26
people
A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN
THWACK! A twenty-footer hits dead center, the ball snapping
the
heavy
cotton
net
with
its
distinctive sound. The whispy shooter scoots to the basket, snatches the ball and darts to the other side of the arc.
words Dwain Hebda IMAGEs courtesy Arkansas Diamonds
It’s two-thirty on an Arkansas summer afternoon and the gym is a brutal sauna. Another group just vacated the space a few minutes ago, their presence and movement having churned the soupy air even thicker. Just standing around, sweat seeps out the pores in streams. THWACK! LaVerne Graves doesn’t stop moving and, somehow, never starts sweating. It’s been a long few months since she has been able to get into a gym and shoot a few baskets and danged if she Coach Billy Graves
isn’t going to soak up every single moment while she can. Her layup, free throw, jump shot and patented left-handed hook are a little rusty, but she’s quick as a cat and the joy of being back on the court is written all over her. “I’ve always done my hour-long walk – every day, three miles – even in ninety-one-degree heat,” she says. “I’ve got to stay healthy, that’s my number-one goal. If I don’t do another thing all day, my health comes first.” THWACK! LaVerne is soon joined by teammates Sharon Thornton and Jodie Moon, the trio who make up the starters for the Arkansas Diamonds senior women’s basketball team. The pals have played together for more than a decade in Senior Olympics competition and the sport has taken them all over the country for open tournaments and in alternating years, state and national championships.
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