Tag: Basketball

If you didn’t grow up in a small town, this may not hit home with you.

I recently read the book Blind Your Ponies by Stanley Gordon West.  The book is fiction, but the author uses the real town of Willow Creek, Montana (population est. 225) as the home base for his storyline, and much of his writing is as believable as it would be if the book was a documentary.

The book recommendation came from a close friend who also coaches basketball in a small town (my home town, in fact), although his team has not experienced the challenges the real and fictitious Willow Creek team did.

In the author’s own words:

“When I became intrigued with Willow Creek, the basketball team hadn’t won a game in over five years and yet those boys carried on with what they had.  I couldn’t avoid the question:  What made them do it?

I followed the team over Montana highways in the dead of winter to the far-flung outposts and cracker-box gyms for several years, trying to find an answer to that question.”

I’m not sure his question was answered, but this book is a good read just the same.  With a slightly Hoosier-esque feel, it chronicles a six-player team and their journey toward the seemingly impossible goal, considering their past failings.

It’s the first book I have read by this author.  I likely would not have come across it at all without the recommendation of my friend, a state champion coach in a town that has, unlike the real Willow Creek, experienced phenomenal success of late.

But that’s hardly the point.

The book reveals the loyalty a town can show to one another when there is a common goal – a reason to bond.  The story has likely played out in various locations thousands of times; I’ve lived it myself recently when pulling for a high school and town I haven’t lived in for thirty years.

Like Willow Creek, small town Iowa is no different than small town Montana.  The photo above looks down Main Street of that small Iowa town, a town filled with many different names since I first lived there.

In thirty years, there have been changes.

Businesses lose their purpose.  Town elders die.  Friends become former acquaintances.

The high school today is modern, while the old high school serves a younger audience of middle school kids.

The mayor still works for the same insurance agency, although the office has moved next door and the mayor is a different person.

There are historic buildings serving a different purpose than when they were first built.  Despite changes, they anchor the past.

These familiarities ensure one thing never changes, basketball season or not.

That town is still home.