Oh, How I've missed basketball

Clackamas Sophomore Andre Dickson (center, in white) looks to
score during practice on Nov. 21. Dickson had a game high four
steals in last week's season opener verses Linfield University JV.

After I finished classes today, I went to get some photos for one of my writers that was doing a preview of the CCC men's basketball season. I didn't think much of it. It was just a few photos of practice. Quick and easy, in and out.

When I got there, I realized that I'd be staying a lot longer than I planned.

I'd forgotten exactly how much I loved the sport of basketball. Lately I've gotten really in to volleyball and I've always been a soccer lover, but it wasn't until I stepped back on to the basketball court that I remembered how much I've missed it since the season ended so many months ago.

The next few minutes were lost to the squeak of sneakers, the pounding of the ball, the swish of the net and the click of the camera. It's more than easy to be absorbed in the action, it's practically intoxicating.

Then after a few minutes, I came down to earth. I realized that part of the reason I'd missed basketball so much was because there really is less of it now then there was a year ago. Last November, the Rose Garden would pack with 20,000 fans a few times a week to watch the Portland Trailblazers play. This November, the action on ESPN isn't on the court, it's IN court.

That might just be because the NBA isn't just basketball anymore. It's a business. And to be fair, it's a really good business. They attract millions of fans worldwide with their talent and the entertainment that it provides and rake in billions of dollars in ticket sales, TV deals and merchandise.

Clackamas freshman Jake Dewit (12) and Matt Bryant collide 

during practice on Nov. 21 in Randall Hall. Bryant had a 

double double in last week's game against Linfield JV with 12 
points and game high 14 rebounds. Dewit scored five points 

and drew the season's first charge.

For that very reason, many basketball fans shun the NBA, claiming that it's too flashy and has gotten away from the pure sport that it used to be. Most of those fans choose to follow the NCAA, where all the athletes (depending on how you see it) are amateurs. At that level, the athletes are still largely moldable and they depend  more on their coach to teach than do the pros.

However, even at the NCAA level, the game can still be muddled by money. You don't have to dig very far before you find a case of a recruiting scandal. The reason for those? Money. Better players means more success, translating to better attendance and increased revenue for the college that the team is affiliated with.

In order to escape that, you might have to go one level down, where money means even less. That's where small college basketball comes in to play. At Clackamas Community College, for example, the stands would seat only about 1000 people if completely full, which they never really are. And that's only if they open up each set of bleachers, something that only happens for graduation.

In a situation like that, the revenue for filling the stands wouldn't be a huge difference in the athletic department's budget. The benefit from having a successful team is simply that they win more. Winning calls the attention of prospective players, feeding the success of the program even further. That's as it should be. The sport is focused on the players, not the coaches, not the fans and certainly not on money. Just basketball.

Much more than a game

It seems that playing against the odds usually tends to make the best stories. We get the most excited about David vs. Goliath, a Cinderella team or succeeding despite huge setbacks. The Superbowl that everyone remembers isn’t the one where the two best teams scrapped with one another for 60 minutes, it’s the one where the nobodies came back to win against their powerhouse opponents.

It also seems there is nothing quite so inspiring as watching a player struggle with an injury, but prevail.

Yes, Clackamas lost their final home match to Lane Community College last Wednesday and yes their seven game win streak has been snapped, but that wasn’t the story of the game.

The story of the game was watching injured Clackamas goalkeeper Tori Wilkinson.

Some time between the Oct. 22 game at Clark College and the Oct 25 game against SW Oregon, Wilkinson acquired an injury to her right knee. At that time, Wilkinson had four shutouts in a row and hadn’t allowed a goal since the end of September. Coach Szpara declined to comment on the injury itself. “[I’m] taking the Chip Kelly approach,” said Szpara. “I don't really want to talk about injuries.” 

During the SW Oregon game (which Clackamas won in a 6-0 blowout), Wilkinson was being rested to help heal a minor injury heal. When the team ran out on to the field last Wednesday, it was clear that things weren’t completely back to normal.

The first thing you’d notice was the ugly black brace. If that didn’t tip you off, you might not think to watch the home end of the field when nothing was happening. You’d see Wilkinson jogging across the field after her shin guard that had gone astray. You’d see a grimace. You’d definitely see the pronounced limp after every brush of action.

Wilkinson’s first test came early in the match.

In the 5th minute, Lane’s Kenzie Harding lobbed a corner kick across the face of the goal to the far post, where Kiki McDonagh headed the ball past Wilkinson and into the net. There wasn’t even time to raise her arms before Lane had scored, putting Clackamas down a goal for the first time since losing to top ranked Spokane on Sept 24.

Normally when a goal is scored early in a match and especially an easy one, it can take the air out of the game. It happens even in big professional matches. The crowd quiets considerably and the players get chippy with one another.

Perhaps it was a lack of focus or the knowledge that the game was meaningless for Clackamas, as they’ve already clinched the Southern Region Championship. Maybe they were caught a little by surprise by Lane’s physicality.

Whatever it was, they fixed it. And Wilkinson fixed it.

From that point on, limp or no limp, Wilkinson and the Clackamas defense tightened things up considerably. After each time the Lane forwards would near the goal, Wilkinson would corral the ball and boot it back towards the center of the field. As the game continued, Wilkinson’s pain level seemed to rise and she could be spotted gingerly favoring her good knee between attacks.

Once the final whistle sounded, the injured freshman didn’t hobble over to the bench and wait to be treated by the team trainer. She jogged over with the rest of the team. The only sign that she was ailing was that instead of cooling down, she sprawled on the ground to remove her brace. 

Wilkinson’s secret? She had just put it out of her mind.

“I just don’t think about it,” said Wilkinson.

And you know what? I’d like to see more athletes like her. All too often, a minor bump or bruise will keep a player sidelined for far too long. Show some toughness.

Not without reason, of course. If you could hurt yourself worse and threaten the rest of your season, then ok, sit on the bench. But if you can play through the pain and make a difference for your team, then you should be out on the field. Or court. Or wherever it is you play.

Those are the performances that we remember. We remember watching Tiger Woods win at the US Open in 2008 with a torn ligament in his knee an a stress fracture in his tibula. We remember Brandon Roy’s return during the 2010 playoffs against Phoenix. It’s those times that you see somebody do something extraordinary that stick in your mind. Those memories help us to remember that in whatever we’re going through we should just stick it out to the end.

It’s not just a game. It’s not just a distraction from life’s worries. There are lessons to be learned and I just learned another one.