Six Players, One Rule, and a Seven-Page Argument

The obstacle was Cascades, the school's signature Upper School program of immersive courses, some in Seattle and some involving travel. Students on a travel Cascade had been barred from winter sports, to make sure athletes committed to a full season. Most seniors chose the trip. So when two seniors told their English teacher and head coach, Bea Chang, that they wanted to play, they mentioned a problem: they were going on a travel Cascade too.

Three weeks before the season, things were not better. There was talk of merging with another school, or adding middle schoolers. And Chang realized nearly all her players were underclassmen who planned to take a travel Cascade as seniors. "As a coach, that's heartbreaking," she told the paper. "I didn't want to coach a team that will never have seniors."

So the coach and the two seniors wrote a proposal: a seven-page, comprehensive argument for letting travel-Cascade students play basketball. The seniors described their own experience of the policy, which started their freshman year: less senior leadership, and the choice between a team and a trip. Chang's summary of the case was that this was an easy thing the school could do right.

Seven pages, to get permission to play basketball. That is more than I wrote to get married.

The school approved it. Word spread. On the first day of the season, the team had twenty-one players.

It was not a fairy tale after that. The team had lost key players, chemistry took time, and later in the season Cascades and injuries shrank the roster again. At the big home game, against an undefeated conference opponent with a roster of juniors and seniors, Bush forced overtime and lost. The paper also reported that Cascades would move to late spring, a change the team had pushed for.

Twenty-one players, from a team of six, because three people sat down and wrote it out.

The middle one asked last month if he could quit piano. I said he needed a reason. He came back an hour later with a page. It had a heading, a list of three reasons and a counterargument section. I was so impressed that I said yes before I finished reading.

He is now writing a page about bedtime. I have been warned.