Father encourages son as he starts NBA career
Excuse Arnold “Clyde” Gaines if he seems a little distracted over the next few weeks. Basketball season just got under way, and his mind has been elsewhere — with his son, on a court 1,300 miles to the southeast, to be exact.
Gaines, a student services coordinator in the Office of Student Financial Services, has been experiencing those fits of anxiety common to any proud parent of an athlete.
After a standout career at the University of Louisville, where several national media outlets named him second-team All-American, Reece was the 15th pick in the 2003 NBA draft, one of the highest selections ever for a Wisconsin native.
“It’s unbelievable that Reece is getting the chance to achieve his dream to play pro basketball,” says Clyde Gaines, who takes his nickname from New York Knicks legend Walt “Clyde” Frazier. “But it’s so much harder being a parent than a player — you can only watch and just hope that they’ll do well.”
As a former Badger point guard in the late 1970s, Clyde Gaines can relate to his son’s journey. After trying out for several pro teams himself, he’s content being a standout financial aid counselor and a basketball dad, mentoring Reece, as well as his son Corvonn, 13, and daughter Cachelle, 15, both of whom are also talented athletes.
Named to the prestigious Parade All-America team while in high school in Baltimore, Md., Clyde Gaines came to Madison in 1976 to play for Badger coach Bill Cofield. In 1978, he led the Badgers in scoring, steals and assists as the team went on to a 12-15 record.
But his career went through ups and downs from that point, as he failed to earn consistent minutes in his last two seasons and failed to catch on as a free agent with an NBA or Continental Basketball Association team. He returned to UW–Madison to complete his undergraduate degree in 1985, earned a master’s degree and began his career as a financial aid counselor.
Today, his responsibilities include counseling students and parents about financial aid options, working with the Academic Advancement Program to assist disadvantaged students and serving as a liaison to the Athletics department to coordinate the award of Pell Grants to student-athletes.
Although the financial aid process isn’t perfect, it also isn’t as intimidating as it may look, Gaines says.
“One of the most rewarding parts of the job is helping a young person who wants to come to Wisconsin for their education find a way to do it financially,” he says, adding that he occasionally receives notes or card, from families that he’s helped.
“After years in student services, people sometimes move on to positions where they don’t have direct contact with students,” says Steve Van Ess, Student financial services director. “But Clyde’s not like that. He loves dealing with students, and he has a way of cutting through the bureaucracy and seeing what is important.”
Van Ess recalls an instance where he was trying to decide an extremely difficult student appeal for aid. Administrators and parents were on opposite sides of the issue.
“The case was very close in my mind, so I asked Clyde’s opinion,” Van Ess says. “Clyde listened to all my arguments and simply said “The tie goes to the runner.’ So I ruled in the student’s favor.”
When Clyde isn’t advocating on behalf of students, he’s attending games, watching them on television or providing encouragement to Reece via cell phone.
Clyde and his wife, Carola, traveled to all of Reece’s weekend home games in Louisville and plan to attend as many games as possible now that he’s in the NBA. When Clyde is not able to be there in person, he watches from an East Side sports bar. He now plans to get a satellite television package to be able to catch every game from home.
But the action can also be tough to watch since most rookies struggle in the early going. Reece totaled just four minutes of playing time during the first two games of the season. Clyde says Reece needs more time to become acclimated to the offense under the tutelage of Magic Coach Glenn “Doc” Rivers.
Through it all, Clyde says the advice he gives Reece on the phone isn’t all that different from talking to a student about a financial aid process: Stay calm, be patient and the process will work out for the best.
“After the success he had at Louisville, it’s like starting all over from scratch for him,” he says. “I tell him that you just have to take it all in stride.”