(article posted here with permission from Al Lesar)
By AL LESAR
Tribune Columnist
SOUTH BEND — There’s a lotta ham in Alex. Put Alex Reyes in front of a gym-ful of his Dickinson Intermediate Fine Arts Academy classmates, and the eighth-grader with Down syndrome knows how to put on a show.
“He’s a hambone,” his mother, Charlene Reyes, said Tuesday.
She knows the showman. She knows the little guy who pumps his fist when he gets on the basketball floor. She knows the basketball player trapped inside his body, who, for the first time in his life, got an opportunity on a real team at Dickinson this year.
Alex stole the spotlight at an assembly that was supposed to feature Harlem Globetrotter Anthony “Buckets” Blakes. Buckets was the ringmaster, but Alex was center stage. From the ovation he got from his classmates as Buckets led him onto the floor, to the dipsy-doodle ballhandling he mastered in the “Magic Circle.”
This was all about Alex.
While Buckets and Alex kept the kids laughing, Charlene sat front row wiping back tears. This was more than a chance for her son to dribble a ball with a Globetrotter.
“Dickinson has been such a great place for Alex,” Charlene said. “He’s learning to live in society, and society’s learning to live with him.”
Alex may have needed a little special treatment during his first basketball season, but it turned out to be a bonus for all involved.
“He’d get out on the court and play it up big time,” said Dickinson eighth-grade basketball coach Randy Cook. “He’d pump his fist. He really got the crowd into it.
“It was good for our team. The other boys recognized how important it is to have fun at a game like this. They learned something from (Alex).”
Likewise, the Dickinson students learned something from Buckets’ visit. It wasn’t just a 45-minute infomercial to hawk tickets for the Globetrotters’ Jan. 21 visit to Notre Dame.
Heck, Buckets didn’t even take a single shot.
It turned out to be a lesson in character.
“Character is what makes us who we are,” Buckets said. “It’s about making us the best person we could be.”
The visit couldn’t have been timed better.
Dickinson Principal Dwight Fulce talked about the emphasis the Dickinson staff has placed on the Character Education project within the South Bend Community School Corp.
“There’s a focus on self-esteem and doing the right thing,” Fulce said. “It’s something we try to stress in every class and outside of class.”
The commitment has gone so far that Marshell Knox-Pierce, in her third year as an eighth-grade English and special education teacher at Dickinson, is the coordinator of the school’s Character Education program.
“We work off a nationwide model,” Knox-Pierce said. “The three (of 11) principles we focus on are integrity, accountability and kindness.
“Every day, everything we do, brings in Character Education. We’ve seen an improvement in-class behavior. We notice students are holding each other more accountable.”
Buckets, in his ninth year with the ‘Trotters, captivated the kids with a genuine smile that never faltered.
“The reason why we’ve been around so long (85 years) is that we make people laugh and smile,” said Buckets, one of 10 children who grew up in Phoenix with both parents and a grandmother in his house. “People would be surprised how far a simple, ‘Hi, hello, how ya doin’?’ with a smile will take them. I try to teach that to my younger brothers and sisters. Look people in the eye, smile, say, ‘How ya doin’?’ I guarantee you your day will be a little bit brighter.”
It helps when he comes with such a popular message.
“The Globetrotters have always sent messages,” Buckets said. “Whether it’s breaking the color barrier in the game of basketball; breaking the gender barrier (eight women have played with the ‘Trotters); introducing the game of basketball to places where it’s never been played (Buckets said he’s on his second passport, having visited 57 countries).
“We’ve always made it a point to spread our ambassadorship, since the embryonic stages of the Globetrotters; since 1926.”
It worked Tuesday. Just take a look at Alex’s face.
Staff writer Al Lesar:
alesar@sbtinfo.com
574-235-6318
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