Joe Auer, then a 23-year-old assistant coach at Heights High, prepared for a strategic basketball conversation with the gentleman who approached him. What insight, Auer wondered, might he learn from this stranger in the hallway in the moments after a Heights-South game?
“This gentleman comes up and shakes my hand, and the advice he’s offering me is: ‘You want to make sure these kids get better tomorrow and you want to make sure they’re going to listen to you?’ ” Auer recalls. “I said ‘I’m sorry, I’m Joe Auer.’ He said, ‘I’m Linwood Sexton, and the key is make sure they get something to eat.