Sticks and Stones

He challenged me in front of the team. It's hard for any player to deal with a lack of playing time, especially when he has more skills than the guy in front of him. One evening at practice, ToughGuy had enough and let off some steam.

Most young players don't understand what it means to play a "role." This is due in part to the overglorification of superstars in professonal sports. Every time a guy steps to the free throw line in the NBA, his stats are displayed on the screen. When a baseball player emerges from the on-deck circle to bat, his stats are displayed on the screen. Individual stats are everywhere in professional sports and the "star" gets his ego stroked every night on Sportscenter. Very rarely is "team" ever mentioned on a telecast. As a result, most kids naturally want to be the "man."

The guy I had chosen to start ahead of ToughGuy was the prototypical role player. There were four other starters who could score and he happily deferred to them. He just focused on rebounding and defending. ToughGuy, on the other hand, had something to prove every time he entered the game. As a result, he'd make mistakes and come right back to the bench. Several games into the season it became clear to me that ToughGuy wasn't going to accept a simplified role on the team.

During practice after a game where he didn't play much, I noticed that ToughGuy kept fouling teammates in a particular drill. I blew the whistle and heard him mutter something. I ignored it. When we started the drill again, he became even more aggressive and repeated what he had previously muttered loud enough so I could hear him.

He called me a faggot.