About twenty years ago, we attended an AAU 'team meeting' for parents before the season started. Coaches Shawanda and Eric Brown held court in Dorchester, a section of Boston.
Their bold plan, split an established successful AAU team into two teams, integrating one. Not all the parents were in favor.
Shawanda explained that her intent was to get more exposure for all the players. She said something to the effect that during showcases, the team as comprised wasn't attracting as many coaches as an integrated team would. Adding suburban 'white girls' would make the team appear 'different' to coaches.
Some parents pushed back, saying that they didn't see why this was necessary. The sentiments clearly were not racist but directed to preserving the status quo.
Shawanda stood firm. "When your daughters play in college, the coach isn't going to care about your opinion." Another parent asked, "what if there are problems?" Eric, a Boston firefighter built like an NFL linebacker said, "there will be no problems." There weren't.
My daughters got one of the best basketball and life experiences imaginable that spring/summer of 2004. They played basketball at the AAU Nationals at Winston-Salem (Wake), at the Disney Center, in Pennsylvania, Richmond, DC, and elsewhere. They practiced with and against better players and sometimes against Dorchester boys. They got better, faster, and tougher. They and we made a lot of new friends where character not color dominated.
I introduced myself to a parent at a scrimmage. "Hi, I'm Ron." He replied, "I'm Ron, too." He had an enormous ring with an emerald stone. "That's quite a ring." He said, "you want to see it." "Sure." It read, "University of Miami Hall of Fame." I said, "You're Ronnie Lippett" (a former New England Patriots cornerback). He said, "And so I am."
That winter, some of the girls' teammates came to Melrose for a high school game against Belmont. My daughter Paula scored 28 points with 14 rebounds that night. That would never have happened without the Lady Dolphins, the Coaches Brown, and their teammates.
Shawanda and Eric Brown helped make that happen at that meeting that I'll never forget.
Lagniappe. Often, the quality of cutting separates success and failure.
Lagniappe 2. Sequential screens open up a 1-4 low BOB dunk.
