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Football in Ashland???

The people of Benton County Mississippi can finally say that football has arrived. The newly formed Ashland Buccaneers will be playing their first game this upcoming week. This game will be the precedent and beginning of a long wait for the initiation of America’s most profitable sport.

The Buccaneers were not granted to the town of Ashland without some very consistent, hard, and determined work. The citizens of the town and the county put in their highly devoted time, year after year, in hopes of providing the kids with football.

The establishment known as the Ashland Raiders helped initiate the charge for football in Benton County. Parents, showing their drive, came out and devoted their time and hard earned dollars to the town’s children pursuing the sport. For about a half-decade, supporters like Corinthian Cole, Sherwin Thomas, the man everybody knows as “Big Joe”, Charles Williams, Terry Henderson, and Curtis Hoyle put in a collaborated coaching effort. They were not alone in the efforts, as from time to time different football fans and parents would come out to show their support.

The proverbial “blood, sweat, and tears” that were laid down by those past volunteers have now turned into tears of joy. Football has indeed arrived, bringing with it optimism and a new joy. The people of this area finally attained something they wanted. There is finally big news in the county outside of a massive voter fraud bust and false STD information.

However, it also brings curiosity. No matter how much people of any race try to deny it, this town is still segregated. Black kids do not go to school with white kids and vice versa. I shall not talk about the reasoning for this separation of the races, simply because I already have and we all know the real reasons.

This football team is not just a football team, it is the first thing blacks and whites of Benton County, MS have done together in recent memory. Whether both sides actually want to or not is out of the question. The want for football is greater, and has so far prevailed. The curiosity comes in when there has to be a wondering to how long this will last. Not saying that blacks and whites are at each others’ throats, we all get along for the most part. However, we have not worked well together. In fact, we have barely worked together at all.

How long will this last? Hopefully this will be something unprecedented. Hopefully this will do something even the great Dr. King could not completely do. With the right attitudes and a winning environment, little black boys can definitely play with little white boys. In the brotherhood of football, that is definitely a possibility. My only issue with it is, what in the hell took so long?!

Merger?

Here we stand, in the year 2011, and most blacks and most whites are still going to different schools. Now lets not over-analyze the situation, because there are not any laws preventing the conjoining of the races. Even without those laws, there are indeed provisions/boundaries that most people in the area don’t want to talk about. THAT’S WHERE I COME IN! I want to know exactly what the reason is, and here are my thoughts.
1, most black students go to school there because they have to. Its really not a choice, if it were they’d probably all choose elsewhere. There is nothing there intriguing to blacks, except for more blacks. There is no football (until now hopefully), no major academic programs, and the opportunities to excel at anything because of the school is not very promising. 2, maybe some of you will say basketball. That thought is quickly diminishing. The reality is that, we haven’t won much lately. And with football possibly on the rise, basketball is at a risk of losing the best athletes. What we do know is that no matter the sport, no matter the accolades of any of the surrounding schools, black kids and white kids are not in the same classrooms.
My honest opinion, the white parents in the surrounding area DO NOT want their kids going to school with black kids. It is basically legal segregation. Not calling them racist, or prejudice, maybe there is just some sort of hidden agenda. Maybe all the things I mentioned before was enough of a reason for them to ship their kids off to other schools, hoping for them to have better opportunities.
Then again, maybe there is a hidden racism. Kanye West said “racism’s still alive, they just be concealing it”. Maybe the supreme court decision to over turn segregation did absolutely nothing for the town of Ashland, except make the fact that white parents will never send their kids to school with black kids.
By breaking down the town’s demographic, maybe most will agree. Most of the kids I went to school with stayed on the OUTSIDE of Ashland. For us, it was about a 25 minute commute. There were the areas of Lamar, highway 5, Michigan City, and our area that honestly has no name. We made up the majority of Ashland’s school system, but why? Why were the only kids that went to school in Ashland, not from Ashland? Why is it that the kids that actually stay in Ashland don’t go to Ashland? I think that once it is completely analyzed, the answer becomes obvious.
My purpose for writing this is not completely to ruffle any feathers. It is more of a challenge than an attempt at angering the people of Ashland. If my beliefs are wrong, if what I say is inaccurate, then lets work on merging the schools! There is no need to have two 2A schools, when they can have 1 school and have all the resources they need. It will kill any shortage on teachers because of the larger classes. Students will be challenged like never before, and will not be incredibly lost upon entering college. And last but not least, sports would benefit tremendously. Baseball, basketball and football would have the opportunities to be some of the best in the state, and possibly the whole region. Merging the schools is the only, and definitely the best way!

Desire? Or Lack There of?

Obviously, the NBA is staring a new trend right in the face. Since the Boston Celtics, seemingly broke the mold on how NBA teams are constructed, other players have been bending, twisting, and drastically cutting salaries to play alongside other superstars.
The most notable of these moves occured this summer when Lebron James and Chris Bosh both decided to take paycuts to pay alongside Dwayne Wade in Miami. Since then all three, mainly Lebron, has taken enormous heat! Lebron, has since become the villain of the league. Quite possibly suffering the biggest popularity drop in all of sports history. One has to ask the question, is all this hate warranted?
From my perspective, yes and no. Yes in the sense that Lebron was always held to a different standard. He was sort of the typical fan's lure away from anything negative about basketball. He was all of the "Kobe fans" bright light. A way to be able to argue about who was the league's best. He was seemingly a role model, playing for his home team.
No, only because he never asked for any of that. He never once begged to be liked, and he's never really been the one seemingly crying for attention. Of course, he has never been the best sport. Walking off the court in Orlando, basically giving up in last year's playoffs.
But i guess my main question is, do the "greats"of today's NBA lack desire? Do they lack the heart it takes to be a true champion. People praise Lebron cause they say he was on a bad team! Tell me how many teams won 60 games two years in a row. Im sure the answer to that is not many.
In the case of the Celtics, those guys had already played their careers out. Garnett, never really wanted to leave Minnesota. He wanted to win, but it was only until Ray Allen came over to Boston that Garnett signed off on that trade. We can bring up past greats like Reggie, Ewing, Barkely, and even Iverson and the conversation would go the same now even if they had won a ring. Reggie, one of the greatest shooters ever. Ewing, quite possibly the best center for a good stretch of time and was a true leader for that Knicks franchise. Barkely, the only man I know thats 6'6 and can go toe to toe with any power forward in the history of the game. Iverson, the best small player in the history of the game.
But what are all these guys missing, rings! And you can bring their name up a thousand times but that will never come up! That is because they were warriors, they had desire! Along with that came respect and admiration. Their careers are celebrated alongside the most highest, selling out to go play alongside two more superstars would have only tarnished that.
I can only hope that 10 or 20 years from now, people will remember Lebron for the exciting and great basketball talent he is. Right now, he is literally a man amongst boys. But, father time moves fast. There will come a day when those legs dont jump as high, nor move as quick. When that comes, hopefully the stinch he left the league with wont be the most important thing on his resume'.