There’s one Oklahoma youth basketball coach who sometimes has to pay to get into the games.
Jordan is just 14, but he stepped up to coach his 10-year-old brother’s basketball team when nobody else would.
“My brother, him and a couple friends were wanting to start a team together but none of the parents, they didn’t want to coach,” he said. “So I was like, OK, I’ll be the coach then.”
So the team of 10-year-olds enters the court with their 14-year-old leader.
Jordan’s mom, LaTori Carter, said the people collecting money at the admissions table sometimes wouldn’t believe he is the coach. She wouldn’t argue; she just paid and let them know he was telling the truth.
“And then he’d go coach!” she said with a laugh. “A lot of people didn’t believe that he was a coach until they saw him out there in action.”
Carter said that after Jordan’s team lost in the championship game, the opposing coach came up to talk to him.
“(He) told him that he has done a great job coaching these boys and if he keeps these boys together, our team’s really going to be good in the next couple years,” Carter said. “That was really heartwarming to hear.”
But Jordan has become more than a coach to the players.
Carter said he’s like an older brother for the players on the team.
“I just wanted to teach my brother and some of his friends what I know,” Jordan said. “I just want the best for all of them.”
