Is that all there is?
By David Boldt
Editorial Director
It seems as if there should be more to say about this past season and the remarkable achievements of the undefeated Christian Learning boys varsity basketball team, yet there’s nothing much left to write about
This season needs a better conclusion.
Why? In part because the Eagles were never really tested. Its closest game was a 42-26 win over Cambridge back in the first half of the season, a contest in which the two teams were actually tied (briefly) in the second quarter.
If there was justice in the world, the Eagles would have found themselves in the semifinals of the state championship, down by a basket and inbounding the ball with five seconds on the clock. The buzzer would sound as Danny Canaviri unleashed a shot from almost midcourt that rips soundlessly through the cords. Then . . . chaos.
That’s the sort of stuff of which legends are made. It would be like a movie – Hoosiers, Rocky, Friday Night Lights, Angels in the Outfield, Bad News Bears, etc. What we have this season is a screenplay without a chase to cut to.
I picked Canaviri because he is my hero, and not because of the amazing 28 points he fired in during the championship, or anything else he did this year. He is my hero because of something I saw two years ago.
I had come into the darkened Christian Learning gym long after school was out to pick up some papers from then athletic director Alejandra Salto. You couldn’t really see anything as you entered from the bright sunshine of the afternoon, but you could hear the “thunk . . . thunk . . . thunk . . . .” of grained rubber on concrete. Gradually you could make out a lone figure in the gloom at the far end of the gym.
It was Canaviri, all by himself, practicing jump shots.
One cannot help but wonder how beneficial it would be for the quality of play in the League if that kind of work ethic were more widely held. The fact that it is not has a bearing on the proposal I am about to make, and needs to be acknowledged directly.
My point, to reiterate, is that we need a more fitting finale. Let me give an example. I continue to be in contact with Juan Manuel Salas, the vagabond ex-Cambridge star now playing in Lima.
I recognize that this is a source of annoyance to many current Eagles. However, I bring this up because his club team this year had a record of success similar to that of Christian Learning, though the victory margins were not as wide.
And when last I heard his team was heading off to Buenos Aires for an international tournament of clubs, and a chance for appropriate closure to their season.
I suppose we could all offer to chip in and send the Eagles somewhere, but, frankly, I don’t think that is going to happen.
Another possibility is that they could challenge some other school in Bolivia to some sort of ad hoc national championship match. But I have no idea who. It’s possible that there is no worthy opponent.
The referees tell me that the SCISL plays high school basketball at the highest level in Santa Cruz, and the fact that Cambridge basically went through the city’s 17-and-under tournament like a hot knife through butter last year adds credibility to that.
The American Schools in La Paz and Cochabamba are not in contention. Santa Cruz Cooperative has been able to beat them handily in their "Friendship Games" in everything but soccer, even when Cooperative’s teams have finished well out of the money in the League.
So is there no possibility for a suitable test?
How about this: An exhibition match between the Eagles and a team made up of the best players from the other teams in the League?
Personally, I would pay money to see it (and this could help defray the League’s ever-threatening deficits) That is, I would pay IF that all-star agglomeration really got together and practiced. Otherwise the better organized Eagles would probably shred them much as they have all their other opponents this season.
“All-Star” games are somewhat in disrepute at present because it seems that many players look on playing in them as extra work, rather than an honor. Many athletes (including, it must be said, several Christian Learning stars) simply failed to show up for the last all-star contests. If there was a similar lack of esprit for this idea, it too would be doomed.
So it would be important to check to see if there is any enthusiasm for this idea before actually trying to bring it about. But if there were an appropriate level of support, it might be a proper way to give the season a climax.
Otherwise we could just wait until next season and figure something out then. After all, every Eagle player but one who was on the floor for this year’s championship will be back next year.
A frightening thought, no?
