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2.08.2006
...is playing with the black guys.
peter hurley gave me a heads up to bring my game sunday night. "the basketball players at the super bowl party are 90% black," he said.
he was right - as i walked in the door, the courts were in full use by ballers from varina, henrico, and (gasp) highland springs. it was chill shooting around and what not. then, out of nowhere, "you guys are captains."
the guy was talking about me and a-row...captains...the token white kids...
well i picked my team, and a-row picked his team. despite falling behind 7-0 early on, my team pulled out an 11-9 victoy and held the court. these guys aren't that great, i thought to myself. but oh how sadly i was mistaken...
the next game started. "that team is stacked," someone yelled from the sideline about the opposition. i rebounded a missed shot...regular routine play. ho hum. STOLEN! my mistake was putting the ball on the floor to dribble -- i quickly learned that's a no-no.
i also learned that you have to go strong to the basket on lay-ups unless you want the &%#@ stuffed out of you. and that you can't dawdle on offense or wait for a play to happen by itself - you must create the play. and that you must box out if you hope to rebound.
needless to say, the first game was a disaster. the score is irrelevant. after that game, a-row and i watched the super bowl (a little) and ate some food. we realized how innercity kids play at such a higher level compared to us white boys in hanover. if you're exposed to that style of play constantly, there's no way you won't adapt to the speed and intensity.
we returned to the basketball court.
the team from before was still playing because they had not lost yet. for about the next hour, we proved ourselves as decent ballplayers. we knew what to expect going in that time, so we were at least a little more ready for it. we still weren't playing at the same high-paced level as the black guys, but we were keeping up decently. i made a few jumpers, and a-row made some layups. some of the guys even asked us what school we played for.
the best part, though, was when a black girl came up to us and asked us who we were. "i'm cheering for you, and i don't want to keep saying 'go white boy!'"
there is no question about it - the way to get better at basketball is to play with the black guys.
1.29.2006
i'd been dreaminnnnnng of the colts versus a mediocre NFC team. cmon, it'd be fun for peyton & the boys to demonstrate the AFC's dominance over the NFC on the most national of scales.
nope, s'aint happenin. at the time, i wasn't disappointed when the steelers upended the colts; i actually rooted for pittsburgh cause i'm a fan of big ben. but now we have a steelers-seahawks "super" bowl, and i'm just not excited.
when i think about it, i'm not sure who would've sparked my interest from the NFC. the panthers, giants, bears, redskins, and even the seahawks define mediocrity despite their decent records. overall records can be deceiving, though - go look at those teams' records against AFC teams. they got spanked again and again. and it wasn't just one of them - all of them had horrible records against the real conference.
no, it's not the seahawks that disappoint - they are the best team out of that subpar conference. it's the AFC representative that fails to satisfy. not to take anything away from the steelers - they had a solid season capped off with an unbelievable postseason. it's the fact that the colts, who completely owned every team they played in the regular season (including winning against the patriots who gave them fits in past years and then handily beating the steelers who are now in the super bowl), are not in the championship game.
the funny thing is, i've been more crazy about the nfl this season than ever before, but i'm going with a-row to a church that sunday night to play basketball and what not - the game as an afterthought.
1.23.2006
to quickly sum up a recent conversation between g-s and me, i need to be a better leader for the newspaper.
i'm too easygoing. too lax. inauthoritative. unrespected. lacking.
up to that point, i had never sat back and analyzed my situation - i have a close group of friends that don't take me seriously because of my usually casual, joking manner, i have an editor who feels completely alienated and disrespected, i have another editor who disregards anything i say as bullshit, and i have a helluva lot of idle reporters segregated from the paper-making process.
i found my placid manner was causing me problems; instead of demanding something be done, i pleadingly asked if it could be done, "please."
the staff seemed disturbingly unperturbed when missing deadlines by days, why? because there was no point if i didn't enforce a consequence.
g-s' stressed message throughout our man-to-man chat was to be unafraid of being forceful with my peers - that i shouldn't worry about hurting people's (especially my friends') feelings when telling them to do something.
i don't take g-s' advice lightly, either. he has been the most influential teacher i've had, so his opinion is valued.
with that in mind, i decided that it's necessary to demand respect in that class, even if that means acting like a dick every once in a while. to make a random and unneeded government reference, i need to be a dominant federal government with control over lesser states.
to kick off this new era in handling my position, i yelled for everyone's attention to order that all pages be completed and printed off by 2:45 to allow for proofreading. "this paper is going out today." it felt good; i like control.
at first, i felt a tad stupid for demanding such a deadline knowing that many of the pages were in no way, shape, or form close to completion.
somehow though, when the clock ticked 2:45, i was distributing four of the six sections of the paper to proofreaders to make corrections to - the other two sections had understandably extenuating circumstances. success!
i think i've always been afraid of seeming out of character as a demanding managing editor, but i've realized it's my right, and more importantly my duty, to be the guiding force of "the hawk eye," and i'm ready to tackle that role.
1.22.2006
my hanover youth basketball team got completely handled today by a team that had no real star - they didn't have someone who could shoot the rock like JJ or someone with the inside finesse game of a shelden williams (sorry, duke bias haha). what they did have, though, were seven active players.
seven doesn't sound like too many guys on a basketball team when you see high school teams with upwards of twelve guys suited up on their bench. seven really isn't all that much in hanover youth either, but it seemed like an unfair advantage to my undermanned team of five today.
don't get the wrong idea - my team isn't always without reserves. we have seven usuals that show up most of the time for the game or two each weekend. today, however, we just had enough to field a starting five. the two no-shows had other things that somehow took precedence to our all-important rec basketball game, but that's beyond my comprehension (kidding).
with no subs on the bench to keep the five on the floor upbeat and fresh, my exhausted team crumbled in the middle of the second half. we didn't give up, we just ran out of fuel. our need for those two no-shows was surely apparent today. no, make that three no-shows; our original team had eight guys.
see, we had this guy named brandon. he didn't seem like anything too special during practice and gave me the classic "i'm having such a bad day" excuse when he missed some 3's, but he proved himself as a solid player that knew his role as point guard during games.
it turns out he starts for the lee-davis varisty team. i know, they haven't won a game yet this year, but so what? he starts for a AAA varsity basketball team, which is saying something.
anyways, with brandon handling the point during the first couple games in december, our team was very efficient on offense, and brandon's dribbling ability allowed him to singlehandedly break any press with ease.
a few weeks ago, though, brandon just didn't show up. simply put, the result was disastrous - when there was any ball pressure, our makeshift point guards coughed up the ball in a matter of seconds, which led to many easy layup opportunities for the already-stacked cavaliers. worse still, we had no rhythm or flow on offense; we had lost our leader. our spark. our catalyst.
after receiving a solid whooping at the hands of the cavs, my dad suggested i call brandon and tell him how much he meant to the team, but other things got in the way and distracted me. for the next couple games without him, we began to cope with his absence and got used to a new point guard. then, yesterday, i saw brandon shooting around at lee-davis where our games our held. he wasn't suited up for our game, though; he was wearing L-D apparel.
"hey man"
"hey, how ya been?"
"doin good man, where ya been?"
"the lee-davis coach won't let me play hanover youth anymore cause he's afraid i'll get injured"
i had figured that was the case since i remembered atlee having a similar policy, but i just don't agree with the rule.
first off, why are you going to stop a kid from playing a sport he loves? i could understand a basketball coach demanding that the high school team take precedence over the hanover youth team if a conflict arose over scheduling, but the high school teams don't play on the weekends when HYBL is. i could also agree with a high school coach not letting players play other sports that could result in an injury, but that isn't the case here - brandon just wants to play more basketball.
this coach isn't letting his basketball players play in other recreational basketball games. why? because he's paranoid about a player getting injured. buddy, if anything is apparent from watching a HYBL game, it's that these games are NOT played at the same level of intensity as high school games. the risk is very slim that a player will get injured in this considerably more laidback situation.
even if the risk was there, how can you bring yourself to stop kids from kids voluntarily improving their basketball skills? if they want to play, let them play.
hold on a sec - did anyone else see what happened to the indianapolis colts last week? they got absolutely hammered by a wild card team in their first playoff game, and resting their starters toward the end of the season probably had something to do with it. instead of going for the perfect season, going all-out, going their hardest, the colts played the last three games hesitantly, afraid of injuries despite the impeccable health of their players throughout the season.
starting the season 13-0, the colts finished off their season by losing three out of the last four games, due largely in part to resting their supposedly injury-prone stars. instead of finishing the season with a bang and therefore maintaining the momentum they had built up over thirteen straight weeks of winning, they decided to play it safe at the end, which showed in their embarrassing loss in the playoffs. they couldn't turn the switch back on to play their hardest.
the colts proved that you can't hold back - sometimes risking what you have now will pay off later. don't get me wrong, sometimes it'll backfire, but playing it safe and conservatively will only result in mediocrity.
sometimes you just gotta say, "carpe diem, go for it." we sure could use you brandon.
1.21.2006
i used to despise literature. i didnt just dislike it or roll my eyes when i was forced to read it in class; i despised it.
so it was just my luck last year when ms. bibb bombarded us with reading assignments on thoreau, emerson, and the rest of those ridiculous romantics. i remember it well when trevor, chad, matt rodriguez, and i had to draw and depict our very own utopia - we ended up making a joke out of the assignment with a rough sketch of jamaica that was inhabited by talking seals and little buddhas.
it wasn't that i didn't appreciate the artistic approach that these so-called great writers took. i just didn't grasp the point of what they wrote, and i found it painfully excruciating when trying to understand their hidden messages that were illustrated through imagery and nature. plus, when you're being cynical about it like i was and are looking for every possible opportunity to criticize it, the stuff is dreadfully boring.
in my mind, these guys were pseudo-genuises. they got so much credit and for what? all they did was write down any vague idea that popped into their minds as long as it wasn't explicit in the slightest, in order to leave everything up for interpretation.
i think that's what bothered me most - it was so much different from what i was used to. i had never been exposed to real literature until then. harry potter, agatha christy mysteries, and other more modern novels had always dominated my bookshelf. not to take anything away from these great books, but they aren't as open-ended or intellectual as an emerson work. they are what they are: entertaining novels that feature straightforward plots that are easily understood.
fastforward to now.
i'm intrigued by writers like the famous romantics. a complete 180 from 12 months ago. an illegal u-turn on 301. i feel like a different person. last year i could've given a rat's ass about that exaggerated, blown-out-of-proportion bullshit. now, though, i'm trying to get my hands on these great works of art. i've grown to appreciate how smart these guys really were, and i believe they actually might have known what they were talking about.
the transition didn't occur immediately, and it most certainly did not happen in room 2103 last year. really, i don't know when it happened, but i do know this - tonight put some things in perspective for me about how i've changed in the past year.
i was flipping through channels after my basketball game and came across "the dead poet's society" on the drama station. my mom recommended it saying she had seen it a long time ago and liked it. it starred robin williams, a young matt damon, and a jim carrey lookalike, so i gave it a shot.
the movie centers around seven high schooler's love for romanticism. the group meets in a small cave to read together and think about the ideas the writings contained. you're saying wow, whoopdeefreakindoo, but i think something like that would be amazing.
my goal for the upcoming week is to read a piece of work from the romantic era once each day. who knows what they'll seem like now or, more importantly, say now with a different outlook? hell, maybe i'll even try to organize a dead poet's society?
