William & Mary

IT’S TIME FOR AMERICANS TO FIGHT BACK

I played and then coached basketball for over 50 years.

I am not one who believes that sports = life. Basketball is just a game. But sports at least resemble life, and sometimes they provide lessons which are valuable in life.

Most of the teams I coached were very good, but that was not always so.

My last year, when I thought I was done coaching, the local high school lost one of its coaches and had no one to step in. So they asked me to do so.

This team was not good. From the first game, it was apparent that a winning record was out of the question. They were small and generally unskilled. And almost all of them came from dysfunctional families. Without going into detail about their lives, suffice it to say that none of them experienced life as a win, or even an even playing field. I will admit that, having come from a more advantaged background and having experienced a fair number of wins in my life, it took me a while to develop an understanding of the kids.

Halfway through the season and having lost most of their games, the boys had largely given up on themselves. Losing and being demeaned for losing were par for the course for them. They expected nothing else.

About that point in the season, we had an away game against a team from a tough mining town, which raised its kids…