Basketball memories and the importance of ‘team’

When I was a freshman in high school, I played basketball. I wasn’t very good, but I did like to play the game and I liked being part of the team. I don’t recall the team being very good but we had fun which, at that age, was the objective of virtually everything we did, so it was all good, win or lose.

We played an unusual circuit. I don’t remember if we were in a conference per se, but we played other schools — some larger, some smaller — in southwest Arkansas. They included Dierks, Gillham, Van-Cove, Umpire, Ashdown and Wickes, which, if I recall correctly, featured a gym with “dugouts,” which were beneath the level of the floor and under the bleachers. If you weren’t careful chasing a ball out of bounds, you might disappear into one of these caves and not reappear until the game was over.

Our coach was a young educator with a mercurial temper named Truett Love. He could be hilariously funny. (His favorite schtick was the encouragement he yelled to our starting post guy, Chuck Barnhill, at the tipoff of each game. “Up, Chuck!” Coach Love would shout. The bench would dissolve in laughter.) Other times he could scorch the paint off the locker room walls with his tirades. (He wouldn’t cuss, but he didn’t need to.) We liked coach Love. He probably thought we were idiots. (Coach Love has been a fixture in Lake Hamilton athletics, although I’m unsure what his status is today.)

Watching some good high school basketball this week, I thought back with fondness at those times when I was part of a team and it occurred to me that I am still a part of several “teams,” although they aren’t necessarily engaged in athletic endeavors.

I am part of a team of men and women charged with the responsibility of transporting young people to local schools and then returning them safely to their homes each day when schools release them. I’ve been doing this for more than 40 years and I am still as committed to that team as I was the day I first started.

I am part of a team called a family. It is necessarily an extended group, both in distance and the branches comprising its structure. And I am devoted to pray for and seek the success, prosperity and happiness of each member of my team. I want what is best for all of them and want to provide it when I can.

I am part of a team called a church. The primary objective of that team is to draw others to the gospel — the “good news” — of Jesus Christ, who is the only One who can give real meaning to life. And we do so, hopefully, through the liberal application of love, in what we think, say and do. We are not always successful but, like any team, we seek our goal through single-minded purpose and commitment.

What “teams” are you a member of? And, more importantly, what are you willing to sacrifice for the success of your teams?

— Doug Chastain is a retired teacher and is currently a large-vehicle transportation specialist for the Siloam Springs School District. (Okay, he drives a bus.) He is also a grass maintenance technician at Camp Siloam. (Yeah, he mows the lawn.) You can contact him at dougchastain@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are those of the author.