Lake captain: Warren's Brandon Paul leads by example

When hunger strikes, Brandon Paul likes to fill up on blueberry muffins.

He can make them himself. His mother Lynda taught him how.

"I enjoy teaching him how to cook," Lynda Paul said.

And, apparently, how to shake-and-bake.

But not necessarily on chicken. We're talking on the basketball court, where Paul has become a superstar guard at Warren and a prized recruit for the University of Illinois.

Paul and his mom share plenty of typical mother-son moments, in the kitchen and elsewhere. But where they really connect is on the basketball court.

Lynda Paul, a former basketball standout herself at Ball State, has taken a much more active role in her son's athletic career than many mothers typically do. Up until about three years ago, she coached all of his AAU teams, from fifth grade on. She boasted some of the best travel teams in the state.

And to this day, she still plays him one-on-one. She also offers up her expertise in the form of tips and advice, and she helps to manage his workouts.

"A lot of moms just sit back and watch and don't say much," Paul said. "They might not know much about sports. My mom played. She knows a lot."

Paul says that his mother has been invaluable as he's morphed into the player he is today, which in addition to everything else already, is the honorary captain of the Daily Herald's Lake County All-Area Boys Basketball Team.

Despite being hampered by a variety of nagging injuries and illnesses, Paul guided Warren to yet another 20-win season. He averaged a team-leading 19.8 points and 7.3 rebounds while wowing fans with his spectacular leaping ability on everything from dunks to blocked shots to even opening tips.

"I guess I've been blessed with a lot of talent," Paul said. "But I've also worked pretty hard for it. My mom's always been by my side helping me do that."

Lynda Paul recognized early on that her son had the potential to be a standout athlete. Before long, so did others.

"I remember we were at a feeder team tryout for my older son Cliff Jr. and Brandon was over shooting on the side," Lynda Paul said. "He was shooting pretty well and one of the coaches came up and said that he had been watching Brandon and wanted to know if Brandon could be on the sixth grade team. He was a fifth grader at the time."

Sensing the fast-paced adventure her son was about to embark on, Lynda Paul wanted to get more involved. So within the next year, she bought an existing AAU program, HoopStars, and made herself Brandon's coach.

The teams she coached from fifth grade to eighth grade lost only five games in three years.

So what did a bunch of tweener boys think about being coached by a mom?

"It was weird at first, definitely different than if my dad (Cliff Sr., a former semi-pro football player) were coaching," Paul said.

Lynda Paul figured her presence on the sideline would be weird at first, too. After all, this was role reversal at its best.

Coaching travel teams is often what the dads do. In fact, she said that at one major national tournament, she was the only female out of 125 coaches.

"At the beginning, Brandon still saw me as just a girl, his mom," Lynda Paul said. "I knew I had to earn his trust, so I did drills to get myself back up to speed and I showed him how to do things that he had a hard time doing himself. I think that went a long way with him."

It definitely had a profound effect on the rest of the team. Paul's teammates quickly came to appreciate his mom's know-how.

"As we went along, everyone on the team really started liking her," Paul said. "One year there were two tournaments that she couldn't be at and everyone was really missing her. The guys kept saying, 'I wish your mom was here.' She was a fun coach, she told us jokes and did funny things. People really liked her.

"And I think everyone just saw that she really knew what she was talking about. She didn't just tell people to do something, she showed them how to do it. That gave the kids a lot of confidence in her."

For that very reason, Paul listens very carefully to what his mom has to say. And that's why, for one thing, he's such a good rebounder.

That was Lynda Paul's specialty when she played, and she's made sure to pass along all of her little secrets to her son.

"When I played, I averaged about 12 points and 11 rebounds," Lynda Paul said. "To me, it was more important to get rebounds than points. I've always felt it was the lifeblood, that it won championships. So I was a garbage girl. I really focused on my timing, on my jumping. I was always trying to be a great rebounder and that's probably the biggest thing I've tried to help Brandon with.

"I think it's helped because, to me, his timing in rebounding is the best I've ever seen at this level. His game mirrors my game. He's definitely his mother's child."

Of course, that will never change. But soon, the nature of Paul's relationship with his mom will change. He'll be on his own at college, and mom won't be able to be there as often.

"Things aren't going to be the same, but we'll still talk," Paul said. "She might become more of a regular mom, but I'll still ask her about things. I'll call up and talk to her about my game.

"We're pretty close, and I think basketball made us closer. I think I have a better relationship with my mom because of it."

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