By Patrice O'Shaughnessy, New York Daily News Staff writer
First published: August 19, 2008
A basketball camp was in progress in Draddy Gym at Manhattan College last week, for boys 8-18, and prospective athletes for the Jaspers' 2009 season were visiting, so head basketball coach Barry Rohrssen was pretty busy. And jet-lagged.
He had just come off a 14-hour flight from Kuwait, after having spent a few days in Iraq.
The trip was not part of the usual summer recruiting drive, which took him to high schools coast to coast in July. He and other U.S. college coaches flew into the war zone to bring basketball to the military personnel serving over there.
A goodwill trip, including a tournament, to bring a little escape, some normalcy, to the war-weary Army, Marine and Air Force personnel.
This is how "normal" it gets in Iraq: "We're playing pickup basketball and there's a rifle rack behind the bench," said Rohrssen.
Rohrssen, 48, was there as part of Operation Hardwood V, sponsored by the USO.
"It was an amazing, life-changing experience," he said of his week with the military.
Before going to Iraq, there was a sobering, inspiring stop at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
"It was unbelievable," Rohrssen said of his visit to the wounded. "One guy lost three limbs, his legs and an arm; all he had was his right arm to shake our hand.
"And he was so upbeat.
"It was unbelievable to see the bravery of these young people."
Then it was on to the Middle East.
"From Kuwait, we flew in a C-130 cargo plane into the army base, Camp Victory, in Baghdad, where they have 30,000 personnel," he said.
"You enter the rear of the plane, into the belly, and there are benches.
"When we go to the airport here, they hand you a boarding pass," he said. "At the airport in Kuwait, they handed us body armor and a helmet."
The coaches' main mission was to meet and interact with the military personnel, but they also held a tournament during which eight teams played each other.
They played in the Liberty Fieldhouse, a spartan structure, just four walls and a wood floor.
"My team was made up of sergeant majors, they are veterans, so they were a little older, in their 40s," Rohrssen said. "One guy was 49."
The name of his team was Defend and Serve.
"They came from all over the country," he said. "I had one Brooklyn guy and one Bronx guy on my team, my two home boroughs."
Rohrssen's accent tells you he hails from Brooklyn, and his stature shows he played hoops at Xaverian High School and St. Francis College there. He had been to the Riverdale area as a kid to run track meets at Van Cortlandt Park.
He started his coaching career at his alma mater, St. Francis, and coached at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas before taking the helm at Manhattan in 2006.
He was recommended for Operation Hardwood V and didn't think twice about going.
"Obviously, the decision was a no-brainer," he said. "This is a gesture of appreciation for all the soldiers who wear the uniform and fly the colors of our great country.
"Basketball is a global game. Athletics is such a common denominator," he continued. "To see the smile on a soldier's face, the interest and love for the game, and to be able to provide that distraction was great."
Although it was more of a morale-boosting event, the tournament did get competitive, as there were some former college players among the 12-person rosters, which included two women on each team.
He saw many soldiers the age of college freshmen. "There were guys there who looked like Doogie Howser," he said, referring to the TV character, a child-prodigy doctor.
The common denominator in the military personnel, he said, was that "all these people want to be there, they enlisted.
"They don't complain, they don't question, that's the difference between them and the youth here."
Seeing soldiers in the war zone was a stark contrast to the young men he generally deals with.
"There is no comparison in lifestyle and work demands," he said. "Student athletes live a pampered and incubated life, and I mean that in a good way, but the conditions there. ...
"To see the discipline and how they go about their day and carry out their assignments is eye-opening."
A man who spent years coaching in Las Vegas said the heat in Iraq was scorching.
"It was 90 at night," he said.
He felt safe though, on the base. "You're in the mess hall and they have their M-16s strapped to their backs."
So, here he was back on the bucolic Bronx campus, going about the normal routine of college coaching, but in his mind he was also somewhere else.
"It puts you in a very humbling place," he said.
