Page 6 - kappbook2020

26 I JOE KAPP, THE TOUGHEST CHICANO "
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I backed down from his challenge, the wrong guy would have led our
team. That was, and always will be, something worth fighting about.
You do what's best for the team, period. Coach Lewis knew what was
best for our team. I wasn't going to be bullied into forsaking his trust
inme.
Our football team was pretty good, but our basketball team was
better. We were well coached by Bill Beany and Al Lewis. I played
forward and was the league-leading scorer. I could handle the ball and
shoot from the outside. In my senior year, we were Ventura League

Champions, beating Ventura High School by a score of 47-46 for the
first time in many years.
In a game against Santa Paula High School, I almost caused a riot.
At Santa Paula, my opposite number was hanging back and picking
cherries all night. In other words, he was hanging out under the bas-
ket waiting for the bomb and an easy score, rather than playing de-
fense. I had to get physical with him, but I was a little late-make that
really late! We crashed into the wall under our basket. The spectators
in the gym exploded. A downpour of paper cups rained down from
the stands. When we played Santa Paula a year later, they threw rocks
at us and attempted to roll our bus over when we arrived. Supposedly
a posse of Santa Paula players came looking for me in Newhall to take
some revenge. They never found me.
Despite the Santa Paula posse, my life in Newhall was stable. I

had a second home with the Atlers. I played on the varsity football,
basketball, baseball, and track teams. The school offered me the op-
portunity to take the AP classes required by Cal. As I was striving to
get to college, my mom and siblings were striving to keep up with
R. D. They moved around California, to Tehachapi, to Greenfield, and
up north to Stockton. I did my best to spend time with them during
the summers as they migrated north. Their living situations in those
times were particularly bad. Eventually, they ended up in Stockton,
California, on East Eighth Street. While I was in Newhall, I missed my