HOME AND AWAY

When the basketball season ended this year, I experienced legitimate grief. I am currently a high school boys basketball coach who used to be a girls high school basketball coach. I coach in the summers doing camps. I coach privately. Coaching has become more being than doing. But this year I lost my entire team when season ended because every single guy is a senior who graduates this June.

But here’s the dynamic I inherited as a result. Every Monday and Wednesday I open the gym up to any kid in our school’s population who is interested in basketball. At first the idea was more or less the “Open Tryout” model used in the 1970s at one point by the hapless Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League. There was a movie starring Mark Wahlberg called “Invincible” that featured that story. At any rate, what has materialized are two distinctive groups: #1 The Junior Varsity players who were already in the program (hosts) and #2 The International students who hail mostly from China (Guests). Altogether, there’s something like 18 guys who show up and what we’re doing is unprecedented…I think.

The hosts are the incumbents with the best chance of making the team because they know the system, the coaches and the goals, at least in part. The hosts also know the hill they have to climb given the vacuum created by the departure of 12 very skilled players. Normally you hope for a gradual progression and promotion and prefer it to trial by fire. But fire is what these hosts will get and as they move into a position where they now have to own the program, they have to decide who they need as allies, what they themselves need as character traits and what skills their mission will require.

The guests are glad the gym opens twice-a-week at 3 p.m. They bring a change of clothes in a department store bag and head to the restroom immediately following school. They then jump right into the drills ready to learn by sight and movement. They listen, watch and do what they can and I assume they’re having fun. Today was a day that I thought, “At what point do I separate, make cuts, hone down this 18 to ????” And then I was like, “Are you kidding? Why would you eliminate dudes who just want to play, are playing hard and are thousands of miles from home looking for a place to belong?” It dawned on me that these wealthy temporary immigrants are still young men trying to make sense of their own practical aspirations juxtaposed with an excitement about something as basic as basketball.

Maybe in a larger pond, the guests would be lost or seen as expendable. But today I saw an opportunity. What if I can get the hosts and the guests to affect one another via basketball for the strength of the program better yet for the betterment of their own development. Across any divide lies prejudices of all sorts. But I have two worlds on my doorstep represented by young guys who don’t pay rent or a mortgage. They ain’t got no reason to hate each other. And furthermore, if ever there was a workshop for the guests to practice their proclaimed commitments to Christian Faith this is it. The guests are curious and honest. Getting the two groups to interact would be impossible any other way except on a basketball court so now the challenge is to see if the hosts will do their roles justice. Will they view the guests as friends, threats, assets, etc. and will the guests view the hosts as intimidating, territorial, arrogant, etc.? I’m not sure about the existing perceptions but I think we’re on to something if I can get past basketball. There’s more here than figuring out how to replace my shooters, defenders and play makers. There’s some real shaping that can take place if I use Mondays and Wednesdays to cultivate and not simply eliminate.