them things that aren’t realistic. But from first-grade gym class on he was never afraid to be honest with me.
“He was like, ‘Yeah, you’re doing great, but you’ve got a long way to go — whether it’s school, basketball or in life.’ ”
Bias was right. It has been a long journey for Skeeter, who admits, “Man, it’s been a crazy ride, to be honest.”
And, just as the coach predicted, Skeeter has shown himself to be special.
At Fairmont High School he led the Firebirds basketball team — which Bias coached — in scoring four straight seasons, was a two-time MVP, garnered all-state honors as a senior and reigns as the school’s all-time career scorer with 1,548 points.
He was also a four-year starter in soccer, a two-time high school All-American, Ohio’s Gatorade player of the year as a senior and scored a record 83 varsity goals.
“There are many people who consider him the finest athlete ever to walk the hallways of Fairmont High,” said Bias, who noted Skeeter also was a 3.0 student and had “a special relationship with the student body.
“He never thought of himself as someone better than the other students. And that’s what made him a great teammate.”
Following his 2007 graduation, Skeeter went on to Walsh University, where he scored 1,331 career points, won NAIA third team All-America honors and earned a master’s degree.
He served as a graduate assistant coach at Walsh for a season, then was a basketball operations intern with the Canton Charge, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ D-League team. That led to an internship with the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and now — in his third season with the Utah Jazz — he’s an assistant coach involved with player development, scouting and running the team’s video room.
This weekend he’ll be enshrined in the Fairmont Athletic Hall of Fame, along with Vanessa Gilbert (cross country, track), Sara Henn (softball), Bill Lautar (football, track) and Tom Sexton (gymnastics).
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The inductees will be introduced at halftime of Fairmont’s basketball game with Xenia on Friday night at Trent Arena and will be enshrined Saturday afternoon at the school.
Neither Skeeter nor Bias — who will introduce him by video — will attend.
The Jazz play the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday night in Salt Lake City. And Bias, who now coaches the Vista Grande High team in Casa Grande, Ariz., also has a game.
Both shared their thoughts by phone.
“Fairmont will always have a special place in my heart,” Skeeter said. “It’s home to me and I’m proud I grew up there.
“It’s where it all started for me and I’m not just talking about sports and academics. The relationships, the experiences, the support system all were unbelievable. They really shaped me into who I am today.
“And now, no matter where I am or what I’m doing, I’m definitely representing Fairmont. “
Worked for free
Skeeter talked about growing up just down the street from Van Buren Middle School.
“My older brother (Terrell) and I would play one-on-one in our backyard or go over to school — that’s when they still had outdoor courts. We were out there all the time.
“When my brother played soccer — Coach Bias was the coach then — I would tag along and play on the other field or something.”
Although he soon became a soccer standout, Skeeter said basketball was his passion and, he figured, his future.
After Fairmont and Walsh, he hoped to launch a pro career overseas. When that didn’t happen, he took the grad assistant job.
“But I still wanted to play professionally, so I gave up my grad assistantship and worked myself in my best shape I could,” he said. “But then I was playing a pickup game with a group of guys and I tore the ACL and meniscus in my right leg.
“I was in shock. I’d lost my chance to play overseas and I’d lost my grad assistantship because they already had hired someone else. I was a mess.”
Out of the blue, the Cavs — who were looking for someone to take an unpaid internship with the Charge, contacted Walsh and the offer went to Skeeter.
“I worked 40 hours a week for no pay,” he said. “I gave players rides, worked with the equipment, did laundry, anything to help out.”
His work ethic impressed Canton coach Alex Jensen, who eventually gave him the responsibilities of an assistant coach.
Jensen then helped Skeeter get an internship with the Hawks. From that came the offer to join the Jazz, whose coach, Quin Snyder, had worked with Skeeter in Atlanta.
‘That same passion’
Back when he was a kid going one-on-one with his brother at the backyard hoop, Skeeter used to envision himself as Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant.
Once he started working with pro players himself, he said there was an adjustment period:
“It was kind of surreal at first. You grow up seeing these guys on TV and have aspirations to be like them. So at first in Canton I was a little shell-shocked. But after you’re in it, you don’t see it the same way.
“Now it’s about coaching. You think less about who guys are and how much money they make. Now it’s about the game of basketball and working to get better. It’s like my days at Van Buren and Fairmont. It’s all about the game and the passion you have for it.”
Each season now — when the Jazz come to play the Phoenix Suns or during summer league trips to Arizona — Skeeter finds time to meet with Bias, who is attempting to fortify a high school program where he is the seventh coach in seven years and where many of his mostly Hispanic athletes are in need.
“I see Lamar two or three times a year and when I do I always tease him,” Bias laughed. “I say, ‘Now that you’ve gone big time, what about your old coach?’
“And he always goes, ‘I got you coach.’
“That means one t-shirt and one trip to Subway a year. That’s all I’m worth.”
Joking aside, Bias then told how Skeeter sent a dozen official Jazz practice jerseys to the Vista Grande players.
“My kids were so excited I thought they were gonna come unglued,” Bias said.
Skeeter said one day he wants to be a head coach, though he’s not sure if it will be at the NBA, college or even high school level: “I just want to be able to keep living my dream.”
Bias said he has no doubts that will happen:
“I really believe he’ll be a coach and I can see him in the NBA. He has the right disposition and personality for that league. He can joke with the best of them, but he’s also very serious about his job.
“God bless him, he hasn’t changed a bit. He still has that same passion. It’s pretty special.”
But then he knew that since Skeeter was in first grade.
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