Before earning the title of Dr., Michael Havener acquired a PhD. in puck... and baseball, and football. This is the story of his reign over the rinks and fields of South County, and the accident which nearly brought it all to a close.
December 8, 2015
Michael Jordan and Dr. Michael Havener are more alike than you think. Despite a generous difference in height and net worth (Jordan is 6’6” and estimatedly worth $1,000,000,000, according to Forbes), high school played a defining role in their respective athletic careers.
Jordan attended Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he solidified his destiny as an athlete by playing baseball, football and eventually basketball. However, when he tried out for varsity basketball as a sophomore, he was deemed too short to play, and was cut. Havener, however, was named captain of his high school football, baseball and hockey teams less than a decade after Jordan left the Wilmington gym with nothing to show for. Needless to say, the two Michael’s followed very different paths after high school, but those four years continue to serve as a turning point in their lives.
Havener’s athletic career, much like Jordan’s, did not begin or end in high school. Instead, it began on a brisk autumn day at the open-air Webster Groves ice rink when Havener was 4 years old.
“I actually started off figure skating,” Havener, principal, said. “But I was asked not to come back because my brother and I were a little too rough, and we kept fighting each other. They said that hockey was probably a better sport.”
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