From the desk of Wally Dawkins, Athletic Director:

The game was set in the completely packed, sold out Pirate Gymnasium in Longview at Pine Tree High School.  It was the game of the year in our district as Pine Tree, who started five seniors while being ranked as the #2 class AAAA team in the state, hosted one of my pretty good but very young Whitehouse Wildcat Basketball squads.  The game was not only for first place in the district, it was billed as another opportunity for the Pirates to totally demolish an additional foe, with their swarming man to man full court defense in front of a capacity crowd of predominately Pirate fans.  As the Head Coach of the Wildcats, I knew we could be in for a rough night.

Surprising to most (if I am honest…including myself), our Wildcats held their own and took the game into overtime.  With four seconds left, and a two point lead, a 5’ll freshman point guard by the name of Brady Dawkins hit two free throws to seal the win for WHS.

The unranked, underdog, and visiting team on the scoreboard Wildcats had pulled the upset.

The Whitehouse faithful were ecstatic and stormed the floor in celebration of the huge win.  It seemed the Wildcat fans were not only overjoyed, but somewhat stunned at the outcome. The Pirate fans filed out rather somberly, mostly silent, and shaking their heads in disbelief.

The post-game meal for the victors was to be held at a local pizza place.  We didn’t hand out the eating arrangements to our fans because, quite candidly, I wasn’t sure it was going to be a victory party.  We had arranged for the pizza to be ready at 9:30, and had pre-ordered each boy and coach an individual pizza to be ready when we arrived.  We had planned on eating inside the establishment because the boys would have access to “bottomless” soft drinks, tea, and water.

As we arrived and made our way into the pizza place, the restaurant manager asked for Coach Dawkins and quickly led me back outside into the parking lot.  I could tell there was a problem.

“Coach” he said, “I want to apologize”.  “We had all 12 of your pizzas sitting out on the counter and a man came in off the street and took three of them and ran back outside.”

Then he exclaimed pointing his finger at a jeep who was pulling out onto the main road “It’s that man right there”!

I immediately recognized the man as one of my player’s parents.  The man, whose son was a senior, found out where we were eating, and obviously decided to take off with the Whitehouse Basketball Team pizzas.

At first I was at a loss for words…or ideas why this parent…this dad…this man would basically steal our pre-ordered pizzas.

Going back inside, the manager, obviously embarrassed, quickly made three more pizzas for our team to have enough.

On the bus ride home, I kept coming up with different scenarios as to why this respectable, employed, and usually supportive parent, would become the “pirate of the pizzas”.

I found out the reason for the “great pizza caper” the very next day.  Apparently, the father who took the pizzas was highly upset that his son had played less than a minute in the big game against Pine Tree, and this was his way of gaining getting even with the coach.

Now, it didn’t matter to this dad that his son had an injured right hand and could barely catch a basketball, much less dribble one.  Embarrassed that his son received very little playing time in the big win over the state’s #2 team, the dad decided he swiping three of the pizza pies was the right and equitable thing to do. The son on the other hand, was ecstatic over the win, and joined in with the rest of the team in celebration over Pine Tree as if he had made the winning basket.

When I think of this story now, I find it rather humorous.  Perhaps with time you are able to just shake your head and muster a smile when you reflect back on some of the situations you have experienced as a coach.  Maybe it is a funny story.

Although not funny in the fact that the 17 year old kid had a much healthier response to the situation than the parent. This young man was a big part of our team’s success and a couple of games later scored 17 points in another big win, this time at Jacksonville.  Not surprisingly, we had zero pizzas missing after the J’ville win.

The moral of this story is simply this; some situations require immediate responses while others require a more patient and measured response.  The hard part is knowing which one and when.

I have the great pleasure of being the Athletic Director Brook Hill where our parent population has the best interest of our school and our kids at heart.  I get to work with an entire community of parents who are cooperative, reasonable, and well intentioned.  It is my privilege to have the opportunity to join with parents, alumni, and fans who communicate with me and the Athletic Staff daily as we strive to make Brook Hill the best it can possibly be.

And…as of press time, not one person has stolen any of our team’s pizzas!

And that’s another reason to be “ALL ORANGE…All The Time”!