People featured in this column have been selected randomly from the telephone book.
---
CRAIGMONT - Jeremiah Wynott traces his more than six years of success in the retail flooring business back to two years of honing a work ethic on the hardwoods.
He also credits George Pfeifer, who was recently fired as men's basketball coach at the University of Idaho, for being a mentor.
Jeremiah, a NAIA All-American power forward under Pfeifer at Lewis-Clark State College during the mid-1990s, says the coach taught him the art of "blue collar" basketball.
"I kind of was like a bull in a china closet."
He says Pfeifer also rescued him from himself by literally pulling him off the streets.
"I really liked his honesty and intensity."
While averaging more than 20 points a game, Jeremiah became LCSC's fourth-highest scorer in school history, in terms of average points per game. After graduating in 1997, he took his skills to Australia where he played two years of professional basketball.
Today, at 35, he lives here with his wife, Melanie, 33, and their two children, Kendel, 5, and Kase, 2. He also commutes daily to Lewiston where, after working for Skelton's Carpet One for several years, he now manages the Floor Coverings International store.
"I like the opportunity of turning someone's house into a home," he says of the flooring business, adding he approaches the job with the same kind of dedication he exhibited on the basketball court.
"I think I connected with people (fans) because I was a really hard worker. I just out-worked everybody."
This "March Madness" time of year, Jeremiah says, is special for all college basketball fans. He picks North Carolina to survive the 65-team field of hopefuls and become national champions. He also predicts the Washington State Cougars will reach the Sweet 16 and regrets that the Gonzaga Bulldogs will lose perhaps in the second round.
Jeremiah says he also regrets Pfeifer will have to endure being short-changed during the excitement of it all. "I think a coach needs at least six years to build a program so he can recruit," he says of Pfeifer's firing after just two years at UI.
Jeremiah says he's proud of living up to Pfeifer's expectations after the coach recruited him in what amounted to storybook fashion. After being raised and playing high school basketball in Anderson, Alaska (he helped the school win a state championship in his senior year), Jeremiah says he graduated and bummed around enough to become bum-like - No job.
No real goals. No real home.
Then he met a friend from Asotin who had traveled to Alaska. When summer arrived, he traveled to Asotin and was told the annual "Heat on the Streets" three-on-three basketball tournament was going to happen. So he teamed up with a couple of Asotin High School players and the rest smacks of small-town legend.
Word quickly got out that a team featuring a "big brute" was working its way through the brackets. Pfeifer came to watch. And when Jeremiah's team won the competition, the coach walked onto the asphalt and made him an offer he decided he couldn't refuse.
"He offered me a scholarship right there on the street."
Jeremiah, who never returned to Alaska, says he found himself inundated with around 28 credits when he entered LCSC so he could be eligible to play. He studied and sat out for half a year before joining the team and helping bring a new level of excitement to the program.
"My junior year we won the conference championship in Seattle." LCSC also beat Boise State and Jeremiah looks back at his basketball years as perhaps the most formative in his life.
"I was down the wrong road, definitely," he says of the time leading up to Pfeifer's offer. "He pulled me out."
At 6 feet 8 inches tall, Jeremiah still looks like he could have an imposing presence on the basketball court, but he admits he rarely plays these days. He did spend five years coaching boys basketball at Culdesac High School. And this summer he plans to put in a concrete pad and hoop to give his children a head start on the game.
He met Melanie while the two were attending LCSC, and Jeremiah says he's proud he's been able to handle the family's financial needs while his wife stays home, by choice, with the children.
He says he'll always credit Pfeifer and the game for showing him the rewards of hard work. "I've been able now to channel my energies into other things."
---
Johnson may be contacted at deveryone@potlatch.com or (208) 883-0564.
