Cleveland Steps Ahead vs. Steps Beyond Basketball Game

They came ready to rumble.

After helping themselves to turkey dogs, small talk, trash talk, high fives and jump shots, they were even more rumbly.

And when the ref launched the game starting jump ball, it was on.

Coach James holding it down for the Steps Beyond team.

Steps Beyond, decked out in yellow pennies and plenty of attitude, made the first points. Steps Ahead responded with a few of their own, but the gap was steadily widening with Steps Beyond in the lead. While Steps Ahead had the heart, Steps Beyond had the height, and they served up plenty of packed lunches and rim skimming lay ups. It looked like the under dogs were done for.

But wait--what was this? A half time obstacle course? Worth twenty points!? This was unheard of. Unprecedented. Unnerving.

"We didn't do this last year!"

"You get points for this? That's greazy."

"This is a BASKETBALL game, not a picnic."

Mercedez tries her best to blow a bubble.

Amid cheers from Steps Ahead and protests from Steps Beyond, the Program Manager set up a three part course including a balloon relay, a piggy back relay, and a pie eating contest. The two teams were neck and neck during the balloon relay, but when it came to running with a person on their back and passing them to the next relay participant, the under dog showed the true meaning of scrappy. Mercedez, the Steps Ahead piggy-backee, hung on for dear life while her teammates ran, stumbled, and fell into each other in an effort to pass her along. Steps beyond, meanwhile, struggled during the piggy back relay and fell far behind.

Steps Beyond warms up for the big game.

The obstacle course culminated with both piggy-backee's nuzzling their faces through a pie of whipped cream in search of three pieces of bubble yum. The objective: blow three individual bubbles with the three pieces of gum, or blow one big bubble with all three. Everyone swarmed to center court to rally the girls on as they hunched over their pie tins. Finally, a medium sized pink bubble rose amid the whipped cream that covered Mersadies' face. Steps Ahead had won twenty extra points!

Whitney and Tiana keeping themselves entertained on the side lines.

Although the two teams were now tied at 68, the game was far from over. Steps Beyond continued to dominate inside the key and scrept back into a solid lead. At the end of the evening, Steps beyond won the game by 15 points. But everyone went home feeling like a winner.