Staunton lives in the past, thankfully its basketball team doesn’t
Sometimes, Staunton can seem like a world gone crazy. Or one that chooses to wear blinders.
Take your pick and, chances are, you’re right either way if you listen to the loudest people that call the Queen City home. While layoffs and reassessments are the talk of most towns in Augusta County, most in Staunton tend to bury themselves in worry over a Shakespeare Theater.
Others would rather call for an outside investigation into the Staunton police department’s actions 41 years ago. Something that will cost tax-payer money, mind you. In this climate, mind you again.
Hey, wanna know what any investigation will find?
Here’s a sampling: Anybody who was on the force back then is either dead or traded the oft-used “thin blue line” for a shuffleboard court. Yeah, there you go. Enjoy your murder mystery, long-awaited book deals and forcing two families to relive horrid instances that probably took decades for them to get over. If they even have.
There are some lucky, quiet few who down a few hard-earned bucks to watch the 2008-09 version of the R.E. Lee boys basketball team because they realize what’s going on in the Paul Hatcher Gymnasium. It’s not hard at all to see. The problem is getting the masses to choose to look at the “now” instead of the “then.“ A coach recently lamented the small crowd when Waynesboro traveled to Lee, the once great rivalry shunted down to a spattering of fans, its electricity sucked dry.
The truth is, it’s always tough being a Leeman. And, if you can play basketball in Staunton, you grow up wanting to be a Leeman.
Oh, what’s wrong? Did mommy and daddy send you to bed with no TV growing up? Aww, you poor soul. When you’re a Leeman in the making, mom and dad are going to “tell Coach Hatcher,“ if you don’t behave. No phone? Balderdash. That’s mere child’s play compared to Paul Hatcher’s summer-camp ire for these kids.
This year’s Leemen team was dogged all preseason (and even a few games into the regular season) and, like all Leemen teams, these guys are playing under the ample shadows of the past and the constant reminders that dot the gym walls. This is not their choice.
It’s the way.
It’s the dream.
It’s the honor.
It’s all of these thrown on their backs the second they wear the home whites.
Heading into this season, it was tenfold for this group. It still is.
Yep, that’s how it is. Sports writers masking columns as game stories calling your play “uninspired.“ Slack-jawed sports bloggers and the ilk calling your district “weak.“
The version that thrills you now followed the best. A group that won 85 straight, put up three straight 30-win seasons and brought home back-to-back AA crowns. (And, let’s be honest here, you were totally expecting that third one and you know it.)
As of today, the latest incarnation of basketball players at R.E. Lee sport a 14-1 record proving that, despite his frail body and bending back, Hatcher’s basketball mind is as straight as his team’s focus.
Tired of sending messages to the rest of the state yet?
“Nah, that’s what we do,“ said senior JR Gray. “That’s what we do.“
No, that group of Eli Crawford, Ryan Crawford, Hosea Berkley and Lawrence Lightfoot is not an easy act to follow. Nobody expected it be. Nobody said it would.
Is this the most exciting and run-and-gun Lee team we’ve seen? No, it’s not. But that doesn’t make it any less fun to watch. That doesn’t make these Leemen any less talented.
And, for what it’s worth, this group also sits atop the latest Virginia Associated Press Prep Poll. Again, take that for what it’s worth.
Maybe someone would rub some smelling salts under the nose of the city, it would wake up, head to a game and wonder why that Robert Crawford guy’s name sounds so familiar. They’ll see a postman, Gray, coming into his own as an inside threat under the tutelage of one of the legends whose shadow he has to play in—Kevin Madden. They could get one last chance to see one of the more electrifying athletes to walk the halls of the schools—Dae’ Quan Scott—play a sport he’s very good at but, surprisingly, it’s not his best. (Which is why he’s going to JMU, or Richmond, or wherever he chooses to play football on Feb. 4.)
You see, Staunton, that’s the problem with you. That’s why others point and laugh at your “worries” and your “scandals.“
Someone in Crimora is trying to figure out why her assessment has doubled.
In Staunton, you want retired police officers to be investigated at the tax-payer’s expense.
In Waynesboro and Augusta County people are searching for jobs so they can feed the homestead. They are, after all, starting to layoff employees at a few or our local factories.
In Staunton, a scandal is a downtown bookstore owner calling Northern property owners “carpetbaggers.“ (The only insult as a Yankee I hear in that word is toward my intelligence. I mean, why not call me a “skedaddler” or a member of the “buttermilk cavalry” if you’re looking for a good Civil War-slash-Reconstruction Era insult?)
When you feed off the past and neglect looking toward the future, the present always goes unnoticed. This group of Leemen know that rule. It’s taught to them, the ones before them and the ones before them. So on. So forth.
If only the city they represent and bring pride to did the same.
