The 1986 movie “Hoosiers” holds up.
I liked it as a kid because Klawock was smaller than Hickory and because Jimmy calls his shot. Everyone wants to be Jimmy.
As an adult I still want to be Jimmy, but life is more than buzzer-beaters and trips to state.
Sports can teach you lessons in life, turn you into an arrogant punk who doesn’t ever buy-in and cheats the experience with selfishness or a little of both.
Buddy is kicked out of practice on the first day for being disrespectful, then defiant. He persuades Whit to leave with him and mocks Ollie as he walks out. Buddy chooses himself and manipulates another teammate to validate his poisonous behavior–ever work with anyone like that? Whit chooses Buddy’s divisive and selfish choice.
But sports can grow transferable skills and force us to confront our shortcomings.
Whit apologizes, his father’s demand, and asks to rejoin the team. In doing so, his father has taught him humility, accountability and respect for elders and authority, traits of a quality young man.
We don’t know how Buddy gets back on the team but we assume he had to have a similar coming of age moment. He later becomes an integral part of the team.
Ollie sees himself as unimportant. A half player. He is dedicated yet content to stay safe on the sidelines. But his time comes. The moment finds him and forces him to move. He turns it over then misses two free throws. The other team senses the weakness and attacks but given a shot at redemption, he makes both free throws to win the regional final.
Sometimes we’re Ollie and we must come up big when we feel underprepared–hello fatherhood.
“But the reason Coach Dale is in need of redemption is because he punched a player.”
True. What a horrible thing. He was banned from coaching college for assaulting a college player then spent ten years in the Navy before the movie picks up his journey. How much time and how many good deeds are required to be redeemed?
When Everett pops his stitches, Coach Dale sends him back out on the floor, waits for a second, calls time and subs him out. Coach Dale’s drive to win at all costs had previously consumed him and contributed to him striking the college player. He has grown. He’s not the man he was. He sits Everett and puts in Strap. Maybe this is the point at which Coach Dale is redeemed because being a better man is more important than winning a state title. Of course that doesn’t make for good cinema.
Everett has an alcoholic father (Shooter) who continues to drink after losing his family and self-respect. Shooter is given a shot at redemption, makes headway, then relapses. Everett, who was embarrassed by his father throughout the movie, delivers the most touching line of the movie, “I love you Dad.” Redeemed on the screen. How does it work in real life?
As community members we play an important role in the experience high school athletes had and will have this season. We can be like George at the beginning and undermine the experience by turning it into a personal power struggle. “Advocating for our kid” when really it’s the ugly side of our egos and preventing the critical struggles kids must undergo to build the resilience they need to become productive adults. By the end he has put his personal grudge aside and is celebrating the kids.
Our athletes might not have a Hollywood ending but we can at least help them understand there’s a lot more at stake than the score.
