Eli Sample is traveling more than 2,000 miles to keep his dream of playing professional basketball alive.
Later this month, Sample, a 2012 Crystal City graduate and a Festus resident, will move to Puerto Escondido, a resort town in southern Mexico in the state of Oaxaca. Sample recently signed a contract to play basketball for the club team that competes in the Ciprodebaco League. The season lasts for four months.
Sample has been brushing up on basic Spanish before he leaves his teaching and coaching duties at Northwest High School in Cedar Hill. He uses a translating program to communicate with the head coach of his new team. Most of the players on his team and in the league are of Latin American descent, some from the U.S. and others from nations south of the border.
They have one thing in common, though: They want to use this opportunity to be seen and maybe, just maybe, a bigger chance will follow.
Sample, 28, is unmarried. Without a family to support, he’s taking one more shot before he lets go of his athletic dream.
“A lot of guys get to the point where they stop pushing for that dream, but you never know where that opportunity might come,” Sample said. “I was thinking about that the other night and I never told myself it wasn’t possible. You always have your doubts but I always believed that I could do it. I’m trying to get it out of my system. I want to keep building my resume as a player and see where it leads me.”
Sample began constructing his resume by playing guard for the Hornets, who were coached by Sean Breeze, now the boys head coach at Jefferson. During Sample’s senior year, Crystal City lost to eventual state champion Charleston 71-63 in the Class 3 quarterfinals, the last time the Hornets got that far. Sample shot 10 of 19 from the field and finished the game against Charleston with 23 points.
“Man, it was a battle the whole game. It was an emotional game,” Sample said of the quarterfinal loss. “We wanted to win it more than anything. We put heart into it and we fell a couple possessions short. They had a player I played against in junior college and at SEMO as well. He led the way for those guys.”
Sample went to Jefferson R-7 schools until eighth grade, and then his parents chose Crystal City High, which both of them had graduated from. (Jefferson High had yet to open.)
“It was a big decision,” he said, but one that worked out for him.
“(Breeze) never took it easy on me and I appreciate him for that. He made my dream come true to be a college player by giving me the keys to the team.”
After graduating high school, Sample played for Gene Bess at Three Rivers Community College. After scoring more than 500 points in two seasons in Poplar Bluff, Sample played one semester at Southwest Baptist University in Salem. There he had multiple double-digit scoring games. He transferred to Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau and played his senior year for the Redhawks.
Sample graduated from SEMO in 2017 and while he worked in education, he kept his basketball skills sharp by playing in a semi-pro league with the St. Louis Trotters. Players for the Trotters are from colleges around the country and they are unpaid.
Sample declined to give the details of the contract he signed with the team in Mexico.
“It’s always been my dream to play pro basketball,” Sample said. “I’ve been taking that opportunity (with the Trotters) to make that move. I’ve never been out of the country before but it will be a lifetime experience. I’m sure I’ll see a lot of things I’m not used to. I don’t know a whole lot of Spanish and I’ve been preparing myself.
“My coach is Spanish. I’m going to have to understand how much he’s telling me. There’s only two non-Mexican players on each team. I’m sure my teammates won’t speak a whole lot of English. It’s going to be a completely different way of living.”
Despite living in a foreign country, with limited ability to communicate verbally, Sample is willing to submerse himself into a new culture and way of playing so someday, his agent will call him and tell him the next level awaits.
Just exactly what that next level is, Sample said, isn’t certain.
“If I play well, I have a good opportunity to play somewhere else,” he said. “The whole time I’m down there, I will connect with as many people as I can. I’m going to stick out like a sore thumb but it’s all going to be all business for me. I’m going to try and enjoy it and experience the city and travel.”
Speaking of basketball, the prep season gets underway this week and the Leader will begin previewing the 24 boys and girls teams in the county. The Crystal City boys lost to Valle Catholic in last season’s Class 2 sectionals. The Hornets were the only boys or girls team from the county to win a district title in 2021.