Usually I rant and rail about Pop culture, but I'm a middle school teacher and coach, so today I wanted to write about a group of athletes who are very important to me.

The Burbank Bulldogs' season came to an end last night, but not before they had a successful district season and made it out of the bi-district round of the playoffs. The seniors on this team were the last group of eighth grade students I taught at Harris Middle School, and I've always had a soft spot for them. Coach Herrera and I had those boys for seventh grade basketball. There were thirty boys on the team, and we didn't cut anyone. Coach Herrera knew the boys from football season, I had taught most of them when they were in sixth grade, and Coach Roden, their PE teacher, had told us what good athletes they were, so on the first day of practice, we knew they were capable of having a special season. We used the first few games to tinker with our line ups, figure out who was on the A Team and who was on the B Team, and establish discipline and rules. In the first game we benched two of the best A Team players for missing practice. After that we didn't have any problems getting the boys to listen to us. The truth is, we wouldn't have had much trouble anyway. This was a great group of kids. The boys were enthusiastic and cheerful, even at 6:30 AM practices. Most of them were excellent students in the classroom. A few of the boys could give their teachers headaches, but it was never mean-spirited behavior. These were just active middle school boys. Sometimes one of the seventh grade teachers would come to my classroom with a basketball player in tow. "Coach, you have to do something about this boy!" Herrera and I would mete out a punishment ranging from extra horses or time on the bench, and the problem would be solved (temporarily, at least). There were a few boys (who shall remain nameless) that got some special treatment on a couple of occasions. I would pick them up in the morning, and we'd go from class to class getting their books and their day's assignments from their teachers. Then they would spend that day in my room. Sitting in the famous "Desk of Discipline" they would complete their assignments with the understanding that they'd better not disturb my classes, and they'd better learn to control themselves in their regular classes. This was a technique I picked up from the legendary Coach Sapenter, and it worked. 

We had a great time. Practices were fun. With so many boys, we had to be organized, and keep everyone busy. We were very deep and wanted balance on both teams, so a couple of boys who were really talented enough to play on the A Team accepted their roles on the B Team. Somehow Coach Herrera and I found minutes for all the boys. We wanted everyone to contribute in some way. Once Zone Play began our A Team went undefeated, our B Team only lost one game, and we brought home a district championship. 

When the boys went to high school, I followed their progress. Since I was coaching basketball and track at Little Flower School now, I could only make it to the games that Burbank played during Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks and the playoffs. Of course not all thirty of the boys could make the team at the high school level, but I was glad to see how many of our Harris Hawks stuck it out every year. It was especially great to see some of our B Team boys move up to the varsity team, sometimes even getting a starting nod. A couple of Lowell Middle School boys were on the team, and there were three younger Harris Hawks, but the majority of the varsity was made up of that group I had such fond memories of. When I couldn't make it to games, I'd check out the results in the newspaper. It was fun to see how different players would step up each game. One night Juan would go off for twenty points. Another night it would be Moses. Even though it wasn't showing up in the box score, I knew that Jordan and Gabriel were running the press and taking care of the ball, and Matthew was playing tough defense every night.

Obviously a lot of credit for Burbank's success has to go to Coach Herbert Jackson. When I was at Harris I worked a couple of Jackson's summer camps, sat in on some of his practices, and scouted plenty of games for him. I liked his style and way of working with young athletes, and I learned a lot about coaching from him. He rarely has the kind of blue chip athletes that show up every season at the big north side schools, but his teams are always competitive. He and his staff have created a culture of success at Burbank, and although I'm sure he and his team are disappointed about the way the season ended, I hope they'll be able to look back at their accomplishments with pride. I'm really going to miss watching Moses, Jordan, Juan, Matthew, Gabriel, and Daniel, but I've enjoyed seeing those little boys mature into young men. I know that they will all have bright futures after graduation.