Millington High junior guard Shawn Pardee scores two points in a game at Birch Run earlier this season. Pardee made 52 free throws in a row in games this year, ranking him fourth-best in the state high-school boys basketball record book.
By Tom Gilchrist
Sports Editor
MILLINGTON — Dan Pardee calls his son, Millington guard Shawn Pardee, a “gym rat.” And free throws are his cheese.
The 5-foot-11 junior made 52 free throws in a row in games earlier this season, the fourth-longest streak on record in Michigan boys basketball.
“We’re in the gym somewhere every day, and that’s not an exaggeration. There are no sacred days off,” said Dan Pardee, whose son made 52 straight foul shots in games against Alma, Caro, Michigan Lutheran Seminary and Essexville Garber.
The streak figures to put Shawn Pardee in the Michigan High School Athletic Association boys basketball record book. Frankenmuth’s Brad Redford holds the record for making the most consecutive free throws in one season when Redford made 102 straight foul shots from Dec. 14, 2007 to Feb. 9, 2008.
“I’ve never made anything like 52 straight in games before, but I’ve gone for 106 straight in practice,” Shawn Pardee said. “It was just me and my dad in a gym, shooting. At LakeVille (High).”
Dan Pardee coaches girls basketball teams for LakeVille Community Schools, where Shawn Pardee attended high school before his family moved to the Millington school district at the start of his sophomore year. Dan Pardee said his son once made 105 consecutive free throws on an outdoor court at a neighbor’s house in Tuscola County’s Millington Township.
“Out of a 365-day year, probably at least 300 days (Shawn) shoots at least 100 free throws a day,” Dan Pardee said.
“It’s pretty much just repetition,” Shawn Pardee said. “Making free throws is about getting reps. If you shoot so many of them, you’re just gonna have the same form every time. It’s kind of like a robot.”
When Pardee finally missed a free throw in a game against Essexville Garber after 52 straight, he said his classmates congratulated him.
“A couple of them said, like, ‘Man, you need to work on your free throws,’” Shawn Pardee said. “They were just close friends, messing with me.”
Pardee also makes shots from other spots on a basketball court. In the five games starting with the Jan. 30 game against Caro, he has averaged 36 points per game. During Wednesday’s game against Birch Run, school officials honored Pardee after he scored his 1,000th point in his high-school career.
Millington is 13-3 overall and 9-2 in the Tri-Valley Conference East Division awaiting a league game Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Bridgeport.
This season, Pardee has connected on 89 percent of his free throws — an increase from his 82-percent success rate last season.
“He figured out at a young age how to get to the basket, so he got fouled a lot,” Dan Pardee said. “A free throw is an easy way to rack up points. Nobody can guard you from 15 feet.”
Each day, Shawn Pardee seeks a basketball court, whether it’s around Millington or Otisville, at the Community Center in Lapeer, or a neighbor’s place up the road.
“Sometimes he’ll go to other schools that he has friends at,” Dan Pardee said.
Through the years, Dan Pardee has been the omnipresent rebounder as his son fired free throw after free throw after free throw. There was a time when the ball would bounce here or there on the missed shots, forcing the elder Pardee to chase it down and pass it back.
Seems like there’s nowhere to run these days — or nowhere for opposing teams to hide — when Shawn Pardee stands at a free-throw line.
“I’ve put a lot of weight on,” Dan Pardee said, “as he’s gotten better.”