Staying grounded
Mike Boynton and his son will participate in Boynton’s parent/child basketball camp this weekend.
STILLWATER — About a week before Mike Boynton’s parent/child basketball camp this weekend, the Oklahoma State coach had to give his 5-year-old son, Ace, a vocabulary lesson.
Boynton and Ace will participate in the camp Friday and Saturday and, like the other campers, will spend the night in campus housing. When Boynton told Ace they would sleep in a dorm, the boy was confused.
“What’s dorms?” he said. “What’s that mean?”
Boynton tried to offer the simplest explanation he could.
“It’s like a house,” he said.
Ace looked around the family’s spacious Stillwater home.
“So this is our dorm?” he asked.
In time, Boynton managed to get across that college students stay in dorms, and this weekend, so will they. It’s another example of Boynton staying grounded even as his notoriety in and around Stillwater has grown.
In April, he drove to Oklahoma City to visit
teachers from Stillwater’s Westwood Elementary, where Ace goes to school, during the teacher walkout. The next month, he made another trip south to support the OSU baseball team during the Big 12 Tournament in Bricktown Ballpark while also finding time to be at Karsten Creek to cheer on the Cowboy golf team en route to its national title. While there, he didn’t hesitate to pose for photos or strike up conversation with fans.
“I believe, in this position, my responsibility is to be a part of the community,” Boynton said. “I hate to make judgments about myself, but I think I’m a people person. I think people enjoy when I’m around because I try to be very approachable and try to be very easy to talk to and communicate with. When you’re visible, it gets people connected, a feeling that they can connect with you.”
Boynton, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, has grown to appreciate the smalltown feel of Stillwater. In the tight-knit community, he has no desire to portray himself as an outsider or as someone of higher standing despite his position. He’s simply being himself.
“I see the same people at the drop-off line at my kid’s school that I do when I’m at Louie’s eating downtown or maybe I’m at Wal-Mart picking up some milk,” Boynton said. “You cross paths with so many of the same people. This community’s unique in that way.
“I think it’s important that people don’t feel like I’m above them or anything because I certainly don’t feel that way. I want people to know that I don’t feel any different than they do. Have a different role in the community, but I feel like my role is no better or more valuable than the teacher at Westwood Elementary or the security guard at Stillwater High or the guy who is serving drinks at Louie’s, so I think it’s important that not only myself, my family as well, we try to be out and about and be very visible and accessible.”
This weekend will be again exemplify that, though Boynton said Ace probably isn’t old enough to fully enjoy it.
“We’re gonna take the whole experience in,” Boynton said. “He’ll have fun with it, but maybe if he was 8 or 9 or 10 and really understood what was going on, he’d appreciate it more, but I’m gonna have a blast.”