McCombs Takes to the Court for Heart Disease

McCombs’ teachers and students took to the court to celebrate their support of the American Heart Association.

Hoops for Heart is an annual fundraising campaign under the auspices of the American Heart Association that has found a local home at McCombs Middle School. By raising more than $2,000 toward the cause of reducing cardiovascular disease and stroke, the McCombs students earned the right to form teams and take on their teachers in a series of basketball games that were played Friday afternoon in the school gym. In basketball parlance the term “matchup nightmare” has become trendy. Well, Friday’s matchups were dreams come true for the students, or so they thought until the banging started under the boards.

Ten student teams signed up for the chance to take the court against their mentors. Suddenly teammates in learning were opponents on the hardwood. The competition was good-natured but full speed and spirited. There appeared to be some occasional trash-talking going on but nobody would admit to it. There were fully equipped referees but more calls were blown than whistles. Were the zebras impartial? The mini-games appeared to be fairly called but it’s also true that one of the refs, McCombs monitor Keith Meeks, was seen slapping hands with various members of the faculty team on their way back down the court after made buckets. Any bias in the officiating could have been offset by Keriann Baccam and Ashley Sackpraseuth, the 8th graders who controlled the clock and the scoreboard. When they were asked if they might be tempted to tweak the numbers as an assist to their classmates they grinned but shook their heads.

After the teachers handled Splash, 17-5, in the opening contest of men vs. boys, the Eagles, a team of 8th grade girls, evened the slate by downing a squad of female staff, 7-4. But that success was the exception that proved the rule and the general rule was that the grownups made fewer turnovers and grabbed LOTS more rebounds. As a result they handily controlled most of the six-minute square-offs.

Maybe that’s as it should be. Step out of the usual roles in a fun way for a good cause and still make the metaphorical point to the students that they have a lot to learn and a lot of growing to do. But the kids had their moments, like when one of them emphatically swatted away a shot by one of the profs trying to drive the ball to the hole. The names shall be withheld in the interest of both parties but that particular play was a real crowd-pleaser, even though the student teams were playing as the visitors on the scoreboard. After all, it’s a given that all of them will soon move on to high school.

One last point regarding names: Even though they were blanked, 10-0, on the scoreboard, the girls of Hoops I Did it Again were the best-sounding team on the program. Nice headbands, too. Now if only they could shoot…