The Men's Basketball Team

A few years back, as our boys basketball team tried to escape the shadow of our city championship girls basketball team, the athletic director began calling the boys team the "Men's Basketball Program." I loved it instantly. It reeked of strength, maturity, power.

I have used it at every opportunity-announcements over the school intercom, practice and game fire-and-brimstone speeches--it's very versatile.

The reason, I've determined, that I like it so much? They are not boys, so I'm not a man, an old man. I also refuse to refer to my high school students as "kids." I don't teach "kids," I teach "teens," or "young men and women," or "young adults." The older they are, the younger I am. Make sense to you? Yeah, me neither...