BASKETBALL MAUI

Basketball and Maui never had a connection for me prior to this year. I showed up on the island last year in 2010 and was just glad to be in the 808 area code. But this year the entity known as Basketball Maui took on an identity through the young people it attempts to serve. When you peel back the layers of mesmerizing scenery, there is dysfunction and sadness that stems back to long before Hawaii was one of these United States. Here, for reasons unknown to me, high school graduation rates are in the 50 percent range. This statistic reeks. But all that aside, I use basketball to teach character because basketball is fun even when it doesn’t have to do with sill mastery.

I picked up on this truth today as I coached a group of girls who just joined camp today. They play for Lahaina Luna High School and they were laughing, eating, playing hard and contending on every possession during the tournament. There was another young girl named Taylor who had come on vacation to the camp. She was there most of the time but at other times she was with mom and dad seeing the sights and experiencing island culture. A kid named John has been at camp everyday and keeps asking me for my shoes while another kid, a mainland transplant, dislocated his shoulder momentarily. All walks represented myriad facets of what it means to be a teen. And of course that took me somewhere else – to a realization that there’s more to life than basketball though basketball is likely the best means by which I could ever hope to learn about who I am. I don’t think I still think of basketball as an end-all but when you see the vast array of kids with their problems, obstacles, fears and the like you see into their soul. They’re no longer merely human. They are complex organisms who constantly think, feel and cope with their reality. They’re in motion every second and yet still impressionable, still hopeful and frighteningly transparent.

Today was a good day and largely because I do feel some validation when kids respond to compassion. Who wouldn’t feel better after young athletes have spent all day in a gym sprinting, lining up, self-correcting, sliding in their defensive stance, etc. Plus my friend Joe brought his little girl Faith (6 years old) today and for no reason at all this afternoon, she just came over and gave me a hug.