Women’s Basketball, Me???

I want to tell you about a remarkable young lady I met, against all odds.

The Backstory
A few years ago, I was working full time and helping run a small farm. I would hire local high school students during their freshman year to work for me doing things I didn’t think I had time to do. When they got to their senior year, they had to find their replacement. If they worked all 4 years, they would get a $2,000 bonus intended to get them started in college or a trade. Their duties would include mowing, yard work, cutting firewood, garden and orchard work and the like. What they didn’t know how to do, I would teach them. They would drive ZRT mowers, tractors and trucks. They would learn to maintain these machines. I had about 10 acres to mow and trim with 5 buildings on the property and a small apple orchard. For the most part,not much needed to be taught because the locals already knew these things, having grown up in a rural area. Also, the candidates had to have their own transportation. I worked long and odd hours and couldn’t be troubled to provide their transportation.

The Rub
I intentionally didn’t look to the local junior college for help because I didn’t want to deal with attitude. I had had exposure with some of the college students and that had left a bad taste. But, as fate has a firm grip on our reality, the best laid plans… There came a year that I didn’t have a candidate for the job. My Brother had closer contact with the college than I and steered me toward a student that was looking for work.

The First Contact
A young lady basketball player had a scholarship to play ball and go to college. She was from a couple of states away and was a city girl. She had worked around her family’s business and home but not much else. Push type lawnmower and stuff like that. So, I offered to interview her to see if I could work with her. I mean, I could always say no if it didn’t go well. She showed up at the agreed time with an older female who was introduced as her coach that I presume was her chaperone. Introductions were made and I about fell over. “Nice to meet you, sir.” is not what I was used to hearing nor expected to hear. I asked her about her goals in life. They were to “play basketball and get a degree in business”. I quickly understood that the order was important. I asked a bit more about her background and experiences.

I asked, “Do you have any transportation?”
Bree, “No sir, other than these 2 sturdy legs.”

I think I’ve said, I was blown over. this is not what I expected to hear.

I replied, “Bree, it’s 2 miles from here to town.”
Bree, “Yes, sir.”

I didn’t tell her, but racing through my mind was all sorts of fixes for this no-transportation problem. Bicycle, horse, borrowed use of a car, friends or neighbors that could help. Yeah. I’d made up my mind and she was hired, if she wanted the job.

Though I never asked, I suspect that Bree had her school expenses covered with the scholarship but had no other source of funds. I suspect that her family did not have the resources to provide her with any extra money.

The Job
Bree never blinked when I asked her to do something. She learned how to fuel and operate the ZRT mower and a gas powered string trimmer. She helped me stack firewood, cleanup the yard. Bree had to be taught everything. It was all new to her. So, she didn’t master all of the skills but she only had 2 years with me and was starting with no experience. But, she learned and performed every task I gave her.

One day, I needed to prune the orchard consisting of about 13 mature apple trees. I handed her a pair of pruning shears and walked into the orchard. Before I could say anything Bree asked what she was supposed to do. I walked over to a tree and said, “See these thin limbs that are growing straight up? They need to be cut right here at the base. Anything growing straight up, cut.” Bree said, “OK.”

I got distracted working and a neighbor came by to talk a bit. When I got back to the job at hand, Bree was in the 3d tree, about half way up, cutting the straight up shoots. Exactly as I had shown her. Did I mention that I was blown over?

Bree could drive, she just didn’t have a car. But, she couldn’t drive a standard shift. One day as I was taking her home, I stopped and had her trade seats with me. We were in an old, 3/4 ton Dodge, diesel, farm truck. I won’t say Bree mastered driving it, but she did experience what it was like.

On another occasion, before she got out of the truck she asked me if I knew anyone that could fix a broken wall. I didn’t understand what she was asking, so she took me inside her dormitory to show me a couple of holes in the sheet rock wall. She said that she had received some bad news about her Aunt and punched the wall in anger and grief. Bree asked me if I knew anyone that could fix the hole.
I said, “Yeah, I know how to fix that. But, I’m not going to fix it for you.”
Bree replied, “I understand but can you tell me who can help me?”
I said, “Yeah. You. I’ll teach you how to do it and loan you the tools.”

Bree learned some basic drywall techniques. I know she learned something because several years later, she asked me some questions about the details of what she’d learned. Seems it had happened again.

Women’s Basketball???
One day, Bree brought us a schedule of her basketball games and showed me the home games. She invited my wife and I to attend, if we wanted. I didn’t. I had no connection to basketball, women’s basketball and in fact was a lifelong anti-organized-sports fanatic. This was because of my age, where I was from and my experiences in Knoxville, Tennessee.

I grew up a baby boomer in West Texas in the 1960s. Football was the game. If you haven’t seen Friday Night Lights, it’s a TV drama based on the Midland-Odessa rivalry in Texas high school football. Where and when I grew up dictated that if I was to follow an organized sport, it would be football. My wife grew up a few years later in the Midwest. Where it’s damn cold out there during football season, so basket ball is much more popular. She played high school basketball and often spoke fondly about the experience.

The first time I remember coming in contact with basketball was in Houston, Texas in the 1981-84 basketball season. The University of Houston’s men’s basketball team briefly touched notoriety with the Phi Slama Jama team. (1)

But, my involvement was a little different than what you might read on an internet site. This notoriety was a little unsettling for some of the players, leaving them with a case of the nerves. The story, as I was told, was that a few of the players wanted a little something to settle their nerves before the 1983 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament.(2) They, of course, didn’t use drugs but one of the water boys was known to have some connections, wink, wink. Water-boy came back with some little blue pills that he said were Valium and would help cut the edge. Several hours later, I came into contact with a few of the team players of one of the finest University basketball teams in the USA.

From a web site, which was not available at the time, one can see why there might be a mistake in identifying these 2 pills.

The Valium pill would relax an individual and possibly cause some drowsiness.(3)

The Haldol pill would not give the pleasant euphoria or calm the nerves as the Valium would(4), and it also has a nasty side effects called dystonic reaction in the form of major muscle cramps. These are easily treated but very unpleasant if they do occur. Some psychotic drug dealer in Houston in 1983 was laughing his ass off at the dumb college kid that bought a handful of Haldol thinking it was Valium, and at Valium prices! (Valium is diazepam and Haldol is haloperidol.)

And at an other encounter, a few years later, I worked at the University of Tennessee Hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee. After a few shifts, it dawned on me why I was always scheduled to work the Saturday shifts during football and basketball seasons. I’d be the only doc, well the only person, in the ED while everyone else was in the break room watching the Vols (UT Volunteers) play football or the Lady Vols play basketball.

But, I’m an enterprising person, to say the least. I knew how to fix this problem. The next Saturday shift I came to work with a pair of dykes, also known as wire cutters. I cut the plug off the power cord to the TV. That didn’t go so well. I thought I was going to be tarred and feathered like the King and Duke in Huckleberry Finn.

Because my wife had just gone through a rough spell, I acquiesced and took her to one of Bree’s home games. But in all honesty, I can’t remember having as good a time as I had that night.

Our local college is a 2 year institution and Bree worked the whole time. But when it came time to move on, I gave her the earned half of the bonus and sent her back home. She finished her degree just in time for the dreaded Coronavirus Epidemic of 2020. She didn’t get to walk across the stage but she did get her diploma. We’ve kept in touch over the years. Since I didn’t get to go to her graduation, we went to her home town to visit with her and meet some of her family.

But We Ain’t Done Yet
During our visit to Bree’s home town, she and I talked about her plans for the future. Yes, basketball figured top in her plans. She did mention continuing her education in the form of a MBA if the basketball career fell through. Did I mention that I was blown over by this girl? But, back to the basketball thing.

She said that women’s basketball in the USA didn’t pay all that well. But in Europe, it did. Or, at least better than in the USA. During her first 2 years in college, she befriended a few Spanish speaking teammates and worked at acquiring the language. Then, she found an agent to represent her and sought a position on a team in Spain. But Father Time just kept on ticking and with the Coronavirus Epidemic of 2020, Bree didn’t hear any good news from Spain. She tried Portugal and other European teams. All fraught with Corona-hysteria.

About a month ago, she called to say she was in Dallas for a job interview. She was nervous. She thought it was a one day interview but it was 3 days and she had packed for only 1. She was surprised at the number of other candidates. They didn’t call her on day 2. But then, on day 3 they called her in for a final interview, and to tell her that she got the job. Wow, this girl was ecstatic. I didn’t talk to her, but I could read it in her texts. This was on a Thursday. She went home and on Monday, Portugal called and said they wanted her there to play ball the following week.

Choices, so many choices.

“What would you do?”, she texted me.
“Well, bla, bla, bla…”, I sent back in a long analytical text, as I’m prone to do.

It boils down to this. She can get a job or another degree anytime. Right now she can play ball but later she won’t be physically able to.

Right now? She’s in Portugal. Her team has played and won 2 games. Coronavirus Epidemic 2020-European Part 2 has hit and they have been cancelled for 2 weeks but I continue to follow her career.

From your grumpy Uncle Dave.

1. Wikipedia contributors. “Phi Slama Jama.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 31 May. 2020. Web. 27 Nov. 2020.
2. Wikipedia contributors. “1983 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 17 Jul. 2020. Web. 27 Nov. 2020.
3. Valium. Drugs.com. Reviewed by Phillip Thornton, DipPharm. June 5, 2020. retrieved 12/6/2020 from https://www.drugs.com/valium.html
4. Haldol. Drugs.com. Reviewed by Drugs.com contributors. 2/10/2020. retrieved 12/6/2020 from https://www.drugs.com/mtm/haldol.html