Olympus basketball: Stuart Pace profile

In mid-May, I interviewed Olympus guard Stuart Pace, who had an interesting season for the Titans. It was to his credit how he applied his skills to help the team. Oly preaches the team concept and Pace is a great example of why the Titans' approach to the game is a good one. Here is the article that will appear in this year's Olympus boys basketball yearbook.

Stuart

Pace:

He had a lot to live up to, and provided

the support that elevated the Titans

By Bruce Smith

Matchup

             For Stuart Pace, playing basketball team this was a tale of two seasons.

            He survived and, looking back, said he became a better player due to it.
            The 6-foot-2 senior guard had a lot to live up to as Olympus prepared for its 2011-12 schedule. Longtime coach Matt Barnes knew of the talent that came from within the Pace family. There were two brothers who played for Barnes in late 1990s and Pace’s sister, Michelle, was a first team all-state pick a few years ago.
            Stuart was the fourth – and final – member of the Pace basketball clan..
            “I’ve been around Olympus basketball since I started walking,” Pace said. “I had always known that I wanted to play for Barnes. I had been going to Olympus (basketball) camps since the second or third grade.”
            After being a key member on the Olympus junior varsity team last year, Stuart opened this season following in his sibling’s footsteps. He said the best part of his game was his defense, and was often asked to guard the opponent’s top player.
            “I had played with the team during the summer and they knew what I could do,” he said. “I knew I would play but I didn’t think I’d have such an important role as I ended up having.”
            Pace and Connor Haller were in the starting lineup on opening night. However, after three losses in the Titans’ first four games, Barnes brought them both into his office and asked them to play a different role.
            “Coach Barnes made the change because we were not getting off to a good start in games,” Pace said. “We still played and we weren’t too bumbed about it.
            “Coming off the bench was a little difficult at first, but I just figured it was the same game and I’d be fine. Once I stopped worrying about not starting, I didn’t feel bad. I still got to play a ton and we were winning games, which was most important.”
            Pace ended up averaging 3.7 points per game and 2.1 rebounds. He had a high game of 11 points in the 4A state tournament against Provo, and an impressive 10-assist night vs. Taylorsville.
            The only downfall, of course, was not being able to jump into the crowd when the starters were introduced. Pace accepted his role, but when Jackson Coleman injured his ankle a short while later, he moved back in as a starter and his play improved.
            “My best game was either East or Provo in the state tournament,” he recalled. “Those were my higher scoring games, but I was never much of a scorer. I guarded Parker Van Dyke for most of the East game. That was pretty tough because he was just ridiculously good. We made a big comeback in that game and I helped a lot with that.”
            Pace said there were many good memories during the year. He felt Oly’s 57-51 overtime win at Murray “was awesome” because the Titans trailed by as many as nine points in the final minutes but still managed to force overtime.
            “Barnes got a technical and I figured we were done,” Pace said. “But Will (Cannon) and (Nick) Barney kept playing hard and made some plays. Everyone then started playing hard. Before you know it, it was in overtime. By that point, we knew we could win it and then we dominated overtime.”
            Beating Skyline was also important, even though Pace played only a small role. He said another of his favorite memories came when the Titans beat Murray again to wrap up the Region 7 title. Besides cutting down the nets and posing for pictures, there was also another – less known – celebration.
            “We partied afterward,” he said. “We had a bunch of sparkling apple cider. We were all in our underwear and spraying apple cider on each other. It was a blast.”
            The excitement didn’t stop until the final buzzer of the state championship game. Pace may not have had the statistics of his siblings, but he certainly appreciated the success. He said he would never forget the experience as his life continued. Almost immediately after graduation, he was scheduled to leave on an LDS Church mission to Kiev, Ukraine.