When I was a young man living in The Rock House, one of the things we did for fun during the winter months was to play “Church Basketball” against boys from the other wards in the Snowflake Stake. In fact, about the only thing we did when we had mid-week meetings and when we had a church building with a gym, was to play church basketball.
(For those not familiar with the way the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is organized, the different congregations are called “wards”. All of the congregations in an area are a part of a larger church unit called a “stake”.)
At that time, a boy could either play on the school team or on the church team but not both. There was quite a bit of prestige associated with being on the school team. When I was a freshman in high school I tried out for the Freshman Basketball Team. I was pretty tall and I liked to play basketball. I think about thirty boys tried out. I found out that I wasn’t as good as I thought I was. I was cut from the team on the second cut.
Those who didn’t make the school team could play on the church team and so that is what I did. None of the boys from Heber made the school team so we all just played “Church Basketball”. We would play the teams from the other wards in the stake including wards from Show Low, Snowflake, Taylor, Pinedale and Clay Spring. We usually played a game once a week. Because it was a church activity, almost the whole town would show up to watch us play. Each ward had a junior and a senior team. The junior team was made up of boys from twelve to eighteen years of age, and the senior team was made up of the men. We had yellow uniforms as I recall. The boys would play first and then the men would play.
Basketball season was always in the winter time when we were in school. We had to practice either early in the morning or later in the evenings. We did both. The men only practiced in the evenings. I can remember that when I was fourteen or fifteen, our advisors agreed to open the gym for us at about five o’clock each morning. We would drag ourselves out of bed and run up to the church to practice basketball until about six thirty when we’d have to leave, run home and get ready for school and catch the bus about seven o’clock. As I look back, I am amazed at the devotion of our advisors. They were there almost every morning.
I can still remember the feeling of the clear cold air burning my lungs as I ran to and from the gym on those cold early mornings. Because I lived so close to the church building, I didn’t bother to put on a coat. I just ran fast. Most of the time there was snow on the ground so it was like a winter wonderland in the light of the one or two street lights we had on the main street in Heber.
I don’t recall any of our win-loss records but we did have lots of fun. Church athletics were very important activities at that time in my life. I am grateful we had them to help keep us busy and involved in something special.