The Boaz Scorekeeper, written in 2017, is my second novel. I'll post it, a chapter a day, over the next few weeks.
The first home game of the 1969 season was with the cross-county rival Arab Knights. They had a fast and quick-trigger forward who, along with a giraffe-necked center, scorched our nets for 99 points. We had 33 less. The only bright spot was the passing and ball-stealing abilities of our point guard James Adams. He was a sophomore like me.
The season didn’t get much better. Boaz lost 32 of its 58 games, losing 18 games at home. I didn’t miss a game. I even rode the bus with the team to all Away games even though I wasn’t the scorekeeper. However, Coach Pearson was a stickler for statistics and the pet spreadsheet that he often called ‘The Shit.’
During my Sophomore year I only made one mistake. It was against the Albertville Aggies in the last home game in mid-January. There was less than two minutes left on the clock and we were down only two points when long passes and fast breaks became the mood on the court. John Ericson scored on a layup and was fouled. He missed the foul shot but for some reason I unknowingly added the point to the Board and the game continued. It was some sort of miracle that the referees continued the game even though the Aggie fans were shouting and nearly coming out of the bleachers. Boaz Center Randall Radford blocked Albertville’s next shot and Coach Pearson called time-out. Before I could stand up to stretch my legs Albertville’s coach was dragging the head ref over to my table and motioning for Coach Pearson. It was a tense few moments with tempers flaring. The refs finally recognized the mistake and ordered me to remove the point from the Boaz score. Albertville went on to beat Boaz by three points. Even though one would think that Boaz fans and players wouldn’t have been upset with me, that wasn’t the case. It seemed everyone blamed me for the loss. Several of the players said I intentionally got the Aggies fired up and cost them the game.
The Pencil Driven Life 