Bloomquist wants big senior year for himself and his dad — his coach
By Michael Ashford
Friday, November 30, 2007
Ever since he first slipped into an Emporia High jersey as a freshman three seasons ago, all eyes were on Caydrick Bloomquist.
At first, the attention didn’t stem from his technically beautiful jumpshot, or the fact that he could swish 3-pointers with the best to have ever played at EHS.
No, the spotlight shone on Caydrick Bloomquist at first because of his last name.
Caydrick is a coach’s son. His father, Rick, has been the head coach at Emporia High since 1981.
And like most coach’s sons, Caydrick had to deal with the public perception that followed.
“The biggest thing for Cayd is handling the scrutiny that comes with being the coach’s son,” Rick said. “He handles that so well. It’s unbelievable.”
Perhaps the best evidence that Caydrick has shouldered the expectations — and the criticism — of being a coach’s son is the fact that he has starred as a player under his father.
The 6-foot senior guard made a school-record 77 3-pointers as a sophomore during the 2005-06 season, and followed that with 66 more three-point makes last season. With 143 career 3-pointers, he is just 16 off the career record of 159 set by Wes Book from 2000-04.
Caydrick has led the Spartans in scoring each of the past two seasons, averaging 15.5 points as a sophomore and 16.4 points as a junior, and was named second-team All-State in Class 5A despite often being the primary focus for the Spartans’ opponents’ defensive gameplans.
But for all his lofty individual statistics, heading into his final year as a Spartan, Caydrick doesn’t want to talk about himself.
Instead, he makes two things very clear: He wants his team to win, and he wants to win for his father.
“It’s my last year with my dad ... and that makes it just that much more special,” Caydrick said. “I won’t get to play for him again, and I just want to make the best of it, not just for me, but mostly for him.
“But what’s best for the team is what’s best for me. I’m just happy if we’re winning.”
•••
Caydrick Bloomquist feels most at ease when he has a basketball in his hand.
“I put my heart and soul into basketball,” Caydrick said. “They always have that saying ‘eat, sleep and breathe basketball,’ and that can be an exaggeration sometimes. But I think there are people out there like that, and I would like to classify myself as one of them. That’s all I do is basketball. I have little side stuff, but 24-7, I think about basketball. It’s my first love.
“If I wasn’t playing, I don’t know that I’d be real happy right now.”
His father instilled in him a passion for the sport at an early age. The two used to sit and watch their favorite player, Larry Bird, do his thing for the Boston Celtics. Rick’s love of basketball trickled down to his son, and it formed a bond between the two.
“Away from the court, he’s definitely one of those hard-core fathers who loves to watch their son play and loves the game of basketball,” Caydrick said.
As he grew older, Caydrick’s love of the sport grew in his own way. He developed an adoration for Steve Nash after watching him play with the Dallas Mavericks several years ago. Caydrick says he likes to mimic his game after Nash’s, saying, “I just love watching the guy play — everything he does.”
But he also took up other hobbies. That “side stuff” he talks about, those little hobbies? Well, he’s pretty good at those too.
Caydrick is a State-caliber pole vaulter for the EHS track and field team, finishing second at the State meet a year ago with a school-record clearance of 15 feet.
Unknown to many, though, is Caydrick’s love of art. He feels almost as much at ease with a paint brush in his hand as he does when he’s dribbling a basketball.
“I love art. I have a passion for it,” Caydrick said. “That’s just a neat little hobby to take my mind off of things.
“I’m a big-time painter and drawer. I just love oil painting. It’s something you can do for the rest of your life. It’s always good to have something like that. Any kind of hobby like that.”
In much the same way that he creates works of art with a canvas and a paintbrush, Caydrick can be downright masterful on the basketball court.
At no time was this more evident than Emporia High’s game at top-ranked Highland Park last season.
Caydrick scored 13 points in the third quarter against the Scots — who went on to win the Class 5A State title with an undefeated season — on a variety of deep 3-pointers and driving layups. His efforts nearly brought the Spartans back from a deep halftime deficit, and his performance was enough to make the Highland Park fans in the stands applaud him once the quarter ended.
“When he gets to where he’s in rhythm, he can be special to watch,” Rick said. “When he has a good look, from a coaching point of view, he’s probably got as nice a jump shot as you’re going to see on the high school level.”
•••
Rick Bloomquist knew that as soon as his son, Caydrick, put on an Emporia High jersey, he’d have to deal with nearly supernova-intense scrutiny.
Caydrick at times has had to block out the accusations that he has been given free reign to shoot as often as he wants because his father is the coach.
But Rick is quick to point out that the most shots Caydrick has taken in a season was 268, which came last year. By comparision, Quentin Coffman took a whopping 329 shots during the 1994-95 season, and Bret Wise went over the 300-shot plateau in two different seasons.
“My shooters shoot. That’s the way it is,” Rick said. “My shooters shoot, my rebounders rebound and my role players play.”
But perhaps Rick didn’t expect his son to heap even more pressure on himself because his father is the coach.
“He shouldn’t be this way, but I think Cayd wants so badly to not only make his team good, but he wants to make sure that there’s less stress for me,” Rick said. “I know he doesn’t want to let me down. I wish he would get away from that sometimes, because I’ll be OK as long as he works hard.”
Most outsiders also don’t realize that simply working hard can have a draining effect on Caydrick’s body, more so than most players. Caydrick has battled asthma nearly his entire life, and before the start of his junior year at EHS, he was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, an intestinal disorder that can cause pain and swelling, among other things. The cause for the disease is unknown.
But Caydrick won’t let it be an excuse.
“I just had to condition myself better,” Caydrick said. “When you’re feeling good and everything’s going good and you’re body is feeling perfect, then you feel really great. When you hit that point and you’re not feeling good because of your Crohn’s, you can definitely feel it. There’s no ‘I can get through this.’ You just have to play through it.”
Besides, letting those things slow him down would not allow him to enjoy being a player for his dad the coach.
“It’s fun because you can go home and talk about things other people can’t with your coach,” Caydrick said. “It’s pretty amazing, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
Which is more than his coach — and father — could ever expect out of him.
“There’s a lot of things I expect out of him, and sometimes I expect too much. I’m also his biggest critic,” Rick said. “But I don’t have to worry about him staying out late, I don’t have to worry about him doing drugs, I don’t have to worry about him doing his homework, I don’t have to worry about him coming to the gym.
“He works so hard in this gym by himself, and he doesn’t talk about it. He’ll never boast about it or say, ‘This is what I do.’
“In that aspect, I’m proud of him, just because of the type of kid that he is. He’s been a wonderful son.”