I’m not a basketball player. I did shoot hoops for fun (I have a lot of fond high school memories of my friend, Dwight’s, driveway on summer evenings, goofing off, playing “horse,” and chatting). I played basketball in middle school gym class, pre-Title IX, when we girls wore dorky uniforms and weren’t allowed to pass the center-court line. And then, after Title IX, I played basketball with the boys in integrated PE…and I was never passed a ball again. Later, it was fun watching my middle child fall in love with rec basketball, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her play defense in those high school games.

I was a little intimidated by showing up at the Sunday pick-up game at the Fulmore Middle School gym. I knew from my interview with Becky Beaver, one of the original founding members and custodian of the game, that these were “real” basketball players who had mad skills, whatever their ages. Granted, I wasn’t there to play but still…I’d never been to a pick-up game.

There are two weekly pick-up games, one on Wednesday night and one on Sunday in the late afternoon. Beaver had told me that different groups show up on different days, and the Sunday game is more populated by people who can’t get away from work or home during the week, such as coaches and moms. Because it’s a pick-up game, it’s an unknown as to who or how many will show up for any given day. Ages range from the young (some in their teens) to the young at heart (old enough to qualify for the Senior Olympics). New players usually come as a current player’s guest, and all women are welcome.

While Beaver prepped the court, I chatted with the first player to arrive, Marisa Krisananuwatara. Krisananuwatara is young and cut; you’d never know she’d been out for about a year after having a baby. A short, compact woman with the kind of figure you might associate with a fast marathoner, she’s also a competitive Ultimate Frisbee player and rock climber who played rec ball at the University of Texas at Austin while in college. I watched her make shot after shot during her warm-up.

Nina Wilson, a teacher at Murchison Middle School, came in. Friendly and vivacious, with a warm smile, Wilson told me she learned about the pick-up game at an AISD in-service workshop. As a personal introduction during the workshop, each teacher was to tell one interesting thing about herself; Wilson said she loved to play basketball but had become frustrated—she’d just moved to Austin and there was no place to play. Later, one of the women pulled her aside and said, “I’ve got a game you need to go to.” She’s been attending the pick-up game ever since.

Beaver had mentioned that one of the regulars was on her Senior Olympic team. That’s Colleen Holloway, who not only plays basketball with Beaver’s team but swims at the Senior Olympics as well. Fit people usually look younger than their years, and Holloway is no exception. Perhaps it’s the kids in her RRISD elementary PE classes that keep her young.

Holloway wasn’t the only coach out there. Kerrie Carter coaches at Reagan High School in Austin ISD. In my notes, I wrote “real deal” next to Carter’s name. She played college ball at Concordia and is currently with the Austin Elite, a semi-pro team, and she’s looking for opportunities to play oversees. She told me she likes to come to the pick-up game for fun, as a way to relax in her free time.

Another player, Cleopatra Hopkins, laughingly said she’d started coming to the pick-up games to “get away from the kids.” Like Carter, she played at Concordia. Hopkins was clearly the resident wit; she gave grief to players who missed shots and had a running comedic commentary from the sidelines. It seemed she knew everybody—she said she’d been playing these Sunday games for eight years.

For several players, the game was more serious business. There was real intensity to Yvette Pearson, who said very little and focused on her play; she looked like she could’ve walked off a women’s NBA team as did Dee James, who played with a lithe and graceful ferocity. Tosha Deckard, who played high school ball at Johnston, had the same physical intensity, though she often broke out in a smile and was a bit chattier. Stacey Orakpo (yes, she’s related to football player Brian Orakpo—cousins, I believe Beaver said) was another very physical player who, even to my untrained eye, brought a challenging level of play. Time and again, she used her body to effectively block shots. And she’s fast. Orakpo played basketball for North Texas State—she was also one of the top ten shot putters in the state of Texas as a high school athlete. Rounding out this group was Tamara Thompson, who looked like a glamour girl (seriously, her hair and makeup looked better than most people on a date night) but played like a bruiser. Thompson was the Southland Conference “Newcomer of the Year” in 2005 as a player for Texas State. When she took the ball down the court, it was as though the seas parted before her.

Watching the women play it’s easy to mistake a player’s age. For example, I was pretty sure that Mirsa Douglass was still in college. Turns out she played at Austin College sometime before 2005. Douglass was one of the quicker players on the court; she also turned to me before the start of the game to say, “Do you want to play? Everybody’s welcome.” I talked more to Stephanie Freeman Wright’s husband than I did to her; he was on the sideline with the kids (they’re into soccer and basketball, and it was Wright’s daughter whom I’d heard warning kids to stay off the court). I would’ve liked to have spoken more with Dina Hernandez because she was the only player there without high school or college basketball experience. The woman held her own…and with this group, that was impressive.

The games went on for about two hours; there were 16 players, and the three teams of five rotated in and out (Beaver often sat out to let another play). As it got closer to 6 p.m., the games wound down as players trickled out to other responsibilities. Beaver talked the group into one more game. I had to leave before they finished but I know I could show up on any given Sunday and find them at the Fulmore gym. That’s the beauty of the pick-up game.