The cult behind high school basketball

A little background about J. She is a basketball player. She played from the time she could walk until she graduated high school. An injured knee her senior year stopped her from pursuing the game into college.

From what I understand, she was pretty damn good. Both of her parents have told me stories of her game playing days. I have only seen her play one-on-one games against some of our friends...and those friends are still whining about how bad they lost. So...yeah, she is good.

I've mentioned before that this is a small town. Since she signed up for Facebook, it seems she has been friended by her entire graduating class (the whole hundred or so of them) and then some. More than a few of them are the girls she used to play basketball with. Only one did she consider a close friend.

I met HH last night. We made plans to meet up with her at, what else, a basketball game between their Raiders and the next county overs Indians. Supposedly, these Indians have always been a huge Raiders rival.

I admit, I am clueless when it comes to basketball. I never gave the sport a chance until I met J and I'm still not a big fan. Hell, I'm still trying to decipher the rules. Ask me all you want about hockey or football but prepared to be confused if you ask me about basketball.

We met HH at the door of the high school. HH = blond, thin, and tall. Like 6 foot tall. J is taller than I am, too. But 5'9" is hardly 6". Needless to say, I felt like a midget. I'm 5'7" in my sneakers but I still felt little compared to them.

Small town politics in the Southern states is strange to me. I played softball for four years and our biggest fans were most likely our parents. I really do not remember any of my high school sports teams having a huge following. Here, in hick ville, Georgia...its something of a cult following for any high school sport. Yes, I said high school. And its not just any sport, its all of them.

Since HH lives in the Indians county and she is pretty involved with the county sports leagues, we had to sit on the Indians side. I was going to question this since both J and HH are Raiders alumni and I couldn't grasp the concept of supporting the other team. But before I could ask, I got my answer in the form of a crowd of very big men as we tried to make our way through the people.

"Hey, HH," one of them said. "I know you a Raider but you live here now. You sittin' on this side, right."

It wasn't a question and I knew it. I'm glad very few people know where J and I live because we would have had to sit on the Raiders side, leaving her old friend to fend for herself.

Now, I mentioned the cult following and I wasn't kidding. There were more than a few times I thought that things were going to turn violent. I completely understood the need for the ten or so police officers. By the end of the girls game, I was sure those officers were going to be needed to escort the refs from the building.

The home team Indian fans were pretty brutal but the Raiders fans came right back at them. As small as the auditorium was, the noise level rivaled the NFL playoff games. The home teams die-hards were dressed in raincoats and a few of the boys had blond wigs on. (I have no idea.) The visitors proudly wore their bright orange and blue. Some things were pretty funny, like the way the Raiders fans turned their backs on the Indian teams as they were being introduced. Or the way the Indians would chant, "Awwww....sit down."

In the last few minutes of the boys game, the ref gave the Indians a technical foul for their fans. A minute later, he ejected the raincoat wearing fans. Yeah, I'm glad I wasn't that ref. An officer escorted a few more people out and an eerie quiet fell over the auditorium. Yeah, we took it as a good idea to leave. The calm before the storm had electrical anger fueling it.

In the end, the Lady Raiders lost but not by much. The boys annihilated the Indian boys. When we left, the score was 79 to 47. I'm pretty certain that leaving early was the smart thing except for the fact that a few of the ejected fans were still outside raising hell. I think the cops handled them well.

High school sports. Who would have thought? Crazy. It could almost be compared to a Dolphins/Bills game or even a Flyers/Bruins game. This place just keeps getting more interesting every day.