When Life Gives You Lemons

I met Carl in Toronto in July of 2007 during the try-outs for the Canadian National Basketball team. They were preparing to go to Las Vegas to play in the FIBA games which would decide the countries that have an opportunity to play in the Olympics. I had a few great talks about Carl with Leo Rautins the head coach of the Canadian National Senior Men’s basketball team and found out that Carl’s story is one that had to be told. It is a story of a survivor, a young man that shouldn’t be were he is, based on where he came from, and the struggles he went through growing up in Newfoundland. Everyone told him his dreams were foolish, but he never listened to them and he forged his own path. This is the story of Carl English.

Carl English is currently playing professional basketball in Spain for CB Gran Canaria. That only tells the beginning and the current status of Carl’s life. Carl was born in 1981 St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, not exactly a hotbed for developing your basketball game. When Carl was 5 years old his house caught on fire. He and his four brothers were able to get out, but his parents died in the hospital a few days after the fire, due to complications of being burned and smoke inhalation.

Carl and his brothers were separated following his parents death. Three of the brothers went to live with his Aunt Florence, about 10 minutes from his uncle’s house. The other brother went on to live with his Aunt Shirley in St. Johns. Carl only saw him on holidays and in the summer. Today Carl is very close to all of them. Carl went on to live with his aunt and uncle, Betty and Junior McGrath and their 4 children. They lived in a place called Patrick’s Cove, Newfoundland, with a population of 30. His uncle was a great provider as a husband and a father. Carl remembers that he never went without things, but never had the extra stuff either. Carl attended Fatima Academy. The school had about 200 students from grades 1-12. Like a lot of young kids, he started to play basketball at a young age because his older brothers at the time were playing. His uncle and brothers were able to put a hoop up in the street but when the cars would come by, they would have to get off the street and wait for the car to pass, then continue playing. It was at this time that Carl was able to watch a few NBA games on TV, but not many.  His older brother, would tape games, for him, and bring them home for Carl to watch. From that point on it was a dream of his to play in the NBA. One of Carl’s school teachers told him once that she remembered him writing a paper about playing in the NBA, and dream is still alive inside today. He also found that it was a good way to get away from the issues of his parents death and the problems of life. Carl left Newfoundland to finish school in Toronto, Ontario for his senior year. He figured he would have to switch schools if he was ever going to get a scholarship to a U.S college. He attended Oakville’s St. Thomas of Aquinas High School, in Toronto. However he never played basketball there as the teachers went on strike, and he missed the entire season. 

From there Carl went to a summer camp in New Jersey where he won the MVP of the camp. There were enough college recruiters there where he was then offered a scholarship to play at the University of Hawaii for the 1999-2000 scholastic year. For Carl things were finally starting to go well, but ankle problems caused the coach to red shirt him his first year. He had season ending ankle surgery and was granted a medical red shirt year. After his freshman year he traveled back to Patrick’s Cove to spend the summer with his aunt and uncle. Like a lot of Newfoundlanders, Carl’s uncle was a fisherman. One day after a good day of fishing they headed back to at the dock. While they were unloading the cod, his uncle started to feel ill. He dropped dead right in front of Carl. Carl’s name was his uncle’s last words.

Because he never played during his true freshman year, Carl went on to play for the junior men’s team in Canada, trying to get ready for the upcoming season at Hawaii. His red shirt freshman year he played in 28 games, all off the bench. He totaled 44 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists in three WAC tournament games. He scored 25 points against Tulsa in the Championship game.

Things had finally started to go well for Carl. His sophomore season (2001-02), he started every game (33) and averaged 15.5 points per game, 5 rebounds and 3.3 assists. He had eight games where he scored 20 plus points while shooting 47.6% from the floor. Carl was named All- WAC second team. His junior year, Carl was named WAC First Team, All-WAC Tournament team, Academic All-American Third Team, National Association Basketball Coaches (NABC) District 13 Second Team. Carl had a great junior year leading his team in scoring 18 times, and averaged 19.6 points per game. He also scored 20 or more 11 times and 30 or more 3 times.  He currently ranks seventh on Hawaii’s all-time scoring list with 1,259 points. He holds the single season record for most three point field goals made (162), fourth in three point attempts (414) and fifth in career three point percentage at 39.1%.

Carl had decided to forego his final year and throw his hat into the NBA draft. By all reports at the time he would be a solid second round draft pick, which by today’s standards would guarantee Carl some money. He watched the first round and second rounds of the draft go by, but his name was never called. Carl was one of the leading scorers at the NBA pre-draft camp, but that didn’t help on draft night. Carl had NBA teams calling to see if he would be willing to try out. English at 6’5” was originally caught the NBA’s eyes because of his shooting skills. The biggest thing that may have scared some NBA teams away was a perceived lack of quickness.  A lot of NBA teams can never measure a player’s heart or his desire. Carl does not look back at currently not making it in the NBA, he says “because it is a very difficult league to play in Spain,” and that he must live in the moment and have as much success as possible to help his team win as many games as possible. He is hoping that the NBA “won’t close any doors on me now that I am playing in a league that has supplied the NBA with quite a few players already.” He still wants to play in the NBA one day, and with his dedication, desire, and determination to become the best player he can, it’s likely that someday he will.

Carl has a lot of national pride and is particularly proud that he has the opportunity to play for the Canadian National Team. His coach Leo Rautins, a former NBA player and currently the color analyst for Toronto Raptors television games, calls Carl “the mainstay of the Canadian Senior Men’s team.” Carl says he “needs to continue to believe in his abilities, and believe he will make the NBA one day. Each day I need to work harder than everyone else and improve my game. I need to accept where I currently am in my pro basketball career and keep working to get to the next level.”

If you have a success story of someone that has overcome life’s road blocks on his or her way to triumph over potential failure and would like to email me that story you can at mail@basketballacademy.com.