Mike Eruzione

I think my dad was more excited than I was because I've always said I was a captain amongst captains.

We had a team of captains.

Everybody in that team was a captain of their high school team.

Eight guys were captains of their college team.

So it was a great group of leaders and people.

So the captaincy was nice, but it wasn't that, oh my God, I'm the captain.

So 26 players made up the team, and throughout the course of six months of travel and training, six were going to get cut.

And up until the last week, I still wondered if I was going to be one of the 20.

quiet and just watching and scouting or was he already starting to be coach her brooks towards everybody you know he was coach brooks and that's the way it was going to be we were going to travel play i think we played 60 somewhat games all around the country went to europe for a month played overseas um and then throughout the course of the six months he evaluated all the players and

He threatened to cut me two weeks before the Olympics.

He said, look, you're just not doing it.

I just don't know what I'm gonna do.

And I'm like, wait a minute, I'm the captain.

And I'm thinking, well, he's the coach.

And it's even funnier, years later, Herb would call my house and this was before cell phones.

And my wife would answer the phone and she'd go, it's coach Brooks.

And I'm like, oh shit.

Here I am, I got three kids at home and I'm worried he's gonna yell at me.

He was always in charge.

Even when he threatened to cut me, I thought he would.