Missed Survivor For Something Better
Yesterday, I posted about my eagerness to watch Survivor last night.
Well, I missed it.
And I’m not even remotely upset about it. Because what I did see was a thousand times better.
My best friend, Robbie Hall, is in his first season as head coach of the Penn-Griffen Hawks, a local middle school basketball team. The Hawks were 0-3 going into last night’s game. Tip off was at 6:15. I figured I’d easily be home by 8.
I wasn’t.
You see, the game was an ESPN instant-classic. It went into double overtime (complete with two rimmed out buzzer-beating efforts) before deciding a winner.
Though it was the third game of the season, it was the first one I’d been able to attend, so it was my first chance to watch Robbie in action. And I wasn’t prepared for how proud I’d be when I got there: seeing him working the sidelines in his dress clothes, hollering out plays, studying his players movements on the court.
Now, I’ve been to a couple practices (serving as a horribly ineffectual scrimmage opponent for his team), so I’ve seen practice, but this was different (i.e. “practice? practice? we ain’t even talkin’ bout a game, we talkin’ bout practice…).
As I watched the game unfold, I remembered playing middle school basketball myself, how important I thought it was: how every game seemed life or death, how everything in middle school seemed life or death; and I knew instinctively that it felt the same for these kids, too.
And it occurred to me how right this all was, how these kids were going to be better people because of having someone like Robbie breathing love and support and encouragement and responsibility into their lives. (And trust me, many of these kids sorely need it.)
In the end, the Hawks lost by 6; but it certainly wasn’t for lack of effort. Most importantly, one could actually see these kids (the majority of whom have never, prior to now, played a day of organized basketball) beginning to buy into Robbie’s system.
For my part, I was able, for the first time, to watch my best friend, the boy I’ve known since I was eight, operating in his professional capacity. And it was just another reminder that we are both adults now, that while there will always be a part of me that feels like one of those middle school boys, that I am now a grown man who has to be responsible for more than turning in his homework.
I have a good friend who often blogs about life’s “moments,” about how they are typically small, everyday things that go uncelebrated. Well, yesterday I had my moment, and I’m not sorry at all that it took missing Survivor to witness it.
That being said, please don’t write to me telling me who was voted out… I have a friend with DVR who’s willing to let me come watch.
