BB Rewards

By Guest Author Joyce Oronzio

Chester Biddy Basketball League 1983/84. 10 year old team. My younger son was a member. Seemed like a raggedy bunch of kids when it started but these kids put their heart and soul into that team. Every kid on that team played a part. The coaches taught those kids not only how to play basketball but how to play basketball as a team.

For the first time I’m aware of Chester Bitty League 10 year olds won the State Championship and had a chance to go to New Orleans for the Nationals. Except there was no money for that. The parents had to raise it. We held bake sales and sold things and put our own money in so every one of those kids could go to New Orleans.

Parents were needed to accompany the kids round trip on a train 26 hours each way and stay with them in a motel for 5 days. I volunteered as did my 13 year old son who was helping with the team all season. I wasn’t working as a nurse yet. It was the year after Larry died and I hadn’t been to nursing school yet. I remember this being around March of that winter. I managed to get a week off my job as a library assistant at a local college and requested time off school for both my sons.

By the skin of our teeth and a lot of hard work, even the team helping, we finally got enough money to purchase train tickets and rent motel rooms. Coach got the tickets, I remember them being 90 dollars apiece, and every kid on that team was able to go, but only one coach, one set of parents, my older son and I were able to accompany the team.

Somehow the parents and the league got up the money to buy every kid a warmup

athletic jacket and pants set. They chose red with white lettering, name, numbers and team on the jackets. The kids all looked cool with their white hi top BB shoes.

The day came; we boarded the train. We took up nearly one whole car. Thirteen kids and us. The coach and I and the set of parents split the chaperone responsibilities. We did pack some food but we ran out early and had to purchase train food in the dining car. These were some hungry kids! The staff treated these kids well and that was a huge help to us.

The 26 hour train trip was long, but these kids behaved exceptionally well. Even the one that was older than his age, worlds ahead of the rest of the team in street smarts and played like he was born on a BB court. The coach took him under his wing while I got six, shall we say “quieter kids”. Most of these kids had never traveled on a train anywhere before so this was an experience. We slept in our seats part of the trip and the rest of the time the kids ate, stared out the windows, chattered away and tried not to throw BB’s around the train car.

We finally made it and checked into a motel. In my room were my 2 sons and 3 other kids. The coach had 5 kids in his room. The set of parents took their kid and the rest. There were plenty of practices to take up their time and we were gone from morning to night practicing trying to feed these kids cheap and playing in the tournament.

I remember a few outings. I think a zoo and maybe a stadium. We never went to the old city though. Just not enough time or money to take 13 kids there. A missed opportunity but the BB playing, practices and excitement seemed to be enough for them.

A few days after we arrived one of the kids in my group got sick. Fever, sore throat, listless, couldn’t eat. He needed the ER for an antibiotic. Coach called the parents and got the OK. He had a bad case of strep throat. We bought the penicillin he needed, he stayed with me and mostly tried to sleep for a few days. A losing battle. We couldn’t send him home, his parents couldn’t come get him. He missed a few days of games. The smallest kid on the team but he was a scrapper on court. He had a birthday during the time we were there. I picked out a large birthday cake. He said he couldn’t eat it, it had lard in it. Against his religion. We put it back and found something he could eat and share. I still remember this kids smile with us singing Happy Birthday while he had a fever and looked it but pretended he was well. Ten years old. Courage.

Every one of those kids seemed happy to be there doing what they loved. They played well against some tough competition and they came in 2^nd in the country, Indiana winning 1^st and I can honestly say the refs made a few bad calls against us. The coach spoke out but in the end decided to move on and celebrate their 2^nd place win like the Pro’s these kids were the entire trip.

The awards ceremony was a nice tribute to all the teams that played and the refs bad calls were ignored in favor of manners and class and did not become an issue, though it was hard when we experienced some “off” remarks directly from a few parents and kids on the other teams and I can honestly say I never saw that kind of prejudice in all the years my 2 sons played BB after that. New Orleans. The South. A different world 40 some years ago.

Still, the trip was good. National 2^nd place for these kids. One of whom went on a few more years to be a standout star in city BB. We came home, held another recognition award ceremony and a gathering at my house for the parents and team to view the video the father that went with us took of all the tournament games the kids played in.

I think about this time now and wonder what happened to these kids. Certainly I never had an experience like that again and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. What did these kids grow up to be? Most, if not all of them moved on from city sports and went into school sports if they could or other interests, maybe. They’d be in their 50’s now. I wonder what they really think of their national Championship at 10/11 years old? It was Something back then. I hope they never forgot it.

I was 32 years old that year. Son Danny 10 and son Larry jr 14 one winter after their father died who not only played on these Chester inner city teams as a kid but coached his own sons on those teams. One of the last things Larry ever blinked out to me on the alphabet board shortly before he died while in ICU was “don’t let the kids stop playing sports”. All I know is it was an important part of these kids lives that year. Not just my kids. And something good came out of it for us. Nursing school at Chester Upland School of Nursing where that 10 year old sick kids mother worked and happened to see my name on the list of candidates after Camillus closed where I was originally accepted. She got me another interview at Chester Upland and I finally made it.

That License and the work from it kept us going for years. At 75 years old I still have an active Pa. Nursing license. That BB trip I could hardly afford with 13 kids turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I hope those kids remember it. It may not have changed their lives, I don’t know. But I know my kids enjoyed it at a sad time in their lives and it changed our lives with what turned out to be the help I needed to end up with better paying work and a real skill for the next 40 some years. I know I never forgot it.

Joyce Oronzio