Edge of America
 

Saw a good movie this evening. I think it's actually pretty old, but I'm not a cutting edge kind of gal, so this was my first viewing of it. It's about a black guy who goes to an indian reservation to teach English at the high school, and he has problems getting along, but they get him to coach the girls basketball team, which of course was always losing, and he takes them all the way to state. It is your basic Cinderella story, with the loser-loser-loser team going all the way to the state final.

But there were two things about it that I liked. One was that they lost the final game, and so they came in second in the state, and the team that beat them at state is the arch rival team, whose coach had said some very demeaning things to the black coach earlier in the season. They didn't get their comuppance by beating them, but they took them to double overtime and were classier when it was over.

The second thing I liked (however unrealistic it might be) is that at half time of one of the games, the girls were in the locker room complaining about how the refs were screwing them, and one of the players stood up and said, "Forget this stuff. We have to play well enough that the refs don't have an opportunity to screw us. If we lose by only five or ten points, it's not the refs fault, it's our fault. Let's go out there and ..." Whether or not any player has uttered those words in real life, they're there on film for girls from across America to hear and think about. Cool!

(Wow, talk about run on sentences!!!)

You're right, Juulie. HS girls definitely shouldn't be talking about getting screwed by the refs! :eek: