The Eagles Fly

Just Thinkin*

This past week, still in the blurry eyed aftermath of Super Bowl Sunday I caught a glimpse of a tease on a local television station for a sports segment about the Kinta Lady Eagles. Say something about any small rural school and my ears perk right up.

That night I listened to a well-con- 1 1 1 T U i »

structed sports piece about the Kinta girls’ basketball team. Most often such sports stories involve teams with very few losses. That was not the case here. Now the Kinta Lady Eagles did have very few of something. Players. The team only has 5 players.

Five. A number that makes scrimmaging a challenge. An odd number makes pairing up for drills difficult. You adjust.

Five. Have just one player foul out and you have a problem. You might not be out talented but you are clearly out numbered. You adjust.

Five. You picked up that 5th foul. You feel discouraged. You feel that way right up until your teammates embrace you. You take a seat on the bench and do the one thing you can still do. You cheer, you encourage them and you pull them home. You adjust.

Five. As a player, perhaps you get tired in the 4th quarter. You’re bent over clutching the bottom of your game shorts and reaching for air, you see your teammate’s questioning look, you reach down inside and you adjust.

I have often expressed my belief that athletics provides students with experiences that prepare them for life, for life’s challenges. You can’t play cards you are not dealt. You adjust. If the goal is to teach girls the game of basketball a few more team members would be helpful. I proport that the goal is teach all the life skills we can teach in a given set of circumstances. We teach them to adjust. I feel I must tip my hat to Coach Clay Conley of the Lady Eagles. I need to believe that somehow, he is learning and teaching these young ladies to play the cards their dealt, to adjust. And basketball.

At this point, I took my coke, my cup of ice and some peanuts to the back porch. Yes, I’m going to say something about the fizz that comes as I pour the coke over the ice. Why? Because I always notice. It is not spring yet, there are no flowers in the beds or pots, but the rabbits and the squirrels are out and active. I like our back porch.

I ponder the outcomes of some of my own adjustments. Over my lifetime, I have made a number of adjustments that just didn’t work I like to believe that following a breath of discouragement, I tried something else. Like the Lady Eagles, I honed part of my adjustment skills in that old WPA gym in Stigler, Oklahoma. I believe that.

I think the Philadelphia Eagles might be grounded for now but the Kinta Lady Eagles are flying – flying right off into life, better women for their season.

Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.

–

Marcus Aurelius

Hal McBride writes a column, Just Thinkin’, published each week.