Alternative-Route Teachers Rout Street-Ballers in Hollandale

Hollandale, MS- In December of 2005, a squad of street-balling hustlers posing as police officers played a team of teachers at the Simmons High School gym. It was a homecoming for many of the street-ballers, several of whom were members of the 2001 state championship team. The young ballers destroyed the mostly middle-aged teachers by a final score of 110-65. The lone highlight of the game for the teachers was a third-quarter rim-rattling dunk by first-year teacher, Joel "White Thunder" Hebert. Needless to say, there was no talk of a rematch after the slaughter. But that did not stop Simmons principal Roger Liddell from scheduling a second blood-letting.

This rematch was played on Wednesday, March 8. The crowd was smaller this time, due to no previous announcement of the game. But fortunately for the teachers, our empty bench was full of high school seniors, and our starting line-up was given a major overhaul. Not wanting to endure another beating by the ballers, Mr. Hebert called up his roommate, 6'7" power forward Chris Elliott. Chris is a Teach For America (TFA) teacher in Greenville. Chris in turn placed a call to his friend, William, another member of TFA. William is an explosive point guard who attended Wake Forest, where he was assigned the task of guarding All-American Chris Paul everyday in practice. With these additions to the starting line-up, combined with Joel and Aaron "the Assassin" Thompson, the second game of this series was shaping up to be a much more even affair.

The first five minutes of the game were frustrating for the teacher team. The street ballers jumped out to an early 14-4 lead, as Joel Hebert and other teachers could not find their shots. The ballers continued to press into the second quarter, and only the inside scoring of Chris "Moose" Elliott kept the game close. At halftime, the score was 44-31 on the side of the ballers.

It was in the third quarter that the miraculous comeback began. Cheered on by Principal Liddell, who unselfishly elected to sit out this game, the teacher team roared back to life. Led by Terrence Williams and other high school seniors, the teachers clawed back to within seven points. The starters were inserted into the game at this point, and the teachers began wiping the boards with the trash-talking ballers. With six minutes left in the third quarter, Joel put in short jumper off a nice pass from his roommate Moose. He was fouled on the play, and had the chance to tie the game at 57-57. This would be the first tie since the game started at 0-0. Hebert, who has never missed a free throw at Simmons, converted this one as well to tie the game. This brought the crowd back into the game in a major way.

A major part of the teacher's turnaround was our composure. The street-ballers turned into a bunch of thugs, who cursed out the student-refs and cried about every call. At one point, the other team's leading scorer was called for a foul and threw the ball across the gym. He was given a technical foul, which the teachers converted.

The street-balling, foul-mouthed thugs mounted a comeback in the fourth quarter. Again and again they pulled to within a single point of the teachers. But with thirty seconds left in the game, 350 pound shooting guard, Phil Gibson, made a three pointer that clinched the game for the teachers. The gym went crazy, as Cinderella paid a visit to Simmons High. The message of this story: when alternative-route teaching programs work together, anything is possible. Especially when you assign funny nicknames.