Shattered Dreams

Duncan was a junior, inquisitive and intelligent. He had fairly good grades. And he hoped his grades were good enough (he thought they were) that he might just be able to get into a good college, play basketball and then on to the pros. And of course, the system exploited his dreams, just as it exploits the dreams of millions of young people.

 He was a promising athlete, a star on our varsity basketball team. Unfortunately, early in the season he injured his knee. It wasn’t too serious and the doctor, not a sports doctor, said that he should be able to play the last half of the season. 

The season was almost over, Duncan was dying to play. Finally the coach said ok. The first half everything was fine. He played well. His teammates looked after him and he had a good first half. The second half the score tightened up, Duncan got the ball. He swiveled to pass, changed his mind, jumped to shoot and he sank the ball. However, coming down, he didn’t land just right and his knee blew up. He never played again.

When he had first injured his knee in the fall everybody treated him like a hero. He hobbled around on his crutches and would wave one in the air like a trophy. After the second and much worse injury, he was quiet, subdued, mentally licked, beaten. The other students picked up on that, were embarrassed and avoided him. After awhile he started to miss class and then he stopped coming.

It’s not just poor black inner city kids who get sucked up into the hype of sports.  About the same time that Duncan was hurt a handsome, personable, bright and intelligent kid was on a work crew that reroofed my house. When he found out that I was a teacher, we got to talking. He had been a star football player at his affluent, middleclass, all white suburban high school. He was courted by lots of Division II schools. Finally he picked a school in Colorado. He was so excited. The coach came to the house, met his parents, his mom served coffee, and he signed the contract. He couldn’t wait for August and training camp. On the third day of camp he broke his leg. 

The coach visited him every day in the hospital. He reassured him that everything was going to be OK. He shouldn’t worry just because his leg was in a cast, in traction and he was missing practice. The coach reassured him he’d be ready to play by October. Then one day, the doctor said, “Well yes, the leg is healing just fine and Brian will be able to walk perfectly normally.  However, I don’t recommend that he play football. To be perfectly honest, he simply can’t play ever again.” The coach never came back. The school rescinded the athletic scholarship and he went back home and when his leg was healed he went back to his old summer job as a roofer. And after a long day, his leg bothers him, but as he said “What you gonna do?”