Rex to the Rescue: Basketball

The entire school is made up of African American and Latino students and teachers. Rex is the only white person on campus. The blacks and Latinos hate each other so it only follows that the black students make up the basketball team and the Latinos make up the soccer team. It is currently basketball season and, since Rex would rather not stare at the walls in his apartment, he shows his support by attending the games.

The first game was a home game, (held at a Boys and Girls Club since the school doesn't have a gym) where Rex was the only white face in the entire building. I was impressed to hear that none of the boys from his school got in the ref's face or physically assaulted any players from the opposing team. (Rex said only one of them got a technical foul, and it was at the end of the game.) Brazos beat the other team hands-down, but the fact that some of these high school kids are older than 18 might have something to do with it.

The second game was an away game somewhere close to Galveston. Once again, Rex was the only white guy, but he's probably used to that by now. (Actually, he said to me last weekend how weird it was to see so many white people in our neighborhood.) I don't know why they are surprised he attends the games. What else is he going to do when his family is 4 hours away? It sort of leaves him with no other alternative than to show team spirit. Just another point in his favor.

This game was a complete fiasco. The first dilemma was that the coach (Mr. Brotherton, the 8th grade teacher) was not there when the game was supposed to start and Mrs. Ferguson, the truancy officer couldn't get a hold of him because her cell phone was dead. When Rex arrived, he called Mr. Brotherton to find out his car had overheated 8 miles from the game and was waiting for a tow truck. So Rex drove out to pick up the uniforms and water cooler from him and came back to stand in as an assistant coach while Mrs. Ferguson pretended to be the coach. Since Rex was a man, naturally, the Ref thought he was the coach, but despite his height, Rex doesn't do basketball. But he did the best he could, and even gave the halftime pep-talk in the locker room. The whole game was a disaster as all his boys were angry and played poorly. Brazos got creamed. I was surprised to hear that even their advantage of age didn't help them, to which Rex reported that one of the spectators said at the end that she knew some of the guys on the opposing team and they had already graduated! (They are planning on making an inquiry about that.) To make matters worse, the ref made a lot of bad calls.

After the game, when parents were supposed to pick up their kids, one girl was left behind. I can't remember exactly but I think the mom finally showed up an hour after everyone else left or something like that, which meant that Rex and Mrs. Ferguson couldn't leave. And since Mr. Brotherton was also Mrs. Ferguson's ride home, Rex had to drive her home too (downtown Houston).

So even though the team lost, Rex still saved the day.