Skinn is Still Fighting the Odds
Ron Bailey, Publisher
June 8, 2007 – Having just left the Verizon Center’s floor following George Mason’s historic NCAA Tournament Elite Eight victory over UConn in 2006, Tony Skinn revealed he and his Patriot teammates were fired up by pre-game comments attributed to their opponents. According to the report, members of the highly regarded team couldn’t identify what league Mason competed in (the school is a member of the Colonial Athletic Conference), and that oversight caused the Patriots to play even harder. “That’s a little bit if disrespect”, expressed Skinn, a point guard, who scored 10 crucial points in the historic contest, one in which Tony and his 11th seeded mates defeated the number one seeded UConn Huskies – the first time ever that type of upset happened during the Elite Eight round.
For Skinn, the road to not only playing in the 2006 Final Four, but professionally in Europe, has been ripe with disrespect and under-appreciation: He’s had to work for everything he’s received.
“I’ve always, always had to stay in the gym. Always had a chip on my shoulder, because it wasn’t easy for me because I was smaller. I had to play that way. In fact, sometimes I have to get out of playing that way”, stated Skinn about not only being devalued, but its effect on his play.
That effort and irrepressible will was first displayed in his hometown of Takoma Park, MD. “I learned the game at the Takoma Park Recreation Center” recalled Skinn recently of his early hoops experiences. “I was in the 5th and 6th grade, and was learning from Linden Debollote (a basketball coach and center worker)” as well as “Steve (Francis) and Jason (Miskiri)”.
Francis would later star at Maryland and currently plays in the National Basketball Association, while Miskiri attended George Mason himself, and plays professionally in Europe. According to Skinn, he started actually competing on the court with that talented duo “when I was around the 9th or 10th grade”.
Despite averaging 26.5 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists as a high school senior at Takoma Academy, Skinn found himself once again having to work to further his basketball career and scholarship hopes, as he didn’t qualify academically. Resultantly, Tony was forced down the junior college or prep school route. Enter Education, Goals, Opportunities, in Sports, Inc.(E.G.O.S.), and its director, Walter Ray.
Tony Skinn has fought to become a professional hooper.
“I used to watch him because I had some kids playing in the same league he played in, the Beltway League” said Ray when asked of where his early impressions of Skinn were formed. “He was on a team without the hyped guys, but he always worked hard and competed against them. And I used to work out at the Takoma/Langley gym, where he used to be”.
Clearly Ray knew Skinn was talented and wouldn’t be suppressed when he and the guard started working to find a junior college home for him. Tony’s first JUCO home was Blinn College (TX), in which he enrolled during the 2001-2002 season. The experience wasn’t ideal, as Skinn noted “I got into it with the coach”, but while there, he illustrated to many his talent, as “Texas A&M” and other schools started to become interested.
As the situation there had become intractable, Ray helped design a plan allowing Tony to continue his studies, yet maintain three years of NCAA eligibility: Skinn would pay the tuition at his new home, Hagerstown Community College himself, and not play hoops, thereby preserving the ability to play three years in college, yet strengthening his collegiate transcript.
Though Skinn shared “Mason, South Florida, Virginia Tech, Hartford” and other schools had inquired, Ray divulged “George Mason started recruiting him…The other schools said in the end he wasn’t good enough”.
So entering the 2003-2004 school year as a sophomore athletically, Tony was once again under-appreciated, though he had secured a scholarship to George Mason. Always an athletic, fearless performer, standing just 6’0” and then weighing around 160 lbs, Skinn, who could drive, shoot, and dunk on taller players using his 37” vertical jump, brought that combination to the Fairfax, VA school. After an initial adjustment period, Skinn shared “I was starting by around midway of my sophomore year”.