Mike Paull got the message when he was cut from the basketball team at Highland Park. And frankly he wasn't going to give the school a second chance.
It was the winter of 1975. So, he just moved on.
"I played prep league with my friends,'' Paull said. "That was early intramurals"
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Paull kept busy even without high school hoops.
"I played soccer in the fall,'' he said. "Football was kind of a joke back then."
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Then there was talk in the school building: Coming to Highland Park (HP) to coach basketball was Jerry Wainwright.
"They pulled me aside to talk to the coach,'' Paull recalled. "He told me he wanted me to come out for basketball."
By the fifth game of the 1979 season, Paull was a starter.
Paull, now an labor attorney in Highland Park, said his one special campaign for the Giants helped pave the way for a return to the community to help out the basketball program.
Paull's senior season on the court did not produce a winning record. Still, his faith in the game of basketball was restored during that season.
Of course, Wainwright would go on to bigger and better things after Highland Park, with his coaching abilities taking him to the universities of DePaul, Richmond and UNC Wilmington.
"He was teaching us basketball,'' Paull said. "It was ball-side defense. He was very good at teaching. It was a great experience."
After high school, he headed to the University of Illinois for a bachelor of science degree. His law degree came from Northwestern University.
"I still stayed close to Highland Park and knew that they were getting pretty good,'' Paull said.
His family began to grow and Paull brought his basketball knowledge to the recreation leagues and helped out coaching. One day, he received a call from the high school.
"Paul [Harris] called me and asked if I would come back as an assistant,'' he said of the call he received in 1999. "I was just opening up at the law firm [Klein Dub & Holleb], but he sold me on it."
"Mike Paull is an incredibly loyal guy. He is a giver and has unselfishly given to the HP basketball program as a player, [as] an alum and as a coach," Harris said. "The program is better off because of Mike's involvement."
Paull was also delighted to find out Highland Park was still doing some of the same things from his time playing at the school.
"My goal as an assistant coach was to try and give the kids the same great experience I had," he said.
The Highland Park basketball program began to make strides.
"Back in 1979, we were happy to be in a close game,'' Paull said. "Coach [Mike] Kolze took it to another level. And Paul Harris made it more of a winning expectation. Now, when we were in a close game, we expected to win."
In the 2008 season, the Giants featured two excellent guards in Chris Wroblewski and Josh Bartelstein. That HP squad won 23 games.
"Those guys are still playing,'' Paull recalled. "There were a lot of Division I athletes on that team. The parents were great. It was just a good team to coach."
From that bitter experience during his freshman year, Paull has moved into a feeling there is no place like Highland Park.
"Highland Park basketball is sort of a fraternity,'' he said. "I kind of missed a high level of basketball but had it being a part of coaching staff."
