The Team's New Uniforms

The football team at Metrotown High School had played its final game of the season. Even though they had improved somewhat over the dismal performance they put forth last season, they still managed to win only one game, and that had been a forfeit due to a bus breakdown suffered by their opponents on the final weekend of the season. One of the visiting parents had remarked how shoddy the team looked in their ill-fitting and over-washed uniforms and how their lack-luster appearance seemed to be well-suited to the boring style of game they played while on the field. Once brilliant, red and proud, the school's teams were now down-trodden and slightly less than a faded pink.

Late October gave way to November and the High-School basketball season began. MTHS would again be fielding both a full girl’s squad and a boy’s team as they had done in most all of the previous years. Metrotown was one of the older schools in the district and had once been a robust and successful sport’s school. Recent shut-downs at the pulp mill and the fertilizer plant, however, had produced a decline in school enrollment and a drop in the financial support afforded to the school from the community and the businesses in that part of the city. It is quite possible that the team basketball jerseys and shorts were the original uniforms worn by the grandparents of this year’s teams. They were resewn, repaired and discolored from years of wear and tear and overuse. Quite frankly they were a disgrace to the players, the teams and to the school. Nobody wanted to be seen in them and just knowing that a player would be forced to wear one, often made the students think twice about joining any of the teams.

The principal and some of the other school administrative team members, along with coaches and players and parents had tried without success, time and time again to initiate fundraisers through the sale of cookies and baking and through slave auctions and through entertainment nights, to raise the money needed to purchase new uniforms for at least some of the teams at the school. All of their efforts were fruitless and to no avail. No amount of time and work was able to produce the funds needed to purchase expensive sportswear.

Brandon was a grade ten student at Metrotown High School. His marks were average even though his aptitude and intelligence were through the roof. School had little to offer Brandon and although he got along well with his classmates and was able to at least feign a decent relationship with most of his teachers, he was not able to contribute much more to the school than it offered him. It eventually reached a point where Brandon started skipping classes, and working on his own outside of the school walls, to make his way in the world.

His absenteeism and tardiness soon led to classroom visits and even home visits from the school vice-principal in efforts to turn his behaviors around. Brandon was often absconded by the administrators and counsellors in the school washrooms during class-time and brought into the office to be reminded of his rights and responsibilities as a student of the school. On one such occasion, while Brandon sat in the office, across the sprawling desk from the principal on the other side, he was asked, in no uncertain terms, what exactly he was contributing to the school. Brandon, being of a rather entrepreneurial bent, replied that he was willing to make an offer to the school and the administrative team, that they indeed, would not be able to refuse. He talked of a plan he had in the making that could possibly pad the school’s financial coffers in excess of half a million dollars a year. He went on that the sport’s teams in the school would soon be able to afford new uniforms, new equipment and totally refurbished playing surfaces. He would also see that the school would be able to purchase the most up-to-date science equipment, musical instruments and art supplies that money could buy. The library could be upgraded and the computers and audio-visual equipment would soon be replaced with the most recent items on the market. The principal definitely sounded interested, but questioned Brandon’s bold claims and demanded to know just how he professed to do all of this for the school. Brandon’s only response was that he be given two months to prove himself – two months without any pressure from the principal and his hench-people – two months of complete freedom to come and go as he pleased during any part of the school day. He needed the principal’s signature on a contract that he just happened to have with him and, he insisted that he would also need 667 of the principal’s business cards to use, as necessary, in securing the finances he claimed possible. The principal was reluctant, and rightfully so, in refusing this final request, but when Brandon again dangled the carrot of growing contemporary resources in front of the man, he eventually broke and relented to all demands.

Within a week of Brandon’s visit to the school principal’s office, the administration received a cheque for $10 000. This was followed a day later by another for $5 000. Money started rolling in at regular daily intervals and a couple of weeks later, the basketball teams were sporting brand new red and black jerseys, shorts and shoes on the court and stylish training outfits in the school hallways during regular class time. The teams were winning and school spirit was reaching levels never-before-seen in the rich history of this old school. Parents were singing the praises of the teachers and coaches. New parents were storming the gates and front doors in order to enroll their children into Metrotown – a school with perhaps the finest Science, Music, Arts and Sports programs in the country. The school had become an overnight success and the principal had become so wrapped up in the hoopla surrounding this success that he almost completely forgot about his deal with Brandon.

Finances continued to strengthen in the weeks that followed and finally at the end of two months time, Brandon once again appeared on the other side of the principal’s desk – this time wearing the home jersey of the Detroit Red Wings, some very fashionable black Russell gym trousers and a pair of crimson ASICS cross-trainers. Brandon smiled across the desk and laid the principal’s single remaining business card on the blotter pad in front of his elder. The card was no longer the ordinary mundane card that he had been given two months earlier. It now possessed gilded borders with red satin lettering embossed onto a black mirrored background. The card showed heft as it settled on the desk and slid toward the principal. The card stopped in a fixed and prominent position on the desk. It was immovable, as if welded permanently there for all time and for all to see. Brandon began the meeting with the fact that he had indeed delivered on his promise to bring riches to the school and new life to every aspect of Metrotown. He went on that he had also served to make the principal and his team, important members of the community. The principal demanded to know of Brandon how he had managed to secure all of the funding to purchase new resources and team uniforms acquired over the last two months. Brandon refused to answer. The principal leaned over his desk toward Brandon and reminded the young man that he was still a student at Metrotown and that as principal he had the right to make things tough for him, or possibly even dismiss Brandon from the school for good. Brandon leaned forward to meet the principal’s gaze and reminded the man, in turn, that 666 of his business cards were presently in the hands of the world’s most notorious and successful drug dealers and that the remaining card would always be there on his desk to bring back the memory of that fact should he ever be inclined to forget it. And with that, he excused himself, stating that he had a very important meeting to attend, with some basketball coaches who were interested in meeting some of his new game referees.