“I have half your team robbing a store on video,” my principal texted me.
http://liarcatchers.com/electronic_surveillance.html
I didn’t reply. What could I say? I just tossed my phone onto the passenger seat and exhaled. They’re constant, these obstacles. Despite how serious this one sounds to an outsider, to me it just feels like another bump in the road. We’re one week from our first game at this point. Would we have enough guys to play?
When I got back to the school, my principal and I, along with a few Family Advocates, watched the surveillance tape. Eight players stood awkwardly and sketchily in front of the counter of a convenience store one block from the school. There were six angles to watch it from, one in color. A few of them grabbed candy bars and bags of chips. Some just stood there watching.
They were all easy to identify, each one of them. I didn’t even have to say any names, as the others in the room with me knew each by the colors of their hooded sweatshirts, which were pulled over their heads, or their lowered baseball caps.
“What does this mean?” I asked my principal.
“Not sure,” he shrugged as he toggled the video to another angle, “really depends on who has the most priors, and what the charges are. Could be larceny, conspiracy, or even burglary.”
Several of my players have prior convictions. That is often what led them to our school; whatever crimes they committed got them kicked out of their original school, leaving us as their final option.
I don’t know what happens now. If the storeowner acts fast, the boys will be arrested and could be put on house arrest or even go to jail.
Eight or nine guys show up consistently to practice. I already had to cancel the JV team’s season because we don’t have enough players. Now things look even grimmer.
