Ben Norcia’s Blog (Chronicles of Norcia) Ch 2 ep 9: Gaute-Ballin’ and Thanksgiving

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭4‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Wednesday, November 22nd: I watch as one of my Guate-ballers makes a steal at the defensive end, breaks past a defender and fires a cross court pass to one of the middle grade’s best players, a guard named Chino. After sending two helpless defenders flying past with a nasty pump fake, Chino nails a game-winning bank shot for the win. One of his teammates, a joyful athletic kid named Miguel, runs over and they throw their arms around each other’s shoulders as they happily trot down the court in the glee of their victory.

The Santa Marta Basketball project has come a long way.

School days are not long in Santa Marta, and the best part of it from what I’ve seen is that it provides an opportunity for kids to be kids in a place where that’s rarely an option. They work from a very young age, and schooling is not a priority. They only have three grades: G1 (around 5-7 year olds), G2, (around 8-10 year olds), and G3 (around 11-13 year olds). G3 has significantly the smallest number of kids. Of the ones who are able to complete their schooling, not many continue to secondary education as they go on to work full time.

Kids are very independent from a young age as both parents work and they are forced to grow up fast. School is a place where the kids are able to be themselves and find joy. REINDOM provides them opportunities they would never have otherwise, such as extra classes in Bible study, English, and PE. They also make lunch for them a few times a week in a country where chronic malnutrition in children is sadly very common. Their contribution to these kids’ lives is priceless. It is an honor to say I have contributed.

Before I arrived in Guatemala, someone had given the village four basketballs for the school’s PE class. For a little while, basketball consisted of dribbling and passing around once a week.

When I started coaching basketball, it was evident that this was not the most popular activity in anyone’s minds. The teachers tried their best, but not having played much themselves, coaching a bunch of rowdy kids was a struggle.

We started installing some fundamentals and games to make the classes more exciting. One day I remember fondly, is when we taught the older kids how to play dribble knockout, a game where a number of players dribble inside of an enclosed space and try to knock each other’s balls away, with the last dribbler standing named the winner. They started to get a feel for it, and despite never having played real basketball, some began to really enjoy the sport.

After a few weeks, John Teter and I started a GoFundMe with a goal of 500$ to buy them real baskets and equipment.

People from all over the USA poured in 600$ in two days.

A huge donation a few weeks later totaled the funds raised at 700$. The generosity everyone displayed in reaching this total has been incredible to watch and I am eternally grateful for all of you who cared to see this vision come to life.

Not long after: We set the hoops up in Santa Marta.

Since then, G3 has had Basketball class every Tuesday and Friday afternoon, while G2 has had class on Wednesdays.

Getting to watch some of the kids fall in love with the game instantly was one of the most wonderful blessings I’ve ever experienced.

It has certainly been an interesting coaching journey. I’ve coached youth basketball for many different ages over a number of years for a few different organizations. Despite this being the sixth year since I started coaching as an 8th grader (man I’m getting old) I don’t know if I ever could have been prepared to coach dozens of kids who have neither played the game before, nor speak the same language as me.

Truthfully, I’ve delighted in every second of this basketball journey.

There was definitely a few coaching blocks early on. First, while basketball and soccer translate in some ways, knowledge of one and not the other can lead to some interesting assumptions. To this day, I still have to remind at least one kid per class that basketball does not have goalies. “Todos en ofensiva!” might be in my top three most repeated Spanish phrases along with “gracias” and “un momento”. “Todos” means “everyone”, so “everyone on offense!” is a pretty constant reminder.

Despite my best efforts, there are a few older boys who think they know better than me and that goalies are necessary. Due to this disrespect, I have found it necessary in my integrity as a coach to dunk on some of them from time to time. For educational purposes, obviously.

Another coaching block early on was the difficulty in explaining double dribbles and travels through the language barrier. “Revolta” (dribble) “alto” (stop) “no mas revolta” (no more dribble). Fluency is awesome.

Some of the G2 boys are known to get physical with one another on occasion, and on week 2 while running full court games I had a few fights one class. I don’t totally know what they were talking about, but by the end of the day, I’m pretty sure everyone wanted to fight the biggest kid in the class as he was fouling more than they thought necessary. It’s very interesting how fast they go from best friends, to throwing “mano”s, to best friends again. It was a couple weeks of drills and half court before we ran full again.

I really love these little guys so much, they’re such innocent little knuckleheads, and the passion they’ve developed for the game so quickly is beautiful. They love sports, playing, their amazing coach, and each other so much it’s evident. Especially with the G2s (my favorites) I have had the time of my life coaching, playing with, eating meals with, and just living life with the children of Santa Marta.

On Wednesday, November 22nd, we ran full court for the first time in a little while with the G2 class. It was the best day of basketball so far. Whoever handed out the pinnies accidentally loaded the blue team with talent (my bad). They came on for the second or third game, and as we played “winning team stays on” it wasn’t until game seven or eight when they came off. Because I kicked them off. They completely dominated. In a class where ball movement is emphasized, it is rarely evident in the lack of passing that goes on. Until this blue team got together. Complete with three of the grades five best players, they passed in a way Santa Marta had never seen before. They won five or six games in a row with their rapid passing that left defenses helpless.

It was the greatest moment of my teaching career.

I keep hearing more and more that Basketball is another kid’s favorite class and the joy that this project has brought them is just beyond words. One of my favorite students, Enrique, shouts “proffer!” and then imitates dribbling a ball with an ear to ear smile on his face every time he sees me.

A love for basketball is a wonderful gift I’ve received. Who knew it could be beneficial in serving others and stewarding God’s grace? If I had to guess, probably the something that brought me here. Our God is a God of love, hope, and joy. I can’t help but grin thinking about the joy God feels in seeing the joy of these kids. Oh, what a beautiful situation He’s brought me into. It’s an unexplainable feeling knowing that the God of the universe has used me in this way, and He feels joy because of what’s going on in Santa Marta. I’m just the lucky guy He chose to use. An 18 year old kid, completely undeserving, eternally grateful.

Thanksgiving

The alarmingly overwhelming gratitude for all God has done and is doing in my life has definitely been the theme of my life the last three months. My prayers of gratitude come out daily as I can’t help but bask in the thankfulness that is natural in the face of all the incredible blessings I’ve received.

Thanksgiving is such a great holiday.

Although it was very difficult to miss a Norcia Thanksgiving, I was extremely grateful for the people I got to spend the holiday with, the beautiful country I got to spend it in, and the bizarrely un-American way I spent it.

Thanksgiving football is one of the best holiday traditions, and Gap W squad certainly carried it on while out of country. Just don’t ask what kind of football we played.

Although my American-heritage was almost insulted, the whole squad engaged in a 7 on 7 “football” tournament. It was an awesomely organized community event that saw the final match go down to overtime penalty kicks.

En route for Chimaltenango, I set out for lunch with Banks, Juwally Howard, and Grace. In true American, turkey-loving fashion, we followed up the soccer tournament by eating Panda Express.

For dinner, the whole squad got together to enjoy a spread so delicious it effortlessly melted everyone’s homesickness away. As I convinced myself that the chicken was turkey, imagined that the mac and cheese wasn’t Kraft, and pretended that I didn’t terribly miss my Grammy’s cooking, I had one of the best Thanksgiving’s of all time. I am so eternally grateful for all of my life’s blessings. Most importantly for all of the people I get to share that life with.

Santa Marta Basketball 11/28:

This blog was originally supposed to end with just the Santa Marta Basketball timeline and Thanksgiving update but Basketball class was too good today not to share. It started as it usually does. I had the older kids today, with them groaning about drills and pretending they don’t understand all seven very well-rehearsed Spanish words I know. As it goes often, I gave in to the antics and let them run some games.

The first game was the best Santa Marta 5v5 game I’d seen to date, as the showdown of two of the village’s best hoopers faced a team that moved the ball better than any squad so far. The two red team big men were unstoppable, but so was the speed with which the blue team passed. In a game to 5, the match quickly came down to the wire at 4-4. Blue came out triumphant, and then repeated their dominance, winning their second game easily, 5-1.

Towards the end of this second game, my aforementioned buddy Enrique came up to me asking if he could play. It wasn’t his class’s day for basketball, but assuming his English class must’ve ended, I eagerly let the young baller run with the big boys. I threw him on the next up yellow team where he joined a fun lanky kid named Ronny who always wears the same pair of black and white Jordans. Ronny is a goofball, and he’s actually pretty good at basketball.

The two of them, going up to face the undefeated and incredibly impressive blue team, were accompanied by three girls. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a middle school PE class, but athletic all-boys teams usually make short work of co-ed squads.

And then Yellow won.

It was insane. Pure loco-madness.

Enrique, the little kid playing against boys three years older than him, led in scoring as a youngster, a lanky goofball, and three determined girls dismantled the dominating reigning champions. And then they won again. Enrique was getting buckets as they had a great run, winning some electrifying games and losing some close ones.

As I was cleaning up the balls, pinnies, and hoops after class, I noticed Enrique getting yelled at by one of the teachers in the corner of the schoolyard. She was really laying it on my boy and I was sad to see my little star upset.

I came up to her afterwards to ask what Enrique had done and she responded by informing me that Enrique, my little star player, had decided not to attend his English class that afternoon…

Oops…

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