Every gym teacher covers the follow-through motion when they’re teaching jump shots during their basketball unit, but some value it more than others. Check out this list of gym teachers ranked by how vital they consider follow-through to be.
6. Mr. D’Angelo
First up is Mr. D’Angelo, who definitely considers the follow-through to be helpful, but during his free throw demonstration, he repeats his instructions on keeping your feet shoulder-width apart just as much as he does his instructions on following through to the hoop. All in all, he gives the follow-through the same amount of attention as any other part of a good shooting technique.
5. Ms. McKenzie
Ms. McKenzie takes follow-through especially seriously, and she usually homes in on the most athletic kid and then stops the whole class to tell everyone to watch them do a jump shot and note their fundamentally sound follow-through. Ms. McKenzie believes that you’re just not going to get the right angle on the shot without following through, but her enthusiasm for it is still nothing compared to the maniacal follow-through obsession of some of the other gym teachers.
4. Mr. Carcetti
This guy thinks the follow-through motion is absolutely critical. Mr. Carcetti has a motivational poster in his office that says, “ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE IF YOU KEEP YOUR SHOOTING ELBOW IN AND SNAP YOUR WRIST TOWARD THE BASKET.” He also suspended the school’s star basketball player for not doing the following-through motion while throwing a paper towel in the garbage. Mr. Carcetti thinks the follow-through is absolutely imperative, and he’s not going to tolerate anyone who disagrees.
3. Coach Bennison
Coach Bennison doubles as the varsity basketball coach, and last year he straight-up punched his assistant coach in the mouth for making a jump shot with no follow-through during the pickup game at the end-of-season basketball team picnic. He is completely obsessed with the follow-through motion. He loves it.
2. Ms. Nowicki
Coming in at number two in the list of teachers obsessed with the follow-through motion is Ms. Nowicki. She routinely barges into history classes during the school day to start shouting about the importance of pointing to the basket after releasing the ball. She once managed to book Larry Bird for a class assembly and only let people ask him questions about following through on their jump shot. When he tried to talk about the importance of leadership and teamwork, she had him removed by security. Ms. Nowicki is a follow-through maniac. It’s basically her religion.
1. Mr. Loughren
Mr. Loughren’s devotion to the follow-through motion is all-consuming. When one of the seniors in his class died and the school held a vigil, Mr. Loughren spent most of his eulogy holding back sobs while he talked about how the follow-through is an essential component of shooting technique, and he didn’t even mention the kid until the very end when he said that his follow-through wasn’t very good. He then picked up a wreath of flowers and threw it into the parking lot to demonstrate to the mourning student body how to guide your jump shot into the basket. Mr. Loughren stands uncontested as the gym teacher with the most fanatical commitment to the follow-through.
