To the Editor:
I have had the honor of being involved in recreational basketball in the Mount Vernon area for more than a decade. I have been a parent, a coach, a commissioner, and a league officer. I have affiliated with the Lee District, Mount Vernon and Fort Hunt leagues. I am proud to count my colleagues, not just as peers, but friends. The folks who make basketball available to the youth in the area contribute untold hours of community service with little explicit rewards. We owe these folks a tribute for making the great American sport available to the next generation of American leaders. Since the season ends this year ends on or about March 17, Saint Patrick's Day, I offer this tribute to them to the unofficial ballad of the Irish Diaspora, "Danny Boy:"
Oh, referees, your whistles are no longer blowing
across the courts or along the coaches’ bench line.
The season’s gone, and no crowds are billowing.
'Tis the fans, 'tis the fans have gone and players must bide.
But come ye back next season for the new show,
visitors in colors and home with the white of snow.
While now this season we fondly remember,
but, even yet, we yet prepare for next October.
And if you fans come back next season,
to await the sport and its emotion,
(which sometimes frays beyond all reason),
please thank those folks who put the league into motion,
they who manage the schedules and the game,
they who make it about the players’ fame,
they whose earnings are a just child’s smiling face
and in making our community a better place.
and in making our community a better place.
Patrick Rhoads
Alexandria,