I have always been a sports junkie. My mom got me into competitive swiming by the age of 7. I have had a long and nearly healthy career. I have also been a winner since I can remember but I did not have the luxury of the formal expencive training that some kids got, I got the public educational minimum and a lot of self diligence on my part. In highschool I was considered one of the schools top athletes. I recieved all kinds of awards including a few MVP's and I varsity lettered a 13 times for in four years of sports. My sports of choice were Cross Country, Swimming and Track and Field and also Water Polo for one year.
This year I am in my fifth year of college at a big time sports school UO. I have played on one intermural basketball team and I decided to organize another one this year with my friends from the Black Student Union. I have always been a part of Coed sports but I have never competed directly with women in an organized fashion so I thought that I would try it out this year. After some harrasment of a couple known ballers I rounded up the team you see in the picture, from left to right Sara, Hanible, Lexis, Me, Getachew, Kari, and Ashley. Our team name was Team Supreme. This was the team that I ended up learning a lot from individually and collectively.
The season started off quickly won our first two games decisively. I learned that my team mates had talent. Lexis was fearless and often got excited about gaurding or going up against guys. Ashley "big Mama" always stayed positive and had a lot of fun playing, she could consistantly hit those on the run jumpers from the corner. Sara had nice game, she ussually got a lot of steals but was sometimes to afraid to shoot though she hit the shots most of the time. Hanibal could take the ball in down low and use his hight or shoot from out side. Getachew was our team leader, he often drove to the hole and made nice passes though he turned the ball over a lot. Kari was often busi with school and politics and could not make the first two games but when she did play she had a lot of hustle and smiled when she got the ball, she also took some tough hits in the last game, including one from me (sorry). I was a mean guy when I played I imtimidated and defended hard I had a couple big scoring games also. Lexis must have been our leading scorer, no won could really contain her energy. Our team had won the first four games. We felt confident going into our last game and the playoff when we lost a close one. It was a hard loss, and it seemed to spill over to our next game also which we lost in the first game to playoffs. But despite the loss I was all smiles because I got to have fun with some people whom I would probably not have spent to much time with otherwise doing something positive. The sseason was over but not completely.
I have never really thought too deeply about gender and sports until ashley asked me an important question in one game. Girls can't gaurd men? That made me think about my own preconceptions about what womens roles in sports was all about, and why we live in such a devided world where women play seperately from men and often never compete against eachother. I had learned from that coed experience how to recognize each others strengths and to think about team basketball. How to have fun. How to learn from one another. How to keep people involved in the games. I wanted the experience to never end, but unfortunatley it did, we took this picture at the end of the season. May be this tradition will continue next year in the BSU, it sertainly was a healthy one rich with fun experiences. GO TEAM SUPREME!!