It was 2019, and I was the basketball coach for a charter high school in the city of Rochester. Our team, like the school itself, was composed of 100% African American and Latinx student athletes. For the majority of the season, we traveled around playing teams within the city and surrounding suburbs, but when the bracket came out for sectionals, we found ourselves on the precipice of a nearly two hour bus ride to New York's rural Southern Tier.
As we traveled further and further away from Rochester, the scenery outside quickly changed from urban highways to winding backroads that passed through small town after small town. Like the scenery, the emotions within the bus changed as well. Starting off, there was a healthy mix of quiet focus and light hearted jokes amongst the players as they head to what was the biggest game in their lives. As we passed more and more house that look like this...
...the mood began to shift, as almost an uneasy fell amongst the boys. Being of high school age, these boys were very aware of the political climate and how their lives have been affected by it. I could tell that some thought that these sign displays were amusing while others seemed shaken by it. Needless to say, we eventually arrived at the High School, ready to take on our opponent in sectionals. Their coaches were all white, their players were all white, and their fans were all white.
We won that game, pretty handily, but that's not the point here. Our star player had the best game of his career up until that point, but that's not entirely relevant to this story either. Throughout that game, our star player, and other players were subjected to a number for racial slurs and comments coming from 55 year old adult men and women who composed their cheering section. Calling fifteen and sixteen year old boys criminals and scum for simply playing a game of basketball. I could see it on their faces. Fear. Embarrassment. Shame. I spent more of my timeout and halftime speeches building back up their egos and reminding them to keep their composure rather than talking strategy to win the game that night, and when the final buzzer sounded, I immediately ran them into our locker room. We celebrated the win, but when the adrenaline wore off, we spent more time sitting their as a family talking. I answered a lot of hard questions that night, and gained a new perspective through those boy's eyes that I am forever grateful for. I prepped them one last time as we went to leave the safe haven that our locker room was, knowing we would pass more spectators on the way back to our bus. Then, something amazing happened.
Players from the other team were out there on the court with their friends and younger siblings. Most of the adults had cleared out at this point, besides a few coaches and school workers. A player on their team came over and apologized for their fans, for their school and for their community. The younger kids came over and asked our star player for an autograph and to show them some slam dunks. We stayed at that school for another twenty minutes or so knowing that we still had a two hour bus ride ahead of us. During those twenty minutes, race and ethnicity did not matter. It was kids with a basketball in a gym, smiling, laughing and bonding. After the negative experience our players had during the game, I could tell they needed this. And even more, I needed this. I needed to see that their was hope for our society, that our next generation can handle diversity better then the generation before them. Winning was the second best thing that happened that day, and it reminded me how basketball can be more than just a game.
Zachary this was a great story to read as a coach (football) myself. I too have experienced what amazing young men can do when faced with similar levels of adversity.
The private school on Long Island that I coach at has always been considered a "white school". Over the years, our program has become more diverse and, in many ways, has been responsible for the inclusion of more diversity in the school itself. Our players in the early years experienced negative comments from faculty or administrators for some students, for example, having longer and textured hair. This is a cultural identity for many of those students, and we as a staff had to go to war with our own administration to condemn these kinds of negative comments for not only the safety and wellbeing of our student athletes, but for the development of our culture and family within our locker room. It is very difficult to develop a strong culture when the people in charge above you are pulling the rope in the opposite direction. Thankfully our players saw our desire for change in the school, and rather than pin the football program to persisting issues inside the building, they recognized that our football family was ready to stand up to any injustice they encounter. This is an attitude that is instilled in all of our coaches and players, black, white, or anyone else. We adopted the term "Brotherhood" for our team the day this staff took over. It is printed on the back of our helmets and any piece of clothing the players receive. We hope to live that word out in everything we do as a team.
It is fantastic to read that your leadership has led your program to be the same way. I cannot imagine the joy and pride you must have taken in your team when they humbly and graciously loved on and accepted the same group of people that projected hate on to them just a few moments before. Moments like that remind us of why we do what we do. Thank you for sharing this story, and keep on molding and developing fine young men. We need more coaches like you, and we need more players like the ones you have been blessed with.