Basketball at Monroe Hits Prime Time

Two basketball games will be played today in the Monroe High gym. Fans will fill the stands. Referees will control the flow. School spirit will soar higher than a half-court bomb at the buzzer.

In the first week of November?

If this sounds a little bogus, it is. In fact, it is all make-believe.

Monroe’s basketball team and gymnasium will be featured in an episode of the NBC television series “Life Stories,” which airs Sunday nights at 8.

According to first-year Monroe Coach Wendell Greer Jr., the episode centers on a fictional high school player with a congenital heart problem.

“It’s a Hank Gathers type of situation,” Greer said. “The player has to decide whether to continue playing or whether to quit basketball.”

Viking players will be featured in four scenes, Greer said. Two will feature the team at practice and two will be of simulated games. The Monroe team will be excused from school today for filming. The show is tentatively scheduled to air in late December.

The program has provided an early test of Greer’s coaching abilities. After all, Monroe was 3-14 last season. Will anybody believe this is an actual team?

“That was our biggest acting job right there,” Greer cracked.