Light/Breezes

Light/Breezes
SUNRISE AT DEATH VALLEY-Photo by Tom Cochrun

Thursday, January 17, 2019

A Good Night in America

winners

      The hometown kids prevail and Jon Batiste wails. Good nights in the US.



  
    High tides, driving rain, breaks of sun play. Victories too.

 game night
  Game night, school night is a good night in America.
   It is the rhythm and soul of our collective dream, the sweat and the lessons of life. It is sweetness, pure and simple from large urban field houses to small village gyms.
    That is especially so in a school like Coast Union in Cambria with an enrollment under 250 kids.
    I am almost religious about basketball. It's in my DNA and has been a constant dream since I learned to dribble in grade school. I love the game and I love to see kids also love the game. That is especially so here, for sure.

   I'm watching a classic basketball scenario run before my eyes here on the California Central coach.  It seems only a couple of years ago Coach Gehrig Kniffen was the floor captain of his scrappy Broncos team. He played with heart and a court sense. Now he's teaching the love of the game to his team.
   They're not big. One of the kid's mom tells me only 3 or 4 of the boys were basketball players. The rest of the kids grew up on soccer.
   Coach Kniffen has done well. The team plays smart, they spread the floor, they move the ball, work for a shot and show a tenacity and drive. 
    In this gym on this night the game was see saw, tight with heart and soul pushing up and down the court. Parents and friends were enthralled and entertained. On this night the hometown Broncos gained a well deserved victory. And on this night in America winners and losers met as good sports.
Orcutt would have a ride home, considering those few plays, those missed opportunities that could have made the difference. The Coast Union Broncos would give the new coach another first season win. It is the way of the game, an American way.

    It is a game that is immensely personal to a boomer from Indiana. My life is measured in chapters of basketball.
    I got the love of the game from my dad who was a skilled and accomplished player who, were it not for WWII, probably  would have continued on in semi pro and eventually professional hoops.
    I'd practice ball handing and dribbling in the basement of our little Muncie house and clip newspaper articles of my beloved 1950's era Muncie Central Bearcats.
    In Indiana a kid plays basketball wherever and much as he can. I remember Jon Hilkene's old barn with a hard packed uneven dirt floor on half the court and uneven old planks around the hoop and free throw line. We used to shovel snow or chip ice from Tom Johnson's extra wide driveway that was bathed in a street light and well pointed night spots on the house. In the winter we had to wear gloves, which affected our shooting and in the summer, sweat soaked we'd swat at mosquitoes and gnats. Summer basketball camps where the smell of the gym was especially sweet from the wax. Playing between the Hackbee's and Lowen's on an uneven, sloping alley with hoops hanging on the backs of garages, stopping when trash trucks or cars drove by. 
    An Indiana kid dreams of wearing the school colors, but life and moves and broken bones and size can conspire against that "glory." But in Indiana a kid can play in community centers in the inner city with dazzling players and shake and bake moves, or in a legendary old hotel in industrial or AAU leagues with true one time stars, or in church leagues campaigning around the city in great old gyms, at the Y, in pick up games on hallowed field house floors.  
     Even in middle age and beyond an Indiana kid can play in the elbows for lunch bunch at the Y, or in "celebrity games" barnstorming around the state in hallowed old field houses and gyms, playing local all stars or faculty teams to raise money for schools, bands, charities and the like. 
     Game night in America is a good night. It is stepping into a slip stream of good nights that reach back to the beginning and flow forward with that sweet, sweet sound and smell and swish of a net.
   New Orleans virtuoso Jon Batiste, leader of the Stay Human band that is Steven Colbert's house band on CBS is a hoopster. He is also a dynamic and charismatic performer.
   After his recent piano concert in San Luis Obispo he lead
a "love march" out of the auditorium. Was he great? Look at the smile on that little guys face. If you ever get a chance to see him, don't miss it.  It is pure joy, love and energy.
    He said his concert is like sitting in his living room while he just plays around. That's a great thought.  So is spending some time in a gym with him, playing the great American game.

     See you down the trail.

17 comments:

  1. Gotta make it to a Broncos basketball game sometime. Invite me and we'll go together.

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    1. This Tuesday is a game vs Slo Academy for first place... at CUHS 6:30pm COME!!!

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    2. As Deb says Tuesday will be a good game. We have an evening meeting, but I may try to slip out early.

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  2. Must be tough being a Hossier fan! Go Blue.

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  3. I felt the same about playing hockey as a kid. My dad wasn't a player and knew nothing about the game. Our next door neighbor was a Navy vet, a railroad man and a semi pro goalie. Leo had three little girls and he appropriated me as his "son" so he'd have a hockey player. Leo taught me to skate, shoot, pass and the rules of the game. After I got my lower front teeth knocked out in a high school game, I drove over to Leo's house, took out my new bridge and gave him a big smile, he took out his and smiled back.

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    1. BTW, one of my high school team mates is still playing at 73. He refs high school and Jr hockey too. He says "he's lost a step". He played D1 hockey at Colorado College. 5 guys on our high school team got D1 scholarships. I wasn't one of them.

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    2. I learned to skate and tried to learn to play hockey in Ft. Wayne on a frozen reservoir. The ice was rough and by the time (6th grade) I was a novice, the players my age were way beyond my ability. We moved from Muncie and hockey was not on the agenda. It was all about hoops.

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  4. Rick, one of my favorite Michigan phrases is “the fab five!”

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  5. You did have a nice fading jump shot...

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    1. So good of you to remember. I think my vertical leap ain't what it used to be!

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  6. Glad you repaired your post. I couldn't think of what to tell you at first (and second) glance.

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    1. The format was glitchy and twitchy when I posted. Thinks were not functioning right. I turned it off and opened again and thought it was weird how long it was taking for pictures to load. I don't know what the problem was, but my apologies to you and everyone else who encountered the issues.

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  7. Tom
    Found this in the SFchron today, thought you'd be interested if you hadn't already seen it: https://blog.sfgate.com/storystudio/2019/01/15/highway-1-gem-cambria-sets-the-stage-for-a-magical-experience/

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    1. It was the focus of conversation at our lunch on Friday. It is nice not to be discovered.

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  8. Tom, I don't know if you are aware of your Indy high school's basketball exploits in recent times, but they just recently suffered their first defeat after a 46 game winning streak over the past two seasons. They won the state last year going undefeated, and for added measure, the girls' team also won the state in the same year. I remember that Warren Central was very strong, and won the County Tourney in our senior year, but I can't recall how far they went in the state tournament. They are clearly a perennial power in current times. We have season tickets now, along with my son and his family, for the Butler games, and every time I walk into that amazing facility that is Hinkle Fieldhouse, I can't help but go back to our high school days when the Indianapolis area schools actually suspended classes on Thursday afternoon at the beginning of the High School Sectional Tournament , so that everyone could go to The Fieldhouse and watch games. The place would be filled with, as I remember it, SRO crowds easily exceeding 10,000 screaming fans. I was fortunate enough to have gone to a new Indy high school, with a mediocre basketball team, which allowed me to be able to play and experience Indiana High School basketball first hand....and I honestly wouldn't trade those memories for anything! Very special times! Thanks for bringing those times to life again.

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    1. Kent-I followed their fortunes last year and was mighty proud. Winning both the boys and girls titles.
      Our senior year was a good year. We had the talents of Doug Winegar, Gunnar Janelsins, Willet Fischer Tom Sponcil as seniors and had an 18-6 record including the County Championship.
      You may recall your Arlington team beat the Warriors 66-57, but the next night Warren beat Howe and CW (Chuck Mundy) 59-56 in an overtime game at the Butler Fieldhouse.
      Virgil Kirkpatrick was good coach and had a talented team, aside from Gunars, Tom and Doug, there was Jim Horton and good underclassmen in Scoop Taylor, Jim Fuson, Craig Hawks, Larry Weatherald, Ed Clemmons, and John Woody Woodburn.
      We went three deep in the sectional, loosing to Attucks in the semi final.
      You are right about the Fieldhouse experience. 10 Thousand of us loving hoops and seeing some great Indiana basketball. Still thrilling to even think about it. And by the way, you were a fine, fine player. And a final note, after we won the County Championship, none other than our brother Terry Mohr led the conga line snake dance all around the parking lot and campus!

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  9. Tom, sorry to be so long in responding, but had to say that Arlington beating Warren that year was the absolute classic "trap game". Your last game had been your County Championship title game win, and your next game after us, was that Howe game. We were, at best, a 50/50 team, so I'm sure that it was easy to be riding high on the championship, and be looking forward to a good Howe team the next night. And thank you for your kind opinion of my play, but I'd have to say that you are being more than kind, in that, you happened to see probably the best all around game of my high school career. I couldn't shoot worth a damn, so I focused on defense if wanted to play. Doug came into that game leading the county in scoring at something like 25+ ppg, and I took it as a big challenge, and held him to 6. And interestingly, although I got to know Doug fairly well later through all of you Warren Central brothers, at least as I remember it, he and I never talked about it.

    It's also interesting to hear that Terry led the conga line after the county tourney win. It seems that I remember reading on this very blog, (or possibly hearing it at The Chill) that Terry also led a conga line at a gathering of brothers out your way in the past. Is that right, or is my age tricking me again?

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