At 39, Lombard man playing basketball at COD

The ribbing from teammates comes regularly. They call him “Old Man” or “Old School.”

Jermaine Townes doesn’t mind. In fact, the 39-year-old backup forward for the College of DuPage men’s basketball team says his experience and background contribute to his desire to play, even if it’s on a team of younger, more athletic players.

Don’t count out the 6-foot- 4-inch, 200-pound Townes just yet. He’s weathered a lot.

He has seen death in his family. He has seen death in the Navy as part of Operation Desert Storm in the mid-1990s. He has seen the struggles of fellow veterans, some of whom remain homeless after serving their country.

So a battle for a junior college roster spot after more than a decade without playing basketball didn’t faze the Lombard resident. And a defiant Townes said his teammates’ teasing motivates him.

“When I first got out there, I was out of shape, definitely,” he said. “They laughed at me here and there, just jokingly. But in my mind I said, ‘Laugh now and you’re going to cry later.’ It gave me determination. I had to get it in on them because they were laughing.”

In the ‘ghetto’

Townes’ parents died when he was 7. The deaths left him bouncing from relative to relative in and around the Douglas Park neighborhood of Chicago, or the “ghetto,” as he called it.

With no role model, Townes says he kept his grades up only to remain eligible for the baseball and football teams.

“Going through high school was a struggle because I did not have the guidance,” he said. “I did not have anyone going over my report card saying I had to do better.”

Townes says the basketball coach at Collins High School had his guys, so he was never given a realistic shot to make the team. If he had, Townes insists he had the talent to make a run at the pros.

He showed that talent off in neighborhood pickup games. But he never latched on to any organized teams.

After barely graduating from high school, Townes found a job in a warehouse making $6 an hour.

When his buddy came home to visit after six months in the Navy, Townes saw a way out of the ghetto.

‘Old School’

For all the teasing he endures, the reality is Townes’ teammates have the utmost respect for “Old School.” They praise his service to his country. They praise his hustle. They praise his desire.

“He wants no excuses,” starting point guard Derak Stanback said. “He comes to practice with his hard hat on.”

Townes has not cracked the starting lineup but shows up for practice every day hoping to make it. During a practice over the holiday break, head coach Don Klaas worked his 12-6 team to the brink. Some players wheezed and even vomited.

Townes was not one of them.

“He brings a lot to our team on the mental side of basketball and he’s always teaching behind the scenes,” Stanback said. “He’s always teaching and pointing out little things. Hearing his voice in the huddle is good. He has the experience and everybody listens to him and thinks of him as another one of our coaches.”

But Townes knows his role. Despite the praise, he says he doesn’t want to step on his coach’s toes. Klaas has won nearly 800 games and Townes said he listens to Klaas and does whatever he is asked.

Klaas said he didn’t know what to expect when Townes showed up.

“When I found out he was 39, I asked him ‘Do you know how tough this is going to be?’” Klaas said. “But he stays at it pretty good. He thinks he should be playing and I want players that think that.”

And Klaas does not let up.

“I don’t consider his age,” the 63-year-old coach said. “If we’re running, you’re running. If you can’t handle that, get off my court. He’s a player, I’m a coach. I’m trying to get the best out of him that I can.”

Desert Storm

Of all of his life decisions, Townes holds two above all others: his enrollment at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn and enlistment in the Navy.

The Navy was a way to make something of his life.

“I had no money and I could not go to college,” Townes said. “It was either be on the streets or go to the military.”

Soon after Townes arrived at boot camp, Operation Desert Storm began. Townes was scared.

“They kept telling us we were going to be on the front lines,” he said. “But I didn’t feel any regret. I understood what death was about by losing my parents at 7 years old. That decision was my own and it was not forced. It was my decision and I was going to be the best I can be and try to make it.”

Townes gets emotional when he sees stories of veterans dying on the battlefield. It makes him angry when he considers a soldier’s life and then sees veterans at home looking for shelter. Townes himself still attends classes to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“It shakes me up because we don’t get enough credit for what we do besides a lot of talk,” he said. “Talking ain’t nothing but words until something is done.”

Old man on campus

In May, Townes will graduate from the College of DuPage with a degree in computer networking. When he enrolled last January to finish up some credits, he did not even know the school had a basketball team.

When he found out, he asked Klaas for a three-day tryout.

“I know I’m an athlete and I know I can play basketball,” Townes said. “I knew if I could just get in shape, get my wind up, I’d be OK.“

It did not look promising at first. But he didn’t quit and soon enough, he was turning heads.

“At first, we wondered, ‘Who is this old cat?’” Stanback said. “But as the season has gone on, he’s now part of the COD family. He’s a big part of what we do right now.”

As his semester nears its end, Townes said he hopes to apply for scholarships and move on to a university, preferably the University of Illinois at Chicago. If those scholarships do not materialize, he said he will re-enroll at COD and pursue a second major.

He said he sometimes gets angry when he thinks about the politics of sports and the fact most players are not considered viable talents once they hit their 30s.

“I want this country to understand they should not be kicking people out because of their age,” he said. “I want everybody to hear this, in every sport: baseball, hockey, any sport that uses ages in determining roster spots.”

Meanwhile, he will keep doing what he can to crack the COD lineup.

“(Klaas) plays 10 guys and I’m trying to get into that rotation,” he said. “With a little bit more hard work, I think I will.”