I would like to introduce my friend, Gabriel Gibbs.
I met Gabe in a Statistics class I took when I went back to school last year. Gabe was/is a 6'7" black kid from Detroit. He was on the Glenville basketball team, and unlike most athletes, he was also in the Science program there as well. Back when I went to school and played for the Glenville women's basketball team, I was the only one on both the women's and men's team that was in the science program.
Gabe introduced himself to me the first or second day of class and we became friends. I would think, unusual friends. He was this young, black (I know I said it before and you can see it yourself, but it is kinda unusual for a Canadian), athlete that was over 10 years younger than the returning-to-school, mother of 2, married, 30-something, half-asian woman sitting beside him in Stats class.
Gabe was unlike most athletes. First of all, he was smart, not saying that all athletes are dumb, but...they are rare. Second of all, he wanted to get to know me. I certainly was unlike most other students. What made a "stud-on-campus" basketball player want to talk to me? What I came to know about Gabe was that he was/is curious...about everything. He always wanted to know "why" something was the way it was. I guess I intrigued him.
Anyways, over the semester that I attended Glenville, Gabe and I got to know each other. We genuinely liked to talk with each other.
I watched Gabe play basketball for the Glenville team and was quite upset to see him sitting on the bench so much. He was obviously a very talented bball player but the coach seemed to not recognize that fact. Gabe was what I would call a rhythm or pace changer. He would enter the game and things would immediately change. He always came off the bench and he always had an immediate impact on the game. Most of the time he would only be on the floor for about 4 minutes at a time, but in those 4 minutes he would make such a change, for the positive, that everyone in the crowd was always confused as to why he was subbed off and then not see the floor again for an absurb amount of time.
I told Frank about him and asked Frank to come and evaluate Gabe. As background info, Frank used to have a very successful U18 boys basketball program that strove to put boys into post-secondary basketball programs both in Canada and in the US. Frank was often contacted by US coaches to evaluate Canadian players by US coaches who knew him. Frank came and worked Gabe out and concurred with my assessment that Gabe was a very strong and intelligent player. We started talking to Gabe about what he wanted to do after he finished at Glenville. We found out that Gabe still had eligibility here in Canada. So, together, we decided to see if we could find a place for Gabe to play here in BC.
It took some time and Gabe had to go get a passport, but this August, we flew Gabe up to see us. Our entire purpose was to introduce him to some coaches that we know.
Over the week that we had Gabe with us, we introduced Gabe to a whole wagon load of new experiences.
Here are some of them:
Really expensive gas. Actually, 107.9 doesn't look so bad right now as I just gassed up for 115.7 yesterday.
Fresh raspberries. Seriously! Gabe didn't even know what raspberries were and kept saying he would like to grow his own raspberry tree. He called them "exotic".
Sushi! Now that's exotic. And yummy. Actually, Aislinn was the one to take Gabe to sushi. She said that he was wary, but willing. He liked the cooked stuff the best but he did try everything. I like that!
Ha ha! The likeness is uncanny! Once again, Aislinn was Gabe's host for this event. She took Gabe down to Robson street and the spent the afternoon and evening hanging out.
We did introduce Gabe to the coaches we knew and they all loved him and said they wanted him, however, he has to figure out his eligibility status first and perhaps next year we will get to watch him play, nay, dominate here in Canada.
We also took him up with us to Prince George to visit my parents and sisters. That was a revelation for Gabe. We took him out to the ranch and he had so many new experiences that I ran out of batteries in my camera. But not before I snapped these treasures:
Gabe had to learn how to climb through a barbed-wire fence. The first time was suspect and Rachel had to help him get unstuck. But he learn quickly.
Cows, lots of cows! Many, many cows, all around. You should hear his comments about the bulls! And how well endowed those bulls are.
And Gabe also got up close and personal with several horses. For the first time in his life. Also, the very next day, Gabe even rode a horse.
Gabe even went up in the ranch plane for a bird's eye view of the area. Believe it or not, before flying up to us, Gabe had never been on a plane. I know! Crazy!
And, the funniest thing that I think Gabe experienced...electricity.
See this spot right here???? This is where I was going to put this really hilarious video of my friend, Gabe, grabbing an electric fence after being dared to do it by my brother-in-law, Joel. It truly is a hilarious video, but after trying to upload it three times...you'll just have to trust me when I say that it is crazy funny.
For a kid from inner-city Detroit, the whole ranch thing was quite astonishing. He loved it and he says that he plans to come back some day.
I hope that he does. We have so much more to show him.
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