The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 29 Conditions
The victory over Lihua Middle School gave the Beiqiao Middle School basketball team a good start.

As September arrived, Beiqiao Middle School began training and playing warm-up matches.

They started by recruiting immigrant secondary schools around Chinatown, using competitions as training and competitions to improve their skills. Through competitions, they identified problems and improved them through training.

Berman is a very comprehensive and strict coach. Coaching a team that starts from scratch is both tiring and very rewarding.

He rented a house near the school and started a new life.

He devoted his entire life to basketball and coaching these kids, which to some extent healed the trauma life had inflicted on him.

In his daily life, he became increasingly gentle and humorous, but on the basketball court, he became more strict and irritable, determined to lead Beiqiao Middle School to fame.

With Gan Guoyang, Beiqiao Middle School was unmatched in the East San Francisco area.

8月30日，北侨中学58:48玛丽-布鲁克高中，甘国阳19分24个篮板球10次封盖。

9月7日，北侨中学53:47斯图尔特高中，甘国阳22分20个篮板球7次封盖5次助攻。

9月16日，北侨中学67:30布鲁夫中学，甘国阳27分17个篮板球12次助攻，展现了一把自己的助攻能力。

9月25日，北侨中学60:55法裔美国人国际学校，甘国阳33分21个篮板8次封盖，这是目前为止打得最为激烈的一场比赛。

Gan Guoyang's performance increasingly attracted the attention of the San Francisco basketball community. At the games held by Beiqiao High School, some college scouts and newspaper reporters began to appear, conducting a comprehensive observation of Gan Guoyang.

To be honest, if Gan Guoyang were a Black or White player, his current performance would have already attracted some college scouts to contact him privately and establish good personal relationships with him.

Although the NCAA prohibits schools from recruiting gifted high school students by bribing family members or cultivating personal relationships, such practices are rampant and have become an open secret in the industry.

However, Gan Guoyang is Chinese, and there is no precedent for Chinese success in the basketball world. In addition, Beiqiao High School is a weak school, and the opponents it plays against are relatively weak. Therefore, all parties are keeping a wait-and-see attitude and want to observe this basketball star who seems to have appeared out of nowhere.

Local newspapers in San Francisco also reported on Gan Guoyang, and Chinese newspapers in Chinatown naturally praised him highly, believing that he would be the new light of the Chinese people after Bruce Lee.

Other newspapers, however, were skeptical, believing that basketball was not a sport suitable for Asians and that Gan Guoyang was just a flash in the pan, soon to disappear into the tide.

Gan Guoyang didn't care about any of this; he was focused on improving himself and didn't pay attention to the noise around him.

In another month, in November, the regular season of the CIF California Championship, the biggest sporting event in California, will begin. This is when the team and Gan Guoyang will truly be put to the test.

However, just as the Waterbell team was fully preparing for the CIF Championship, bad news came from the school: the San Francisco League Committee had some objections to the school's membership eligibility review.

CIF stands for California Inter-School Federation, the governing body for high school athletics in California. Founded in 1916, it organizes the most authoritative and comprehensive high school athletic competitions in California.

Because California has many schools and a vast area, it is divided into 10 regions. Most of the top sports schools in San Francisco are in the San Francisco Divisional Conference in the Bay Area, and North China High School also wants to join this divisional conference.

Last season, the 1980-1981 season, the CIF restarted the California Championship after a 50-year hiatus.

After the playoff teams are determined in each region, they are divided into North and South regions to determine the champions of the North and South regions.

In the final showdown between the North and South division champions, a California champion was crowned.

The Chinese Endeavor Association had already made arrangements so that once the team was established and passed the committee's review, it could join the league if it met the standards and requirements. As long as the review was passed, the Beiqiao Water Bell team could participate in the San Francisco League's regular season, and if they performed well, they might be able to enter the California National Championship, which would be a great honor for Beiqiao.

Gan Guoyang and the Shuizhong team did not disappoint Huang Shaohua, winning one game after another. Given the team's performance and appearance, they should be recognized.

However, a member of the San Francisco Intercollegiate Committee stated that the sports foundation of Beiqiao High School is too weak, and the basketball team was hastily established with insufficient members. The teams they play against are all weak teams and are not from the CIF Intercollegiate League, so their prestige is questionable.

If we let them join like this, their strength is too weak and they will become easy prey, which will not help improve the quality of the league. Therefore, we should postpone the entry of Beiqiao Middle School into CIF.

Huang Shaohua was stunned. He had spent money and made connections, but at the last minute, someone suddenly came to sabotage him.

Therefore, Huang Shaohua directly protested to the CIF committee, demanding that the San Francisco League allow them to join, or if that was not possible, join the Pacific Coast Sports League (PCAL).

After several rounds of wrangling, Huang Shaohua used various connections, including money, to finally get CIF to offer a condition: Beiqiao Middle School must play a match against a strong team from an inter-school alliance. If they win, they will directly join CIF; if they lose, the process will be reconsidered and temporarily suspended.

Huang Shaohua was so angry that his blood pressure rose, but there was nothing he could do. On American soil, Asians are always suppressed.

Now the question is, which high school they will play against, which will determine the fate of the Waterbell team this season.

However, this opponent cannot be chosen by Beiqiao Middle School itself; it needs to be designated by the San Francisco Coalition Committee.

Ultimately, the San Francisco League announced that, for the sake of fairness, it would not select a team from its own league, but instead contacted Fremont High School from the neighboring Oakland League.

The game is scheduled for mid-October and will be played at Tiger Gymnasium at Fremont High School, where the Waterbells will be playing away.

Upon receiving this news, Huang Shaohua was extremely angry but helpless. He could only inform the school of the result and relay it to Bellman.

Upon learning this news, Berman was also furious, but he said, "If winning the game will get the application approved, then let's just win the game."

Mr. Liu, the physical education director of Beiqiao Middle School, sighed and said, "Mr. Bellman, it seems you don't understand Fremont High School at all. Playing away from home is not a question of winning or losing, but a question of whether we can walk out of Tiger Arena alive."

"What? Is it really that exaggerated?"

"Maybe it's not that exaggerated, but that's Oakland, and the basketball atmosphere there is much more intense than in San Francisco. I'm worried about whether the kids can handle it, and about their safety."

Ms. Liu explained the situation at Fremont High School to Bellman.

This is a public high school located in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Oakland, and all the players are Black.

The area has a terrible security situation; robberies and shootings are commonplace on the streets.

The Auckland Federation is the smallest of the ten CIF federations, with only six schools registered in 1981.

These six teams are all formidable, with Fremont High School being particularly known for its aggressive and domineering playing style.

It is said that at Tiger Arena, some predominantly white teams dare not win against Fremont high school teams, fearing they will be beaten afterward.

"Coach Berman, I think you'd better explain the situation to the players and let them be mentally prepared."

(End of this chapter)