Fun and Games

[Wayne23]

Copyright 2019 Wayne N. Trembly

DDS:CB 2019: “Fun and Games”

4/30/1970: I’m Wayne Tuthry. 27 years old. Just hired as head coach at Omaha in the Summit League. That’s where I went to school. When I graduated they took me on as #3 assistant. Been here ever since. Moved up to #2 after 2 years, #1 after 3 years. The HC just retired so I’m it.

I walked on with the Omaha team in my freshman year. At 6’3” I played SG and SF. My strengths were shooting and D, and I was a fair passer.

Didn’t play at all the first year and very little the second. But the coach took a liking to me when he realized I was really interested in the coaching aspect of the game. There was always a book about basketball strategy or a bio of a famous coach on the top of my book pile; still is, for that matter. Anyway, Coach spent time with me and taught me a lot.

I played some my junior year and was the 6th man my senior year, and in each of those years I learned more and more about coaching. Then as a member of the staff I was in on strategy sessions and was part of the decision making. When Coach retired earlier this month, he pushed hard to get me the job. The A. D. and the committee interviewed me, and lots of others. I don’t think they wanted to hire me but none of the guys they wanted, wanted to come here so I guess I got the job by default. Fine with me. They gave me three years to prove myself, and that’s what I plan to do.

There’s really only two things in life I’m interested in. I’m not married, don’t date, don’t play golf, don’t watch TV or movies, don’t care about any sport except basketball… Basketball is one of the two things I’m interested in. I’ll tell you about the other one soon. I have no family and really don’t have any friends. I eat at home whenever the team is not on the road and I don’t care what I eat. Usually something I can take out of the freezer and heat up. There’s this new thing called a “microwave oven” that I’ve heard about but I only ever saw one, and it was $2,500, so that’s out. They say the price will come down and they’ll be available within a few years. I’ll be watching for that. I don’t like to cook.

Clothes? I just walk into a store and buy what I need. I don’t wear anything flashy or in bright colors.

Just so you know, this journal is about as secret as it can be. It’s meant to be published upon my death, or upon… well, later… You'll see why soon.

I’m a quiet man, always have been. Omaha knew this when they hired me. I’m not going to make any fiery motivational speeches and I’m not going to scream at kids when things are going wrong. Not my style. My bench coach can do that kind of thing if it needs to be done.

What I am is an Xs and Os guy. I plan strategy, teach it, and drill it and drill it and drill it into my kids in practice and during the games. Or that’s what I WILL do once practices start in October. Right now I’m going over all of that with my three assistants, all new to this school.

On O I’ll go with Motion and Princeton against man. On D I’ll go with man to man about half the time, some 2-3, and a little less 3-2. We will only press when absolutely necessary.

I’m a fanatic about D. We’ll spend about ¾ of our practice time on D and only 25% on O. That’s unusual and it will be confidential, but if I can get the guys to win with it people will be sold on it.

As to my assistants, Omaha doesn’t have a big budget. The three guys I got are all eager but none of them will add a lot. Oh well, they’ll learn. I did.

[Wayne23]

(Author's note: This is a story I've been wanting to write for about three years. Wasn't sure I could do it. Still not sure, but what the hell, right!)

Like I said I was always quiet. As a kid I was a loner. Hung out by myself. The only thing extra I did at school was play basketball. I was never the best kid on the team but always good enough to start- until I reached college level. Never really made friends on the team, or tried to. If someone invited me to do something, I made up some excuse. I DID get involved in pick up basketball games whenever I could find one though, and around Omaha, if there wasn't snow on the ground and it wasn't wet outside, there was a game to find somewhere. The rest of the time I stayed home, mostly read, but played table top basketball games a LOT. I loved the coaching aspect of the games right from the start. I saved up the money to buy them from what I earned with a paper route. I didn’t mind getting up early and delivering the papers except in the winter. It got real cold some mornings. But I did it, even on real snowy days. I actually still play the games when I can find the time.

One of the reasons I was so quiet was because of my dad. He was an alcoholic. When he got drunk, which was most nights, he’d yell at my mother and usually beat her up. Just for variety he’d beat me up sometimes, too. He was smart though; he never left marks where they could be seen.

That went on from the time I can first remember, when I was about 5 years old, until I was 12. One day when I was 12, July 17, 1955, it was, he decided that he and I should go fishing. He had a fishing boat. Just a 12 foot rowboat. Whenever the weather permitted, he would go fishing after work for a couple of hours in a big lake not far from our house. Why he decided to take me that day I have no idea. He never had before. He always said the time fishing was his time to just relax and enjoy himself.

The enjoy himself part involved rotgut whiskey, a pint or more of it.

Anyway, back in those days nobody thought about life jackets or anything like that. Anyway, he took me. I didn’t know how to fish; I just dropped the line off the side of the boat. As he drank more and more he kept telling me I was stupid, too stupid to even know how to fish. Well, I was used to that kind of thing. Despite the fact that I got almost all “As” in school I was stupid in his eyes. And of course he had never taught me how to fish, but still, it was my fault.

He got pretty drunk. Out of nowhere a thought occurred to me and I asked him a question:

“Dad, do you know how to swim?”

“What I need to know how to swim for? Ain’t gonna be no big storm to knock the boat over on this lake.” Then he laughed. “Swim. I don’t need to swim. Stupid kid.”

I have no idea where the idea came from but I immediately stood up and capsized the boat. I knew how to swim so I watched him sink like a rock, and then I swam to shore. I found some people in the parking lot, walked up to them, still soaking wet. I made up a story about my dad standing up in the boat, losing his balance, and falling in. Everyone knew he was a drunk so this didn’t surprise anyone. I said he had sunk immediately, which he had, and that I didn’t know what to do except to save myself. They bought it.

The police were called and they bought the story, too. Later the lake was dragged and his body was found. Since there was no sign of a struggle the brief investigation ended in a finding of accidental death by drowning.

My mom was distraught. Despite how badly she had been treated she was heartbroken. And we were in financial trouble. We had always been poor. Dad worked in the mills and he wouldn’t let mom work. “No wife a mine is gonna work. I support my family.”

Mom had no education and no skills. But she was able to get a job in the same factory where dad had worked so we got by, barely. My paper route helped and I gave her most of the money every week.

Okay, back to July 17, 1955. Things had happened awfully fast after the boat went over and I hadn’t had any time to myself or any time to think. When I went to bed that night I realized that I had a feeling I had never had before. A feeling of… I guess real excitement, real… joy, I suppose. Nothing had ever excited me to that point, and I never felt happy, unhappy, sad, excited- anything like that. Now I did. It was a really, REALLY good feeling.

So now you know. My second interest in life is killing people. I was fully aware that I had murdered my father. I felt no sympathy for him. He had it coming. But also, I felt something that was just too good not to feel again. I’ve felt it lots of times over the course of the past 15 years or so. I’m very careful, I pick my spots, I don’t overdo it, but yes, every few months I kill someone. And, every time, I get the same terrific feeling afterward that I did the first time.

[Wayne23]

5/1: Today is my first official day at work although I’ve been working for a couple of weeks. We buy the Midwest scouting report. We don’t have the budget to recruit nationally or internationally.

#138 recruiting class, which isn’t bad for a school with a Team Prestige of 5.

I have 10 scholarship athletes coming back and no seniors. So we’ll have a lot to teach.

I guess I should talk about my ambitions. I hope to reach the top of the coaching ladder and to wind up at a place like Kansas, or Indiana- a very top flight school. I know that will take some time, but one of the things I have always been is patient. One step at a time. So, I’ll stay at Omaha until I get an offer at a school that will move me up the ladder a little, and then keep trying to move up.

6/25: Things are going good. My #2 assistant is not all in with my practice strategy but his job is to scout our opponents so it doesn’t matter. #1 and #3 are on board.
#3, Jam Harris, is the important one because he’s the bench and practice assistant, and the “psych ‘em up” guy. He’s good with my plan.

6/26: 3 scholarships. We’ll go with 2 and 1, preferably 2 guards but whatever we can get. Probably won’t be easy. But going cheap on assistants leaves me with $43,000 for recruiting so we should be okay with that. It’s convincing kids to come here that will be the problem. Much as I admired Coach and learned from him, he wasn’t very successful, one winning season in the last five, and that one was 15-13.

7/17: A little interest being shown by a couple of recruits, but not much. I knew it wouldn’t be easy.

8/21: We offer to 2 PGs and a C. One of the PGs seems pretty interested but the other two are long shots.

9/11: We lose 2. Not unexpected. Keep trying.

9/18: Lost another one.

Weak schedule. I want wins and a weak schedule will help.

9/25: Got one! PG Ed Sons, #540. We think he’s better than that.

We feel like we’re getting close with a C, but we lost the other PG.

10/2: Got 2! We got a C, #194, and a PG, #373.

1st day of practice. We’re picked to finish 6th in our 9 team conference. I’m aiming for 4th, hoping for 3rd. My A. D. says not to finish last.

I actually like my starting five at first glance. We don’t have much bench though. Still, work it, work it, work it, work it, and hope things develop.

11/6: The 2 exhibition games told me we have a long way to go. 8 man rotation for now:

Junior Ed Brok is at PG. Soph Rasa Jamo starts at SG, subs at PG. Sophs Ty Arch and Pete Howe sub at SG.

Junior Ken Nee is at SF. Junior Sam Bows is at PF. Frosh Ken Bail is at C. Junior Cam Owen subs at SF, PF, and C. He’s fighting for a starting spot.

Let’s see what the regular season brings.

After killing my father I went through some conflict. It was not about killing him, I was fine with that. My conflict was about getting caught. Nebraska has the death penalty and the electric chair was a pretty scary prospect for a 12 year old.

At the same time I knew I would kill again. I even had someone in mind, Ed Fitch. Ed was in my class in school. He was a really big kid and he was a bully. He used to punch me in the arm, hard, every chance he got. My arm was always sore. That had started at the end of basketball season and had continued ever since, and it was affecting my shot. I could barely lift my arm into my normal shooting position. I thought about how I could kill him and get away with it. I thought about it for a long time.

Finally, during the basketball season, I came up with a plan. I knew Ed liked to spend time in the woods. Yes, we lived in Omaha, but we were on the edge of the city and there was a pretty big patch of woods not far from us. Ed liked to go into the woods and catch and torture small animals. I’d seen him do it while I was following him around, which I had been doing for quite a while. He was a dumb ass and he never caught me at it, but then I’m pretty sneaky.

In retrospect I think he probably got the same kick from torturing animals that I got from killing people.

Anyway, when he was doing the torturing he sort of left the world. It took a lot to distract him. I had experimented with breaking tree limbs, which didn’t even get him to turn around. Then I tried throwing rocks near where he was doing the torture. It didn’t get his attention, even when the rocks landed really close to him. Once

I accidentally hit him with a rock and that got his attention, but that was it; I hid behind a tree and he never saw me, just went back to torturing the animal. Then I experimented with sneaking up on him. I got to within inches of him, from behind, and he never noticed. Didn’t notice when I snuck away, either. As long as the sun wasn’t casting a shadow, he would never know I was there.

So now I knew what to do. I set a big rock behind a tree near his favorite torture spot; the rock was big enough to do what I wanted to do but small enough that I could lift it and control it. I waited. On a day in January, the 25th, I followed him into the woods. It was cold but there was no snow or frost to catch my footprints. I waited until Ed had caught a squirrel and tied it down. He started to torture it. I grabbed the rock, snuck up behind him, and bashed in his skull. Down he went and I have no doubt he was dead before he hit the ground. I checked my clothes and my body for blood and stuff. There was some on my hands but not much, and none on my clothes. I wiped the blood and the other stuff off my hands on some leaves. I guess the other stuff was brains although I didn’t think Ed had any. Then I simply turned around and walked out of the woods and headed home.

The next day, a Monday, Ed didn’t show up at school (of course). There was an assembly where the Principal announced that Ed was missing and said that if anyone had seen him over the weekend they should let the principal know. I had been at practice with him on Saturday, but only at practice, and the Principal had said the team didn’t need to report unless they saw him after practice someplace else. So I didn’t say anything.

There was a search. Late Tuesday afternoon his body was found in the woods. It was obvious that he had been murdered and all hell broke loose. Who could have killed a 13 year old boy? And why?

The cops, with a teacher present, questioned everybody in our class, one by one and privately. When they got to me someone had told them that Ed bullied me all the time. They asked me about it. I admitted that it was true, and I said that I didn’t like him at all but that I was sorry he had been killed. They asked me a few more questions but I don’t think they suspected me even a little bit.

The investigation was hot and heavy for a few weeks but then it died down. There just wasn’t any evidence. Sure, they found the blood and brains on the leaves I had used to wipe them off, but that was long before DNA testing was a thing and there were no fingerprints, so that was no problem.

About 5 or 6 months later a homeless guy was arrested for the murder, but they couldn’t pin it on him so they had to let him go. The crime has never been solved.

After the killing I got the same rush of positive emotion I had gotten after killing my father. It lasted a long time and really made me feel good inside. I had no guilt or remorse, any more than I had had the last time. Yes, there was that fear of the electric chair, but that was the only negative.

Just so you know, I never torture my victims. The rush is from ending their lives. I don’t need torture to make me feel good.

I guess this is a good time to mention that I don’t experience the kinds of pleasures that I understand other people feel. I don’t get all excited about how good food tastes. It doesn’t taste like much of anything to me. I just eat because I’m hungry. I don’t experience things that either smell good or smell bad, they just smell. I don’t see beauty in nature or art. I don’t get what people like about music; it’s just noise to me.

One day when I was 13 or 14 a girl got me alone and started kissing me and touching me in… personal places. I didn’t feel anything at all. She realized it, gave me a really weird look, and then just turned around and walked away. I had no idea what that was about. I now know it was about sex, but I’m immune to that, too; I’ve never felt any sexual stirrings. I’ve read about it a lot since then but I have no frame of reference. Oh, the girl was my fourth victim. I don’t forget, and I didn’t forget what she had tried to do to me. I’ll probably tell the details about that later, or maybe not.

[Wayne23]

11/20: 1-1 in our first week. We lost at Utah Valley, by 6, and then won at home vs. Monmouth, by 11. Center Ken Bail looked really good in both games but he is fouling too much. We’re working on it. Otherwise, we rebounded pretty well but didn’t handle the ball as well as I would like.

One of my recruits, a PG, did not sign, which means he won’t hit our SAT score. I have recruiting money left so we’ll go after some guards.

11/27: 2-2. Again, a road loss and a home win. We’re giving up too many points and turning it over too much, but I see some positives. Inside players Ken Bail and Sam Bows both look really good.

12/4: 3-3. Looking at our lineup. Not happy with SF Ken Nee, but maybe he needs a bit more time, and he’s a good defender. But Cam Owen is playing better and he’s letting me know that he thinks he should be starting. I tell him to be patient and keep doing what he’s doing. But our D is not getting it done, and Owen is not the defender that Nee is.

I have to say that losing is frustrating but I like this job very much. Interestingly enough we haven’t had a really close game yet. One 6 point game, but no nail biters.

I am aware that my system is a little complex, and it will take time for my guys to learn it. I am confident that once they do learn it well we will give up fewer points. I’m hoping that will start to happen when we get into conference play.

12/11: 4-4. We haven’t lost at home, haven’t won on the road. The next few are away so hopefully that will change. Nee has had 2 really good games in a row so no change at that spot.

12/25: 4-7. Still haven’t won on the road or lost at home. I still don’t know what kind of coach I am since there has not been a single game that was closer than 6 points.

-3.5 PPG (#107, #317), +2.2 RBs, -1.2 TOs. We are one of the worst defensive teams in Division I.

Heading for Summit League play. We need to win a couple of road games during conference play.

I don’t think I feel pain the way other people do. I feel it. I described that when I was talking about how Ed Finch used to punch me in the arm all the time. But I don’t feel really sharp pain, and lots of times I do things that seem to cause other people pain and I don’t feel anything.

[PointGuard]

[Wayne23]

1/1/1971: 5-8, 1-1. Still unbeaten at home, winless on the road and still no close games.

1/15: 8-9, 4-2. We finally won a road game. RPI #259. Not a lot is changing, our D is still giving up way too many points. We’re doing a little better with turnovers.

1/29: 10-7, 6-3, RPI #247. Alone in 2nd place. BUT 4 of our last 7 are on the road.

As expected, one of our recruits missed our SAT score. Offered to another PG.

2/12: 13-11, 9-4, RPI #186. Alone in 2nd, 3 back of 1st, 1 up on 4th. 3 to play. I’m happy with where we are. I’ll be really happy if we win 2 of our last 3 but 2 of those are on the road vs. decent teams so we’ll see.

2/19: We won on the road then lost at home, but we have locked up 2nd place with one to play. That’s better than I dared to hope for. Proud of my guys.

2/26: We end the regular season at 14-13, 10-6, alone in 2nd place in the Summit, RPI #. I’m really hoping to finish above .500. We’ll need to win our 1st round tourney game for that to happen. +0.6 PPG (#63, #298), +3.0 RBs (#60), +1.0 TOs (#42). Not happy with our D. I’d hoped it would get better than it did. But I’m really happy with our rebounding and pretty happy with our ball handling. Both got better as the season progressed.

After my second murder I decided I needed to do some planning before I killed anyone else. These first two were pretty easy, and I was confident that I didn’t need to worry about being caught for either one. I mean, in my father’s case no one had ever even called it a murder. But Ed Finch’s was definitely a murder. If another murder happened in the area any time soon people might start to think something was going on. I decided that I would wait until I got my license before killing anyone else, and that I would do it in another city.

But my plans changed the following fall. I was in high school by then and one of my teachers was a real jerk. Mr. Trevoni taught General Science. He was mean to everybody and everybody hated him. He insulted people for no reason, or for the simplest, most ridiculous reasons. He actually pushed kids around physically. He called girls ugly and called guys stupid. He didn’t treat me any worse than anyone else. I doubt that he even knew my name. But he was a rotten person and I decided he had to go.

I made it my business to find out where he lived. One Friday he mentioned he would be away for the weekend. No idea why he told us that; he never talked about anything personal. Anyway, I sneaked into his house while he was gone and checked it out. It turned out his bedroom was right off the kitchen and he had a gas stove. Oh, his house was unlocked so I didn’t need to break in. One night the next week, November 17, 1956, at about 2:00 a.m., I snuck into his house very quietly while he was asleep- the door was still unlocked, turned on his gas stove and blew out the flame, leaving the gas flowing. Luckily he slept with the bedroom door open.

I was very careful. On my “check it out” visit I wore shoes that I knew wouldn’t make any noise, and I walked the path from the outside door to the kitchen stove to make sure there were no spots on the floor that squeaked. I practiced blowing out the gas quietly. And I brought a knife with me in case I woke him up. I figured I’d just stab him if that happened. But it didn’t. I got to his house at about 12:30, hoping he’d get up to pee. He did, at about 1:35. He went back to bed and before long I could hear him snoring. I waited until 2:00 and went in the house, being sure to be totally quiet. I could hear him snoring like a buzz saw all the while I was in his house. I did what I came to do and left, again as quietly as I could. I walked home, hiding out whenever a car went by, but there weren’t many that did at that time of night.

Of course Trevoni didn’t show up at school the next day. When he didn’t show up the day after that, the school called the cops. He was found dead in his bed. I wore double rubber gloves on both visits to his house so I left no prints. After a long investigation the police came up with a verdict of suicide. Since there was no evidence of a break in or of anything else suspicious, the assumption was that he did it to himself.

No one at school was very sad that he was dead. I sure wasn’t.

[Ddevore65]

Yikes!

[Tim Moungey]

*gets out popcorn and waits for the first player murder*

[PointGuard]

Coach Tuthry has a special list for motivation during time outs: "Praise", "Show Concern", "Scream"...and..."Do What I Say or I'll Kill Ya".

If only his players knew he really means it.

[Wayne23]

2/28: We play #7 seed Denver, 10-17, 7-9, in the quarter finals of the Summit tournament. We crushed them by 27 at our place but then they beat us by 14 at theirs. The game is rated a toss up. They have a longer, better bench than we do. We’re hoping that won’t be the difference.

3/1: 83-66. We came to play tonight. 49-22 at the half. 38, 12 for Ken Bail, a huge game. 22, 15 for Sam Bows. +25 RBs.

#6 seed Western Illinois, 15-13, 8-8, was an upset winner. We play them in the semifinals. They won by 10 at their place then we won by 13 at home. They’re favored by a ½ point.

3/2: 86-72. Again tonight we came to play. We were up 12 at the half. 21, 13 for Bows, 16, 6, 4, 4 for Bail.

It’s #4 seed North Dakota, 16-13, 8-8, for the title. Never expected to be playing for this. We won by 6 at home then lost by 19 there. They’re favored by 3 ½.

3/3: 88-103. Our D completely failed us tonight. Disappointing. 31 points for SG Rasa Jamo, 16 each for Bail and Bows. A great run in the tourney.

16-14, RPI #191. I suspect our season is over. I’m generally happy with what we accomplished.

3/12: As expected we are not invited anywhere.

4/3: #3 Kansas wins the title.

4/4: Awards: Frosh C Ken Bell is Summit POY, Frosh OY, and 1st team along with junior PF Sam Bows. Soph guard Rasa Jamo makes the 2nd team.

4/9: We get no calls about other jobs. Didn’t expect any.

4/16: We get the guard we’ve been chasing. #143.

4/23: I ask for a facilities upgrade. The facilities here are awful. Got it. The upgrade will bring us from D- to C-, which is a great improvement.

16-14, 2nd place, tourney title game, RPI #191. Great first season and considering that everyone is back we’re hoping for an even better season next year.

So now I had three murders under my belt in just 16 months, and I was still just 13 ½ years old. I told myself that I had to resist temptation for a while, no matter what, and that future murders had to take place “on the road.”

I was and still an avid reader. I spent lots of time in the library, reading and taking notes. Yes, a lot of it was basketball related, but I was now doing research on anything related to murder. If you take a book off the shelf in a library, sit at a table, take your notes, and put the book back, there’s no record that you ever took the book out.

With basketball books that didn’t matter so I just checked them out and took them with me.

But the books I wanted now were a different matter. I was looking at books on anatomy, books on poisons and how to make them, books on famous murders and serial murderers- lots of things I didn’t want to leave a record of. And my notebook was filling up with necessary information very quickly. There were things I was really eager to try but as I said, I’m patient.

One thing I learned was that most murderers get caught at the scene of the crime, or give themselves away by doing something stupid after they leave the scene. I realized that a piece of bad luck could get me “caught in the act” but I was determined to reduce the chance of this happening as much as possible on my future “adventures.”

It was actually quite some time before I had the chance to kill again, but my research continued.