The Girls of Central High at Basketball Part 1

The Girls of Central High at Basketball.

by Gertrude W. Morrison.

CHAPTER I

HESTER IS MIFFED

The referee's whistle sounded sharply, and the eighteen girls of Central High engaged in playing basketball, as well as an equal number strung along the side lines, stopped instantly and turned their eyes on Mrs. Case, the physical instructor.

"Hester Grimes! you are deliberately delaying the game. I have reprimanded you twice. The third time I will take you out of the team for the week----"

"I didn't, either!" cried the person addressed, a rather heavily built girl for her age, with a st.u.r.dy body and long arms--well developed in a muscular way, but without much grace. She had very high color, too, and at the present moment her natural ruddiness was heightened by anger.

"You are breaking another rule of the game by directly addressing the referee," said Mrs. Case, grimly. "Are you ready to play, or shall I take you out of the game right now?"

The red-faced girl made no audible reply, and the teacher signalled for the ball to be put into play again. Three afternoons each week each girl of Central High, of Centerport, who was eligible for after-hour athletics, was exercised for from fifteen to thirty minutes at basketball. Thirty-six girls were on the ground at a time. Every five minutes the instructor blew her whistle, and the girls changed places. That is, the eighteen actually playing the game shifted with the eighteen who had been acting as umpires, judges, timekeepers, scorers, linesmen and coaches. This shifting occupied only a few seconds, and it put the entire thirty-six girls into the game, shift and shift about. It was in September, the beginning of the fall term, and Mrs. Case was giving much attention to the material for the inter-school games, to be held later in the year.

Hester Grimes had played the previous spring on the champion team, and held her place now at forward center. But although she had been two years at Central High, and was now a Junior, she had never learned the first and greatest truth that the physical instructor had tried to teach her girls:

"_Keep your temper!_"

Since spring several of the girls playing on the first team of Central High had left school, graduating as seniors. The work now was to whip this team into shape, and finally Mrs. Case and the girls themselves, voting upon the several names in their capacity as members of the Girls' Branch Athletic League, had settled upon the following roster of names and positions as the "make-up" of the best-playing basketball team of Central High:

Josephine Morse, goal-keeper Evangeline Sitz, right forward Dora Lockwood, left forward Hester Grimes, forward center Laura Belding, jumping center Lily Pendleton, back center Dorothy Lockwood, right guard Nellie Agnew, left guard Bobby Hargrew, goal guard

The basketball court of Central High was located in the new Girls'

Athletic Field, not far from the school building itself, and overlooking beautiful Lake Luna and the boathouses and rowing course.

At the opening of Central High this fall the new field and gymnasium had first come into use.

The athletic field, gymnasium and swimming pool were the finest in the State arranged for girls' athletics. They had been made possible by the generosity of one of the very wealthy men of Centerport, Colonel Richard Swayne, and his interest in the high school girls and their athletics had been engaged by one of the girls themselves, Laura Belding by name, but better known among her schoolfellows and friends as "Mother Wit."

The play went on again under the keen eye of the instructor. Mrs. Case believed most thoroughly in the efficiency of basketball for the development and training of girls; but she did not allow her charges to play the game without supervision. Lack of supervision by instructors is where the danger of basketball and kindred athletics lies.

The game is an excellent one from every point of view; yet within the last few years it has come into disfavor in some quarters, and many parents have forbidden their daughters to engage in it. Like bicycling in the past, and football with the boys, basketball has suffered "a black eye" because of the way it has been played, not because of the game itself.

But the Girls' Branch played the game under sound rules, and under the keen oversight of the instructor engaged by the Board of Education of Centerport for that purpose. Basketball is the first, or one of the first vigorous team games to become popular among women and girls in this country, and under proper supervision will long remain a favorite pastime.

The rules under which the girls of Central High played the game were such as brought into basketball the largest number of players allowed.

Whereas there were often in the games on Central High courts only right forward, left forward, center, right guard and left guard, with possibly a jumping center--these games being engaged in by the girls for their own amus.e.m.e.nt--in the regular practice and when the representative team played the teams of other schools, the girls on the field numbered nine upon a side.

Thus conforming with the new rules, Mrs. Case, and the physical instructors of the other highs of Centerport and the neighboring cities, made the interest in basketball more general and enabled a greater number of ambitious girls to gain coveted positions on the first team.

Suddenly Mrs. Case's whistle stopped the play again. And as the bustle and activity subsided, two girls' voices rose above all.

"You just see! It's only Hester who gets scolded----"

"It's not so! If she'd play fair----"

"Miss Pendleton and Miss Agnew are discussing something of much importance--much more important than the game," said the referee, tartly.

"Well, she said----" began Nellie Agnew, who was usually a very quiet girl, but who was flushed and angry now as she "looked daggers" at Lily Pendleton, who was Hester Grimes's chum.

"That will do, Nellie!" exclaimed the instructor. "You girls evidently have not taken to heart what I have been telling you. The only way to play this--or any other team game--is to work together and talk as little as possible. And by no means allow your tempers to become heated.

"We have formed a new line-up for the fall series of games with East and West High, and the highs of Keyport and Lumberport. It would be too bad to change the make-up of the team later; but I want girls on our champion team, who play the first cla.s.s teams of other schools, who know how to keep cool and to keep their mouths shut. Now! don't let me have to repeat this again to-day at least. Time!"

Hester Grimes turned and gave Nellie Agnew an angry look and then went on playing. The girls officiating at the lines changed with the actual players. Later they shifted again, which brought the first team into the field once more with the ball.

When the practice was over Mrs. Case stopped Hester Grimes before she could run off the field. She spoke to her in a low voice, so that no other girl could hear; but she spoke firmly:

"Hester, you are making a bad impression upon the teachers as well as on the minds of your fellow pupils by your indulgence in bad temper."

"n.o.body else calls me down for it but you, Mrs. Case," declared the big girl, bitterly.

"You are a good scholar--you do not fail at your books," Mrs. Case continued, quietly. "You do not have occasion in the cla.s.sroom to often show your real disposition. Here, in matters of athletics, it is different. Your deportment does not suit me----"

"It never has, Mrs. Case," exclaimed the red-faced girl. "You have criticized me ever since you came here to Central High----"

"Stop, Hester! How dare you speak that way to a teacher? I shall certainly report you to Mr. Sharp if you take my admonition in such a spirit. I have finished with you. If you do not show improvement in deportment on the athletic field I shall shut you out of practice entirely."

The instructor spoke sharply and her face was clouded. She was a very brisk, decisive woman, and she considered that she had been patient with Hester Grimes long enough.

Hester was the only daughter of a very wealthy wholesale butcher, and from her babyhood had been indulged and given her way. She was one of those girls who fairly "boss" their parents and everybody around their homes. She had bought the friendliness of some weak girls by her display and the lavish use of spending money. Perhaps, however, Lily Pendleton was really the only girl who cared for Hester.

Most of the girls who had been relieved from basketball practice had run in to change to their street clothing. On the lower floor of the gymnasium building was the swimming pool, shower baths, and dressing room, besides the lockers for field materials, the doctor's and instructor's offices, and the hair-drying room. Above was the gymnasium proper with all the indoor apparatus allowed by the rules of the Girls' Branch.

Each girl had her own locker and key, the key to be handed in at the instructor's office when she left the building. When Hester came into the long dressing room there was a chatter of voices and laughter.

There was no restriction on talking in here.

Lily met her chum at the door. The former was naturally a pale girl, rather pretty, but much given to aping fashions and frocks of grown women.

"I'd like to box that Bobby Hargrew's ears," she said, to her angry chum. "She was just saying that you'd queer the team again before you got through. She's always hinting that you lost that last game we played East High last spring."

"I'll just fix her for that--the mean little thing!" snapped Hester, and being just in the mood for quarreling she stalked over to where little Clara Hargrew was talking to a group of friends, among whom were Nellie Agnew and the Lockwood twins.

"So you're slandering me, as usual, are you, Miss?" demanded Hester, her face very fiery and her voice very loud.

"Meaning me?" demanded Bobby, shaking her curly head, and grinning impishly at the bigger girl.

"Who else would I mean, Miss?" pursued Hester.

"I couldn't slander you, Hessie," said the mischief-loving Bobby.

"You are a trouble-maker all the time, Bobby Hargrew----" began the older girl, but Bobby broke in with:

"If I made anywhere near as much trouble as you do about this gymnasium, Hessie, I'd talk soft."