Playoffs at the JCC

Part 2

17

Coach E., as Evelyn wanted to be called, asked for only one practice. All seven players showed up but didn't look happy, both with the circumstance of her being coach and also the added practice. Jerry felt uncomfortable at best and was doing his best at avoiding eye contact with his teammates.

She sat them all down on a bench and pulled up a stool.

"I want to win! I've always won on every level and every sport I've ever participated in. It's true that I have never coached before, but I'm great at spotting the opposition's weaknesses and once I do, I attack it relentlessly. Now, I've seen you a couple of times as a spectator and as a spectator I was disappointed my husband didn't play. As a coach, I'm sorry honey, but you are guaranteed nothing. We only have seven players, and I will go with what's working for as long as I can. Now, let's run some basic drills just to get sharp and so I can see who I'm working with."

Everyone got up and ran drills and from that point on, she was accepted as coach. The feeling had changed, though, because the fun-first attitude was gone, and Jerry didn't like it.

18

December 25th rolled around and so did the showdown between Earl Berger's Elks (from Earl Berger's Auto repair) and the Tigers. During the season the Tigers had beaten the Elks by 17 points, but that was when they had their full team. Now, they were down to just Bob Russell, Tom Jenkins, Barry Fry, Malcolm Goldman, Craig Walters (the man who looked like Al Horford but definitely didn't play like him), Thomas Gray, and Jerry. Thomas and Jerry, of course, we're going to start on the bench as they did throughout the year, but unlike during the regular season, the jokes had stopped. There was nothing funny about either of them getting meaningful minutes in a playoff game.

As Jerry looked down the bench and saw his wife huddled with the starters, there was a big part of him that felt hurt. He had been expecting her to include him and treat him like a real member of the team,and whether that meant playing time or not, his main concern had been not letting her down . Now it appeared she wasn't even willing to give him that opportunity.

19

Craig Walters was big, professional-basketball-big, and even though he wasn't that coordinated, his size alone was more than enough of a problem for most teams in the Jewish Community Center Basketball League. Someone who was even more of a problem than Craig was Bob Russell. He was not a talent on the level of Kevin Parish, but clearly had plenty of basketball experience, and compared to what Earl Berger's Elks had to offer, was more than enough of a threat.

Earl Berger's team was always a fan favorite. Earl's dad "Papa Earl" had been one of the most beloved people in town and had repaired almost everyone's vehicle at one time or another. "Little Earl" had helped his dad around the shop from when he was as young as seven years old, and the people not only loved the kid, but found it adorable when he'd help his father work on their vehicles. Twenty years later when Papa Earl finally retired, Little Earl took over the shop. No matter what generation, the Earls knew how to do what they knew how to do, and even if Little Earl wasn't the smooth talker that his dad was, he still had plenty of people, whether customers or friends, who loved him, and a large portion of them came out on December 25th to support his auto shop's basketball team.

20

Luckily for the Tigers, Little Earl Berger's Elks were also missing a lot of players, and even more beneficial to the Tigers, none of the ones who showed up had any answers for the silky smooth moves of Bob Russell. Jerry's wife noticed it right away and told the team to get the ball to Bob every chance they got. They did and it was a scoring clinic early as Bob glided in for layups from all directions and even hit a couple of contested jumpers. With just about five minutes left in the first half the score was: