This photo from last March shows Hank Porter going to the hoop against Muskegon. Porter was chosen All conference honorable mention last year as a junior.

Godwin may have beat the Cedar Springs Varsity basketball team in the last game of the season, but it was still a great game—and one that both players and coaches will remember—especially Red Hawk coach Andy Secor and student coach Hank Porter.

Porter wasn’t meant to be a student coach in his senior year. As a junior he was chosen as all-conference honorable mention. Despite battling a torn meniscus in his knee the first half of his junior season and missing five games, he still scored 143 points, and led the team with just under 9 points a game. He also had 38 rebounds, 24 assists, and 11 steals, helping the Red Hawks tie for second in the conference.

Then during football season last fall, Porter tore his anterior cruciate ligament. He sat out the football season, and spent the basketball season doing a little bit of everything—managing, running the clock, coaching other students, etc.—until the Godwin game. Coach Secor had something special planned.

“I wanted to honor him in a special way for all he did this season and what he has meant to our basketball program,” he explained.

Secor got the Wolverines Coach Chad Conklin and his team to agree to let Cedar Springs get the opening tipoff, and the Red Hawks then passed it off to Porter, who drove down court for an uncontested layup—his only points all year. The Wolverines then raced down court for an uncontested basket as well.

Secor said he had the idea early on in the season. “I know the Godwin coach well, he’s a great guy and a very good coach. When I approached him about the idea, he was 100 percent on board and thought it was the right thing to do,” he explained.

Coach told Porter pretty early in the season. “I wanted him to have something to look forward to as I knew coming to practices and games, without participating, would be tough on him.”

It was a special moment for Porter, who was happy to be back out on the court with his teammates for the final game of the season. And it was special for Secor as well.

He said a friend of his sent him a quote after hearing about the game: People don’t remember days, they remember moments. “That senior night moment we had for Hank is one I will never forget,” remarked Secor. “Five years from now I won’t remember the scores of games or even specifics on who we lost to or where we won games. But that moment, I won’t forget.”