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Memory Lane: Mays excelled in basketball, football at Uniontown

By George Von Benko 5 min read
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Uniontown’s Junior Mays celebrates scoring his 1,000th point for Uniontown. Pictured are (from left) Mary Tarpley (sister), Malaky Howard (nephew), Charles Thomas (cousin), Junior Mays, Alice Tarpley (mother) and William Thomas (cousin).
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Junior Mays scored 1,092 points in his basketball career at Uniontown and was one of the WPIAL’s leading scorers his senior season.

James “Junior” Mays forged an outstanding athletic career at Uniontown, but looking back he wishes he had done things differently off the court and off the football field.

Mays got an early start in athletics and benefited from Uniontown’s great playground culture.

“I was playing pickup over in the neighborhood in Holiday Mobile Park,” Mays recalled. “I played basketball, football and street hockey. I really didn’t get the feel for basketball until I moved to the East End, and that’s where I started going to Bailey Park and Grant Street and where all the athletes gathered.

“It was like playing for blood because you knew if you lost you were going home. Older guys would come back and play and I actually played down in the Brownsville Recreation League with the older guys. When I got into junior high and then high school I played both football and basketball. I played for a while in junior high and then quit and mainly played pickup ball. I didn’t start playing organized football until my freshman year. I quit football during my sophomore year at training camp and focused on basketball. I played football again as a junior and a senior.”

Mays was a part of Uniontown’s great WPIAL championship basketball team in 2001-2002, a team that finished 30-2, beating New Castle to win the WPIAL title, 60-57, and eventually losing to Harrisburg in the PIAA Class AAAA championship game.

Mays saw some action that season, scoring 49 points.

“It was a great experience, but I lacked the discipline of being punctual,” Mays lamented. “I had an off and on stint with that team and it was my fault. I ran into problems with coach Dave Shuck, he didn’t think being late was acceptable. He had zero tolerance for being late. I got kicked off the team and they let me come back, but I rode the bench.

“Coach Shuck was a great coach, but he had zero tolerance for the nonsense. If you don’t have discipline you are not going to be a great player. I made sure I wasn’t late for any more practices after that.”

Dave Shuck retired and his assistant Rob Kezmarsky took over the program and Mays flourished on the court developing into a deadly scorer.

“I had a good relationship with him,” Mays offered. “He and his brother Steve looked out for me a lot.”

Mays scored 459 points as a junior and the Red Raiders were 13-1 in Class AAA section play and finished the season with a record of 20-3. They lost to Hampton in the WPIAL playoffs 63-48.

Mays exploded as a senior, leading the WPIAL in scoring for most of the season and ending up with 584 points on a team that went 19-5 and fell to Knoch in the WPIAL quarterfinals, 60-52. Mays was ice cold that night finishing with a season-low seven points.

For his career Mays tallied 1,092 points and is one of 16 Red Raider boys to score 1,000 points. Mays was All-Section as a junior and a senior, All-WPIAL Class AAA as a senior and was named second team All-State by the Associated Press as a senior. He saved some of his best performances against arch rival Laurel Highlands, torching the Mustangs for 38 points as a junior and 33 as a senior.

“Scoring 1,000 points was a great individual accomplishment and without my teammates that would not have been possible,” Mays said. “I would trade 1,000 points for a championship. I really didn’t think too much about All-State or All-Section. I wanted to win a championship.”

Mays excelled on the gridiron for the Red Raiders, playing on teams that went 6-4 in 2002 with a loss to Knoch 34-7 in the WPIAL playoffs. Mays, a tight end/receiver, scored two touchdowns as a junior. He had a breakout season 2003 on a team that posted a record of 4-6. Mays caught 40 passes for 670 yards and scored seven touchdowns for coach John Fortugna. He was named All-Keystone Conference.

When the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Mays graduated from Uniontown in 2004 all of the interest from colleges was for football.

“I had offers,” Mays explained. “My grades were a big problem and ruined my chance to play college football.”

Mays decided to join the Army and served on active duty for eight years at Fort Hood, Texas. He went into the National Guard for three years. Then bounced around in various jobs.

“The military was a good experience for me,” Mays said. “It was definitely an eyeopener.”

The 38-year old Mays resides in Reading and has been going back to school. Not married, Mays has eight children ranging in age from 20 to 3 years old.

Looking back, Mays regrets missed opportunities and potential.

“I was 50-50 with what I did in high school,” Mays stated. “Athletics, I was happy, on the school side of things, no. I wish I had showed up more. I was more an athlete-student not a student-athlete. I’m disappointed that I was more focused on being an athlete than a student.”

George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” column appears in the Sunday editions of the Herald-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

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