One of my best friends, Charlie, is an assistant coach for the Girls Varsity Basketball team at Beverly Hills High School.  I've gone to a couple of games this year to support him and a few of the girls who I had coached previously.  The team has improved steadily in the past few years and, after a decent showing in league, entered the playoffs as a favorite to get to the quarterfinals, maybe to the semis, but not much more. 

Now, I'm not going to pretend that girls high school basketball is as entertaining as a Lakers or UCLA game, but there is something that you get at a high school girls basketball game that you don't get at a professional sporting event.  Yes, I'm including UCLA games in the "professional events" group and so should you.  Don't pretend like these guys aren't part of a billion dollar industry or that the players aren't interested in something other than the team's success.  Yes, the college game is much more passionate and team-oriented than the NBA, but it's still big business.  I was upset that CIF charged $7 to get into a Beverly Hills High School girls basketball game, but I would gladly pay the $50 entry fee for a UCLA home game.  But, and I know this is going to sound cliche and like something you'd hear in a Disney movie, but in high school girls basketball, it's all about the passion.  Yes, maybe one or two of them may get a free college education out of basketball, but none of these girls is going to get rich playing ball.  And don't think for a second that the girls don't work every bit as hard as the boys year round.  High school basketball is a timely commitment day in and day out whether you're a male or female.  I actually prefer the girls to the guys because high school boys basketball is getting to be more corrupt and more of a business with AAU mucking everything up.  The marquee high school boys players can be every bit as self-oriented as the pros because they're directed by people trying to get a cut of a future pro.  I could write a whole other piece about what's wrong with high school boys basketball, but that's for another time.

Back to the Beverly girls.  I went to their first playoff game and they won handily but it was unfortunate because it was a home game for Beverly and they had next to no support.  Beverly was the heavy favorite, yet the visiting team's fans far outnumbered Beverly's own.  Didn't matter.  It didn't faze the home team and Beverly won by a wide margin.  I didn't catch the round of 16 or the quarters but I heard from my friend Charlie that the quarterfinal game was great.  It was again a home game for Beverly, but again the visiting team from over 40 miles away dominated the gym's attendance contest.  No matter again.  Beverly's team stood tough and held off the visitors to earn themselves a spot in the semis.

And that's the game I went to, the semi-finals.  My friend Charlie, head coach, John Braddell, and the team were nice enough to have me on the team bus because the game was way out in Fontana.  It made me realize how much I miss coaching high school basketball.  I coach at my local rec. center now, but there's something about an away game and the playoffs that just makes the game feel more like an event.  The coaches planned the pre-game out well.  The bus stopped at Souplantation four hours before game time and then, after lunch (thank you to Coach who treated me), made its way over to a local high school (local to the playoff venue) so that the girls could run over some of the plays one last time.  Charlie had arranged with the school's athletic director to have the gym opened.  Oops, that didn't happen.  So the girls mulled around and waited and then finally went up to some outdoor courts to do some walk-through.  From there it was time to go to the game and get ready.  The girls got dressed, warmed up, got their pre-game speech and made their way out for final warm-ups. 

I had a front-row seat and got a real good look at what Beverly was up against in the Summit Seahawks.  First off, Summit, being at home had about 3/4 of the several hundred fans in attendance.  Second, they had a mascot.  Third, they had three players in their starting five at 6'1'' or taller.  All three were good and their best player wasn't even one of them.  She was the 5'9'' Arizona State bound point guard.  Beverly, on the other hand had a little height, but nowhere near as much muscle, and less speed.  However, I don't think Summit hit more than 15% of their warm-up jumpers while Beverly has a couple of gunners.  All of that being said, if I was a neutral observer, just watching warm-ups, I would have given Summit a 10-point edge. 

But here's what Beverly had going for them:  the disrespect card.  Summit and its staff, while very nice, were walking around like they had already wrapped up a semi-final victory.  For those of you who don't know high school sports, getting to the CIF finals is almost as big as winning the championship game.  Just getting there assures you of a banner that will always hang in your gym, and, maybe more importantly, a spot in the state championship tournament.  So to treat Beverly like a pushover was a large mistake on Summit's part.  I think to best illustrate the point, Summit was in charge of the whole event as the home team, including introductions.  When they introduced the Beverly High players and coaches, instead of keeping with the music that had been playing for the previous hour, they put on the theme song to Beverly Hills, 90210.  Funny?  Maybe a little bit.  Disrespectful and cocky?  Most definitely. 

Now that they had the teams introduced, it was game time.  Unfortunately, the Beverly High rooter bus, filled with the cheerleaders and about another hundred people had not yet arrived and didn't until the first quarter was almost over.  Funny related story here.  Game time was 7:00 p.m. and the rooter bus was scheduled to leave at 5:00 p.m.  During the team's busride, at around 3:00 p.m., my uber-nervous friend Charlie asked, "who's the brain surgeon who had the bus leave at 5?  It'll never get there on time."  To which Coach Braddell replied with a smile, "um, that would be me."  Laughs all around. 

Back to the game.  Beverly got the first bucket of the game and looked pretty good.  Summit answered with some high pressure defense and answered with four straight points off of turnovers.  Beverly immediately called a timeout, which I liked (I'm not a Zen Master, let them play through it, coach either), and righted the ship to take a five or six point lead.  Then an alarming trend surfaced.  The officiating.  Now I know that if the officiating is garbage at the NBA level then we can't expect much at the high school level, but, and no offense to the girls who excel at playing the game, the high school girls game is played at a lot slower of a pace than the NBA game.  There was no excuse for the amount of blown calls both ways.  One bad missed call was followed by two or three touch calls or bogus charges for pretty much the entire game.  Summit's afore-mentioned point guard picked up her second foul five minutes into the game and for some asenine reason, the Summit coach left her in the game.  Well, that was a ginormous mistake with this officiating crew because, sure enough, she picked up her third on a charge call that occurred during a loose ball with the player moving away from the basket.  Three fouls in six minutes.  We wouldn't see her for another half of basketball.  The officials, however, needed to even things out, so they gave Beverly's starting center and point guard a few bogus fouls of their own.  Before all was said and done, two key players from each team would foul out and both teams would be in the double bonus in both halves.  I don't think thirty seconds went by without a whistle and one team's fan section half yelling and half in shock.  It got to the point of being comical.  If you're looking for a pro equivalent, think Portugal/Netherlands in the 2006 World Cup in which there were 16 yellow cards and 4 red cards.  It was that bad.  And don't tell these girls that this was any less important than the World Cup.

Officiating aside, it was impressive watching Beverly work.  They were as polished and crisp as I had ever seen them.  They didn't miss any open chippies.  There were very few defensive lapses, and those that were probably happened as a result of miscommunications in a loud, hostile atmosphere.  Someone said the gym reminded them of the one in Hoosiers and I couldn't think of a better comparison.  Add the heat of Cameron Indoor and you have the gym where this game took place.  Despite all of those obstacles, and not to mention the talent on the other side of the court, Beverly was able to advantage of all of the fouls being called and executed great out of timeouts and on set plays.  Summit, on the other hand, was relying on their defensive pressure for buckets, and when they couldn't take turnovers and convert them into points, they were struggling mightily.  They couldn't hit free throws or jumpers.  However, with all of their size, they were cleaning up the boards.  The half ended with Beverly up seven points and deservedly so.  It also ended with both Beverly coaches beyond pumped up and Summit looking a little shell shocked.  As I told the Beverly coaches beforehand, there's nothing better than being an underdog, going into someone else's house and shutting them up.  That's what Beverly was doing. 

The second half went much the same way the first one did, only Summit's point guard was in pretty much the entire half, and she made a huge difference.  She was able to get into the lane and, with all of the whistles, get to the line.  Unlike her teammates, she was able to convert her free throws at something like an 80% clip.  Beverly was still clinging to their lead.  Every time Summit made a run, including two big ones in the fourth quarter, Beverly responded.  With about a minute left in the game, Beverly was still up 4 and Summit had the ball.  Summit, which hadn't made a three all night got the ball to their tiny shooting guard.  She let loose from about 25-feet out.  The ball was in the air for about 5 seconds with a ridiculous arc, and in the meantime, a Beverly player had collided with her.  Sure enough, the ball swished in and the Summit player had a chance to tie the game at the line for a four-point play.  Beverly called a timeout.  The Summit player missed the free throw, and Beverly ended up knocking down their free throws down the stretch to ice the game.  I can't tell you how big some of the Beverly players came up. 

When the final horn sounded, it was jubilation on one end and vast disappointment on the other.  But, both sides composed themselves and walked through their lines to shake hands.  Afterward, Beverly went back to their end of the court to celebrate and Summit to theirs to commiserate.  Coach Braddell was greeted by the press looking for some good quotables but Coach was still on cloud nine.  He was smiling ear to ear throughout and giving all the credit to his girls no matter the call of the question.  I went onto the court and congratulated my friends and the players with the rest of the Beverly family and friends present and just kind of stood around to watch the girls and their coaches take in what they had accomplished.  Nobody had them in the CIF finals.  They were third in league, how were they going to get to the Championship?  Well, they did it with heart, belief, confidence, coaching, and execution.  Not to mention some gamers.  You would have thought that all of the Beverly kids were NCAA ball bound with the plays they were making.  And if Beverly's coaching staff wanted to, they could send that tape to any number of college programs and I'm sure you'd have them recruting the coaches as well.  It was a gameplan executed to perfection.  All the work that went into this performance led to a well-deserved celebration.  Beverly's players were crying from all of the emotions they were experiencing for the first time.  It was great to watch these high school athletes celebrate with their friends and loved ones.  There weren't any cameras around.  No agents.  No sponsors.  But that doesn't mean that the game was meaningless.  On the contrary, the game was more than meaningful.  It validated a program and put it on the map.  But more importantly, it was a moment that will never be forgotten by the fifteen players and the coaches who suited up for Beverly.  That's why I love sports.

And then something unimaginable happened.  I looked up, and Summit's senior center who was fouled out by the abominable officiating was walking over our way.  She came straight up to the Beverly coaches, extended a hand, and, while fighting back tears of sorrow because her high school career was over in such disappointing fashion, she congratulated the coaches, told them they were deserving of this victory, and wished them luck.  Then her mother came over and did the same.  I was in total shock and couldn't help but smile.  It's things like that moment that give me faith in our society.  And no, I'm not blowing something out of proportion.  For every Bernie Madoff, I hope there's a person like #22 on Summit.  A perfect end to the night in a gym out in the middle of nowhere.  Although I'm not going to pretend that I didn't enjoy the celebration at In N' Out with the team afterward.  Coach, if you're reading this, thanks again for the burger and fries.  To the girls who played in that game, congratulations and good luck in the finals against Mater Dei, the #1 team in the nation.  Nobody's giving you a chance.  But nobody gave you a chance against Summit either.  As I told Charlie and Coach Braddell, stranger things have happened.  I think they made a movie called Hoosiers about some such event.  Either way, it was nice to spend a Saturday remembering that sports at their purest are a great thing.  See you Friday night.