By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
Outside, a September sun filtered out of a hazy sky. The muggy, mid-90s heat hung low on a lazy Thursday afternoon, clinging to anyone who walked the streets adjacent to the Eastside Boys and Girls Club.
Inside, at 3503 Martin Luther King Drive, something cool was going on.
About 80 grade school-aged kids sat in the bleachers in a comfortably air-conditioned gymnasium, sizing up likely the tallest basketball players they had ever seen in person.
Pretty soon after the kids had all taken their seats, a layup line formed on the court, and the UTSA Roadrunners started to play to the crowd.
The first few athletes glided toward the hoop, tossing in layups. What followed next was a series of more explosive, acrobatic dunks, each one followed by shrieks from the children, some of whom clasped their hands to their wide-eyed faces.
A dunk. A collective scream. Another dunk. Another scream.
Event organizer Bob Benavides, the president and CEO of the San Antonio Retail Merchants Association, stepped outside the gymnasium for a few minutes to discuss his charitable foundation’s nascent collaboration with new UTSA coach Austin Claunch.
So, what exactly is happening inside that gym, Mr. Benavides?
“To use the words of a 10-year-old, it’s nuts,” Benavides said, smiling. “They’re having a blast. I don’t think they’ve ever seen players as tall as the ones they were interacting with. I saw them jumping around trying to tap (the players’) heads … Just to hear the laughter in that gym, you can’t replace that with anything else. That is so joyful.”
The joy continued in the aftermath of the two and a half-hour clinic when the boxes of hot pizza arrived. Claunch met the children face to face, handing out prizes and thanking everyone for coming.
Then he sat down to talk about what he said was his first — but not his last — attempt to take his program to the people of San Antonio.
“I thought it went really well,” Claunch said. “We had some fun. Handed out some prizes. Got some pizza. Then our guys got to get up and down and show off a little bit. Great event. I look forward to the next one. Again, it’s just the beginning. I want our guys to understand what it means to play for UTSA and be a part of this community.”