MCPHERSON ? She is listed as a freshman forward from McPherson, and that’s her near the end of the bench in her warmup jersey.

She doesn’t play much for the McPherson College varsity. Like most freshmen on a team deep with talent, this will be a season spent honing her skills on the JV squad, a role she happily accepts.

She is Amy George, 31, mother of three.

Now, right here is where you put the newspaper down, go to the video store, rent “Peggy Sue Got Married,” and get yourself in the proper frame of mind to continue this story.

Thirteen years ago, Amy George played in front of the same fans as Amy Wiggins, a forward for McPherson High.

She was an All-Ark Valley League selection and an honorable mention all-state pick.

Amy Wiggins was good enough to get a scholarship offer from a college in Illinois after she graduated in 1989. Instead, she went to Arizona.

“It was one of those ’18-years-old-and-know-everything’ decisions,” she says.

In Arizona, she met her future husband, married him, became Amy George, had three sons and settled into family life.

She didn’t pick up a basketball for the next decade.

A return to the court

McPherson College freshman basketball player Amy George, 31, talks with her sons Preston, front, and Carson, back, during practice in the college's gym. The boys have a rule that they aren't supposed to bother mom while she's in practice, but sometimes she has to settle disputes.

When their marriage broke up, she returned to McPherson with the kids, moved back into the farmhouse in which she grew up, and accepted an offer from McPherson College women’s coach Mel Wright to become his assistant.

So, yes, she is now playing with, and behind, the players she coached last year.

Sometimes they still slip up and call her “Coach.” Sometimes they call her “Grandma.” Otherwise they treat her as just another freshman.

“They don’t cut me any slack. They don’t baby me in any way,” George said.

She didn’t plan on playing again after taking the coaching job. That didn’t happen until she tore up a knee last season and found herself shooting baskets with the rest of the team as part of her rehab. It re-ignited her passion for basketball.

Injuries haven’t discouraged her from trying to rejuvenate her basketball career.

“I know I still have something to add to the game, to add to the team. I know that in my heart of hearts,” she said. “I know my work ethic, and I know that if I didn’t have that passion to be out there, there’s enough other things that take up time in my life that are very, very important, as well.”

Such as her sons ” Carson, 4, Coleman, 6, and Preston, 7.

Every morning, George wakes up at 5:30, wakes the boys to say hello or good-bye, depending on whether she has a baby-sitter lined up, and heads to practice. Sometimes she takes her sons with her. She sets them up in a classroom and lets them watch cartoons on a TV.

Carson is the only one not in school, so he hangs out at the gym until practice is over, then eat with his mom afterward.

Teammates and other students at the college help watch her kids, she said, and her stepfather and mother, Mike and Margaret Krehbiel, provide invaluable assistance.

She picks up her other sons from school in the afternoon, and the family is back together for supper, homework and housekeeping.

George finally gets around to studying for her own classes after the kids are in bed.

She is taking a full load of classes as a sports psychology major and has a 3.6 grade-point average.

It’s coming back

George says she can feel her basketball skills returning slowly.

“It’s the funniest thing. It’s also the most frustrating thing,” she said. “Instincts come back; I’ll make passes that I can remember making back then, and I’ll make shots I can remember making, and it feels so good. Then I can turn right around and make a stupid pass.”

Wright thinks she can help his team down the road.

“The main reason I think she can help us is she’s the first one on the floor every day and absolutely the last one to leave. She never misses a chance to get in the gym,” he said.

He also likes the fact that his former assistant coach is so coachable.

“If we’re running a drill, she runs it exactly the way we say,” Wright said. “That’s maturity.”

Wright thinks it will take a year for George to regain her former quickness and speed from knee surgery. He expects her to be at full strength by next fall.

George says she’s making incremental improvement, and she is excited about where she might be by as early as January.

Meanwhile, she enjoys it when people in the community come up to her and tell her they look forward to watching her play again. Her new last name throws some of them, but they remember her from high school.

She also likes talking to women about dreams deferred, about following passions and making commitments and sacrifices.

“It’ s amazing what doors this opens up,” George said. “You can really bond with people, and with younger girls.”

“Whether they listen or not is a totally different story,” she says, smiling, “but at least I can have a few opportunities, and that’s a blessing in itself.”