(Community) College Ball

Let's go back in time...

To last weekend, when I attended not one, but TWO community college basketball games. They were the men's and women's games between Shoreline Community College and Bellevue Community College. If you've never been to a community college game, let me tell you, it's just like high school except there are fewer people in the stands. So why the hell was I there? One of my students runs a dance team that performed at each halftime show and my job is to keep my finger on the pulse of the student, so I went. Also, she said there would be dancing girls and my imagination just ran with that one.

The games were entertaining and the shows were entertaining. One interesting thing, though...these are Seattle community colleges. However, I looked at the program for the men's game and one player was from Oakland Technical HS, one was from Skyline HS and one was from Alameda HS. Those high schools aren't in Seattle, they're right down in Oakland, California. I know this because, well...I can almost walk to Oakland (you know, if I ever decided to get some exercise) from the house I grew up in. Plus, I used to work at both Oakland Tech and Skyline. I had to run this by my sister because I didn't think that community colleges recruited students but it couldn't be a coincidence that 3 students from three different Oakland high schools were all at Shoreline CC. Rose said to me: "Didn't you see Hoop Dreams? The guy didn't pass his SAT or something so he had to go to that community college." But Rose, they don't offer scholarships, right? Aren't JC's only like 20 bucks a unit? "Living expenses, Boo," she said. She also told me that City College of San Francisco is a national football powerhouse among community colleges. Players who aren't quite blue chip or who can't get admitted directly to major college programs go to these places for two years, then transfer to more familiar programs to play sports. Somehow this never had occurred to me.

Anyway, learn something new every day. And now I need to watch Hoop Dreams again. I'll add that to the list including Bamboozled, Sideways and The Harder They Come.