Fuchsia

While watching the NCAA basketball tournament last night I learned from the game’s announcers that Marquette has a play called “fuchsia.” This delighted me because only one other team that I know of ever had such a colorful name for a play: my team.

It was about 18 years ago when my son, Peter, played for my St. Margaret’s CYO sixth-grade team. We had an offensive play called “blue.” After running it repeatedly at practice one night, I realized that in a game an opposing coach and his players would quickly recognize the play and make the proper defensive adjustments.

So, I instructed Peter and his teammates to run the same play but to call it any color, not just “blue.” It’s a simple tweak, I thought, and would make it less likely for opponents to react immediately to it. While I was congratulating myself on this coaching strategy, Peter, as the point guard, brought the ball into the frontcourt.

 

“Fuchsia,” he called out. His teammates froze, perhaps not as familiar as Peter with Crayola’s 64-crayon box.