Beth Corkum graduated Concord High School with six of her basketball teammates, an especially large number for a roster that generally has about 12 players.
Two of them, Cedra Lee Christiansen Davis and Katherine Trice, have since passed away. But Corkum and the remaining four still maintain the same bonds they had when playing basketball together as high schoolers. Now, they’re hoping to pass that experience along to the next generation of female Concord athletes.
Christiansen Davis died in 2019 after a battle with cancer. After Trice died this January, the group felt the time was right to find a way to continue the legacy of the Class of 2002.
“We’re all in our late 30s, and we’re like, ‘This is kind of not cool that we’re young moms with kids and we’ve already lost two of our teammates,’ ” Corkum said. “We wanted to do something to show the value of our friendship and of our team.”
The scholarship, named “We above Me,” seeks to highlight at least one female athlete at Concord High who, as Corkum put it, “represents a team mentality, and is a good teammate and a good friend.” They’ll award the recipient – or recipients – at the school’s scholarship and awards night in June.
To help fundraise, they’re holding a 3-on-3 basketball tournament at the high school on May 19. They suggest a $10 donation per player (or $30 for a team) but have also received plenty of donations to sponsor kids to participate, so donations are not required.
Those who sign up to participate by this Friday, April 29 will receive a tournament t-shirt.
The hope is to have enough teams to compete in four divisions: elementary school, middle school, high school and adults. It’s a much more scaled down version of the type of event Corkum and her teammates used to compete in all across New England.
“Just a light, fun get together, play basketball thing,” Corkum said. “Nothing super competitive.”
As a parent who’s also ventured into the youth coaching world, Corkum knows well how priorities for young athletes can often become skewed by an overemphasis on winning.
Wins and losses are, of course, the crux of competition and why so many athletes, even those at the youth level, invest a good chunk of time in playing. But when it’s prioritized too highly at the lower levels, it fogs the long-term benefits of athletic participation, especially for those who don’t go on to play in college or professionally.
“I think sometimes the teammate stuff gets lost, and that’s what we want to spread the message to,” Corkum said. “We don’t want to reward the superstar athlete in this situation. Katie (Trice) was a very good basketball player. … Cedra was a great teammate; she was definitely not the leader or star but was the super supportive friend.
“We want the kids to know that you’re contributing to the team in so many different ways, and that it doesn’t necessarily need to be through your athletic ability, but your ability to come together as a team is just as important.”
In this case, the fact that Corkum still maintains close ties with her teammates from 21 years ago highlights why this holds value.
And it all begins at those foundational levels of athletics.
“It’s a Concord thing,” Corkum said. “I’ve obviously grown up and gone to school in different places, and we always come back to our childhood friends and teammates. … Those experiences that you have as a young kid in the Concord area, it just forms those bonds that, with a little attention and effort, can really last for a long time.”
Anyone interested in participating in the 3-on-3 tournament or who would like to learn more can visit the scholarship website for more information.