nt If You Doubt i fa

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RICK SHOT ARTIST CONFIDES

it other places,” Willie recounts.

So from simple free throwing
(50 straight and easy stuff like
that), Willie began to move into
the trick shot field, closing his
eyes, bouncing the ball, forward
passing it from 40 to 60 feet.
And, ladies and gentlemen,
Willie’s latest. favorite to knock

you back off the bleachers is

his drop kick.

Willie will tell you, very
proudly, that he has a repertoire
of at least 90 different shots
and it’s remarkable how well he
performs them.

“Sometimes I don’t believe it
_myself, the way I make my
: shots,” Willie will tell you. “T
‘ guess it’s just some sixth sense
i that does it.”

Willie used to be bothered a
_ bit when he had an off-night but ,
» that’s. all in the past now.

' “You know if I missed a shot
_ that was kind of hard to do l’d
_ skip it—or if I was having a
‘little trouble ‘on my easy ones
I wouldn’t try the hard ones

because I figured I was due for

ing things nobody will believe...

an off night. But then I told

myself those people watching~™
would think I couldn’t do the
hard ones and so I just decided
to show them I could.”

<

“You've got to have confidence. -

in yourself. Sometimes I’m so

sure of myself I don’t know how ~ :

I get that way. Once I made
my football pass from 60 feet
and it went in and out. But I
can’t let it bother me like I

thought I had a tough break or
I just ©

hard luck, you know.

say, Willie, you didn’t- do that f
right by you will this time. And~ —
I step into position and I make :

it:
Sometimes I walk off while the

ball is in the air—I know it’s es }

going in.”

Well, Willie has been showing _
‘em his stuff at 180 high schools .
in the state, 90 in Indiana, 60 |

It must be a sixth sense.”

+

in Illinois, dozens in Wisconsin, é
Ohio, Michigan, Kansas, Utah, .

California, Missouri and Ken-_.

£

tucky during his 13-year career,

He’s in a comeback now, says. :
Willie, and getting better every. -

performance.

‘TT haven’t .

reached my peak yet, I’m always —

getting better,” Willie confides. .

igs

He’s aiming at a chance to show ..
‘em in Ohio at the Cleveland —

-American-Canadian sportsmen’s _

show in March, and his sched- —
ule runs five to 10 shows a .

week now.

At 32, Willie figures he’s just

coming into his own.

“It’s re-. 2

markable how I can do some of. .

these things,” says Willie. After _
10 months in the army (he was.
discharged for disability) Hetzel |
is back in the swing again do-.-
he can do.

There’s no limit to his accom-.

5

ae
Cn
ay

plishments, Willie will tell you, —
if somebody will only doubt his ..

ability, a

or.