That never had been a problem for Mary Hardin-Baylor junior guard Tim Lytle, who as a youngster honed his skill during endless hours on a backyard goal.
He plied his trade well enough to earn a starting spot on the eve of his junior season and opened the year on a tear, shooting 55 percent from 3-point range as the Crusaders got off to a 3-0 start.
But on Dec. 1, 2007 came what Lytle refers to as “the incident,” in which his younger sister, 18-year-old Jae, went into cardiac arrest while attending a Crusaders game - an event that today seems as surreal to Lytle as it did then.
UMHB held a 77-66 lead over Mississippi College when officials halted play at Mayborn Campus Center with 2:26 remaining because of a situation in the stands. Lytle, whose 17 points had helped push the Crusaders out front, went to the bench with his teammates.
“I thought it was a fight or something,” Lytle said. “I saw that it was happening right where my parents were, and I started getting concerned.
“But I could see my little brother, my mother and my father, so I thought everything was OK because they were the only ones I put on the pass list that day.”
Both teams were sent to the locker room, and a short time later was when Lytle got the news from UMHB coach Ken DeWeese.
“Coach came to me and said, ‘Tim, come with me for a second,’” Lytle recalled. “Then he told me, ‘Tim, it’s your sister.’
“I was scared and confused at the same time because I didn’t think my sister was even there. Then Coach told me that my mom was in pretty bad shape.”
Lytle went into the stands, where his father, David, huddled with trainers as CPR was administered to Jae. Nearby, his mother, Debby, and 14-year-old brother Ben were breaking down in tears.
Jae’s heart was eventually restarted with an automated external defibrillator that is kept in a UMHB training room.
“It was surreal,” Lytle said. “I couldn’t grasp that it was my sister and something was wrong. I didn’t know if she was choking or if it was a heart problem or what. Then I figured she had gone into cardiac arrest when I saw the AED.
“I wanted to break down but couldn’t because my mom was already at that point.”
After Jae - a student at Texas State in San Marcos - was taken away by paramedics, Lytle told DeWeese he would continue to play because “my sister would probably want me to play. She’s really devoted to coming to the games.”
Lytle scored four more points in a 90-81 win and was told by a police officer that his sister was OK.
“I asked Coach if I could leave right after the game, and he said sure,” Lytle said.
Tests were run and, according to Lytle, earlier this week it was determined that Jae suffers from a hereditary disorder similar to long QT syndrome - a condition in which those afflicted suffer heart arrhythmia when the body produces sudden amounts of adrenaline.
Lytle was held out of UMHB’s next game and is taking medication for precautionary reasons.
“I will probably need to be on the medication the rest of my life,” he said. “It makes me tired faster. The first four games, I could really tell the difference.”
As for Jae, she missed only one or two UMHB games and has seen her brother return to form in time for the Crusaders’ first-round game of the NCAA Division III Tournament on Friday against Fontbonne (Mo.) in Jackson, Miss.
“I always tell my guys, ‘When you check in, catch a pass, make a pass, play a possession on the defensive end,’” DeWeese said. “You want them to work themselves into the flow of the game - except for Tim, because he’s ready to shoot when he steps into the gym.”
That’s because he kept shooting as a child, sometimes to the dismay of his mother.
“At first, we just had a goal and a circle dirt area in the backyard,” Lytle said. “Then my dad built a little slab made of rows of cement squares. But I didn’t use it much because I was always shooting from the grass on the other side because it was a bigger area.
“I would shoot until my mom, who would sometimes get mad, would make me come in to eat dinner. Then I would go back out there.”
Lytle fondly recalls his days growing up and has the same feelings about this season, despite everything that has happened.
“It has been a really fulfilling season, probably the best of my life,” he said. “My sister still comes to the games.
“Just the fact that other people kept encouraging me to keep going, and that I did keep going, has made this season special.”
In other words, he just kept shooting.
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
