Some of you may already know that we lost our Sports Editor, Wynton Thomason, last week. He decided he wanted to travel while he’s still young and that’s probably the best time to do it. We miss him and wish him well.
Finding his replacement has not been as easy as any of us were expecting it to be, so in the meantime my sister-in-law, Christine, is going to do the sports writing. In addition to being the author of two books, she has been a sports writer for both the El Paso Times and the Austin American-Statesman, so she knows what she’s doing. Me? Not so much.
On Tuesday night she needed some help with some statistics. She didn’t need any photos, just stats. I figured I could do that. She gave me a list of three things to find out: The final score of the JV boy’s game, the name of a softball player we needed to identify, and the stats from the varsity game. Easy peasy, right?
The first problem was that I had no clue where the new gym was in the new high school. I also found out that the new high school is 10 years old and I’m still calling it “the new high school.” I also call the junior high school on Bushdale Road “the new junior high school” which opened in 1979. Because I went to junior high in the three-story, un-air-conditioned building that has since been torn down, which used to be the old high school in my father’s day. It’s all too confusing I know.
Anyway, even though I had been to the new 10-year-old-high school several times I realized that I had never been to the gym. My friend, Vicky Kirk, told me where to park and that I couldn’t miss it. Sure enough there was a giant sign that said GYM ENTRANCE for first-timers like me.
Normally whenever I need to know something school-related I just call Debra Neal. She knows everything off the top of her head, every child by name, what sports they play, what extra curricular activities they are involved in, who their mama is…everything.
Well she wasn’t there that night, but I did see Brenda Gale Caffey Towns who had helped me out once before. I told her I needed to find out the softball player’s name. She rounded up every softball player she saw and I got Mariana Casares’ name. If you ever need a pack of kids rounded up Brenda is your girl.
The JV game was still going on when I got to the gym so I knew I could easily get the final score. It was so exciting! We only lost by 1 point but it was neck and neck the whole last quarter.
Then I met Donna Scruggs who let me take pictures of the little book she writes all the stats in so I had everything Christine needed. A very successful trip.
A few observations: benches without backs should never be a consideration when building a new gym. Period. Especially for 56-year-olds with a history of lower back issues.
If you want to have a lot of fun at a kid’s basketball game, I cannot recommend highly enough that you sit next to Mekhi Crawford’s super cute and stylish mom, O’Keshia. Trust me when I say the refs and the Lexington coach were no doubt talking about the petite Black woman whose voice you wouldn’t think could travel that far. It can. I, meanwhile, was having the best time I’ve ever had at a basketball game because of her. Highly recommended.
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