It used to be that if you were really bad at a sport, you didn’t want to tell the world.
This was especially true in junior high or high school, because embarrassment was compounded by laughter and other humiliations.
But in Pipestone, far better prospects have led to a so-called “Bad Basketball Association,” where athletically challenged students have turned their basketball incompetence into a real league that draws fans. It has become so popular this winter that the league has had its own logo, officials, scorekeeper, cameraman and social media accounts. T-shirts were produced and $325 additional money from these t-shirt sales was donated to the school’s wellness room.
Turns out, bad basketball isn’t something you can just poke fun at. It’s very entertaining.
Credit goes to Pipestone County Star Sports Editor Kevin Kyle, who wrote an excellent article about the league for the newspaper’s website. The whole idea started, Kevin said, from a personal rivalry between students Nathaniel Jones and Ty Hansen, who met on the court after Jones boasted he could beat his friend in a 1-on-1 game. Hansen won the game 16-4, but the irrepressible Jones continued his trash talk and they played a few more times. More players were brought in, who became real teams. Student fans even skipped lunch to watch.
In a world where way too many people take themselves way too seriously, I think the Bad Basketball Association is what we need. It takes all kinds, after all, and the ability of lousy hoopsters to amuse themselves by laughing at themselves – and the ability of fellow students to enjoy their antics in the spirit of fun – is something any school can embrace.
Todd Tinklenberg, Pipestone Area’s Headboys basketball coach, told me that members of his team act at the games, and they get in the mood.
“Sometimes they say to one of the players, ‘You’re too good. You have to sit outside for a few minutes,” Tinklenberg said.
Doug Wolters
I called Worthington High School’s varsity basketball coach, CJ Nelson, who was a star in three sports (basketball, football, track) while he was at WHS. I asked him if he thought he could “spot” a future varsity player in such a league, and he thoughtfully dismissed it.
But he said this: “I think there are enough kids who just enjoy playing. It seems like some kind of intramural league. I could definitely see something like this working (in Worthington).
Who can even say how many Worthington kids would be perfect for a league like this? Undoubtedly, there are many who were just born to play in a bad basketball league.
“The only way to look at this is in the way kids support the high school team,” Nelson added. “The bad basketball players support the good basketball players, and one would hope that the same would happen in reverse. It’s still supportive.”
I can relate to that myself. I didn’t play organized basketball in high school, but I did play in school. In my first game, this little runt from Allendorf scored eight points, which allowed me to be part of a list of high scorers on the community bulletin board. I have walked up to that piece of paper many times just to see my name and prove to myself that I really did score those points.
When you look at today’s high school athletes, it’s good that winter has both basketball and wrestling for potential competitors to choose from. In my day, wrestlers were despised by basketball kids because many of them were uncoordinated on hardwood. But then these wrestlers challenged the basketball players to six minutes on the mat, and the teasing tended to stop.
When it comes to teasing in the Bad Basketball Association, it’s only of the good-natured kind. Popular singer Huey Lewis once sang that “it’s hip to be square,” and it certainly is in Pipestone.
Even someone like CJ Nelson can understand that. It’s not like he was great at every sport, you know.
“I used to skate once in my life. I would be a pretty bad hockey player,” he said. “Or if I jumped on the wrestling mat, I’d probably get pinned pretty quickly.”
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