Outsmarted
Everyone in the town of Mustang knew the All-Stars were
the best team in the recreational league, year in and year out. They thought
there was no one who could dethrone this team because the All-Stars had the
best players in the town and had not lost a game in the last three years since
joining the league. The other teams in the league put out their best efforts to
try and take down this team, but every team came up short of that goal. There
was no one capable of beating them and ending their streak of recreation league
championships.
Another recreational team, the Leaders of the New School,
from Yukon, a town to the north of Mustang, caught wind of this whole scenario
going down and decided to take the matters into their own hands. They showed up
to the Mustang Community and challenged the All-Stars to game between champions
to see who the best team in the Canadian County was. The teams agreed on a
time, place, and day when to play their game. The All-Stars did not think much
of the Leaders of the New School and already started thought they would win
this matchup. The Leaders of the New School were not a very intimidating
looking team, while the All-Stars had a team full of athleticism, length and
size. These attributes were the reason of thinking they would be the Leaders of
the New School because they would be able to run and gun up the court and wear
them down. The Leaders of the New School knew this is what they would try to
do, but the way they would counteract that was slowing the pace down and work
the game clock while producing good scoring opportunities within their half
court offense.
They day of the game arrived and both teams showed up to
the Mustang Community Center, where they had settled on playing the game. The
time was 7:30 pm, the dust was settling as the teams took their place upon the
court with the championship of champions on the line. The Leaders of the New
School and the All-Stars met at half court to shake hands, but quickly those friendly
handshakes turned into game faces as both teams stared down the other before
tip-off. Everyone in the building could feel the tension of both team as the
game was about to start. The official walked to the center circle at half court
to do the tipoff to get the game started. He tossed the ball into the air and
the game began.
Author’s Note:
The first story I used was How the Terrapin Beat the Rabbit. Everyone knew the Rabbit was a great runner and thought nothing of the Terrapin except for the fact that he was a slow traveler, but he was a fighter/warrior and very arrogant. This lead to the Rabbit and Terrapin always arguing about their own and each other’s speed. Finally they decided on racing each other to see who was faster. The Rabbit and Terrapin determined the day, the starting place of the race and prearranged to run the race athwart the four mountain ridges and the winner would be who crossed the finish line first. He knew he could not outrun the Rabbit in this race, but he wanted so bad to stop the Rabbit’s trash talking. The day of the race had finally arrived and all of the animals had come to see the race. The second story I used was The Ball Game of the Birds and Animals. The animals challenged the birds to a great game of ball play, and the birds rightfully accepted the animals’ challenge. The leaders made all of the arrangements and decided on a day to play, and when that day came they all met at the agreed location. The animals were on the grass by the river and the birds were over top in the trees. This story will have a sequel, which is why I stopped at where I did because I wanted to do a sequel to this story.
Bibliography: How the Terrapin Beat the Rabbit and The Ball Game of the Birds and Animals, James Mooney (1900)
