From What I Understand, the Players Will Also be Dancing

For some reason, I remember this event more vividly than other moments of my college experience. It’s probably because it irritated me more than most exams or annoying frat guys using their beefcake frames to muscle past me at bars.

I was watching an important Lakers game with some buddies in my dorm room; the Lakers were playing awful at that moment and, as I tend to do during important Lakers games, I got dramatic and acted as if that game was the most important thing in my life. At that time, some girl from the floor walked by and asked what my friends and I were complaining about. When we explained the gravity of the Lakers’ current situation, she remarked “who cares, it’s only a game,” then sauntered off.

This wasn’t the first or last time I’ve heard this criticism of sports. But just because I disagree with the sentiment doesn’t make it easy to argue against. My usual retort is some lame, ill-conceived thought that if sports don’t matter, then all other hobbies and leisure activities share in the irrelevance. But that argument isn’t going to convince anyone that sports hold great importance in our society, even with the irony being we all engage in some sport of competition every day. While we are taking college courses, whether we want to admit it or not, we are competing with our class members. Competing for respect, and competing for future job markets. However, that analogy has negative connotations.

The idea of sports brings to mind many things, most of them bad. Currently, it could bring to mind bulbous contracts or the impending NFL lockout, where owners want to nickel and dime their players and underpay them in a game where careers are significantly shorter than any other sport. On an average day visiting an average sports website, one can look at the collage of negativity in the headlines and assume all athletes are self-absorbed individuals that hang out at strip clubs and drive drunk due to their perceived self-invincibility. The decay also seeps into the stands, evident with the recent brutality at Dodgers Stadium, where a Giants fan was beat mercilessly because he prefers the Giants over the Dodgers.

But if we choose to focus on these headlines, headlines featuring constant depravity and greed, we then also choose to overlook one of sports’ great qualities: its innate communal connection.

In a cheesy example, I recall seeing commercials for the World Cup several years ago (probably for the 2006 Cup) on ESPN. The narrator explained (while U2 was most likely blaring “Sunday Bloody Sunday” in the background) that during the World Cup, small African nation Ivory Coast ceased their civil war to watch the World Cup and hold hands and make s’mores (ok I made up the hand holding and s’more making but you get the point). This progress is encouraging and displays how sports, unlike most cultural fascinations, can bring an end to violence. However, it’s also momentary. Once that tournament ends, the bloodshed will continue.

I would bet that few people believe sports can bring about any sustainable change towards “the greater good.” And that’s what brings me to Buena Park High School.

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Last September, OCVarsity writer Jeff Miller wrote a column about the current rebuilding process for Buena Park High School’s football program, a perennial loser that made great strides back to relevancy last season. The article, which you can and should read here, basically discusses the adversities the coaches and players face. And the adversities go beyond simple Xs and Os. Rather, many of the players come from broken homes and see playing football as their outlet to normalcy and family; the article mentions the term “brothers” on more than one occasion.

Meanwhile, Susan Karcher (my stepmom, by the way; I can assure you no journalistic biases were taken when writing this piece, although I did have to finish this post before I could eat dinner) heads a Polynesian dance group called Ohana O Ke Akua (don’t worry I can’t pronounce it either), a ministry group that spreads its message through Polynesian Dance and Worship.

And if upon reading the word “ministry” you are quickly trying to exit your browser, I would implore you to resist because I’m not going to get preachy. I’m only here to report the facts (ma’am), facts of how one little article about one little obscure Freeway League football team can positively affect the lives of young men that use football to forget, if only for a couple hours, domestic troubles.

Anyway, so Susan stumbles upon this article and decides that Buena Park’s football team should be integrated into her group’s performance, with proceeds from ticket purchases benefitting the team (note: the proceeds are going only to the football program and not home necessities; if you read the Miller article, you will know that the team has a shortage of equipment and any equipment they do have looks like Greek relics).

To sum up a long story, Ohana O Ke Akua (a group that severely tests my “hunt and peck” typing abilities) has teamed up with La Habra High School, Buena Park’s league rival, to hold a dance performance along with a football camp. If you are unfamiliar, La Habra is Buena Park’s football antithesis, a program that wins the Freeway League title on an almost yearly basis. Yet, even with the dominance and rabid fan base, La Habra is not beyond lending support to Buena Park, evident in allowing this event to be held on their campus.

The camp and dance takes place Saturday, May 7 (and much to your disappointment, yours truly will not be performing in the dance numbers). If you would like to purchase tickets or just send a word of support, Susan can be reached at susankarcher@earthlink.net.

***

I think when people watch sports, they only see the sheer violence and competition of it. And that certainly is an element of the games. But people don’t see the friendship and the bonds formed through on-field trials shared together and the off-field trials the athletes try to overcome.

Often, after great athletes retire, you will hear them say that the thing they miss most about playing is the comradery they felt with their teammates. Buena Park’s football team is just a micro example of that. It’s courageous to play football in general, what with the threat of severe injuries on each play. It’s even more courageous to play football, and play it with pride, when everyone expects you to lose. But even greater than that is the bravery they play with in the midst of off-the-field issues they didn’t ask for.

But they won’t complain. They won’t ask for your pity. They won’t even ask for your respect, as they are audacious enough to believe that a perceived misfit football program will go out and win, thus earning their own respect.

They aren’t asking for your money either. This benefit in their honor was not requested. Rather, this benefit is born from the generosity of others, others that don’t see sports as irrelevant, but see sports as a way to build friendships and connect bridges.