From the time she was young she knew she was gay. But what she didn't know is she be famous basketball player. She played the game all the time. She was always on the court. Always had a basketball in her hand and Jersey on. She had a favorite team, the Raptors of course. But one day play for the Raptors she would never have dreamed.
The name was Nicole Haught. Number 49 for Raptors. Star forward and all time leading dunker ( at least for this season anyways).
But all things would change for her when she landed in the Ghost River Triangle. That fateful evening, when the plane she was in crashed in the middle of what would be called the Homestead.
But I digress, we should start somewhere in the middle. You might be wondering how this girl from middle of no where ended up on an all boy team. Well to say it was hard road, is probably not saying enough. As mentioned, she played since as far back as she could imagine. She remembers my moms taking me to the camp. At first she played with the girls. They played hard and it got rough. But she always looked at how the boys played and wanted to be one of them. They seemed to play even harder.
One day, she walked right over and said "whose got ball" and that was that. She wouldnt take patriarchy for anything, even at 10 yrs old. She would play with the boys and than guys. She was used to roughness. She was used to the wise cracking. She had same foul mouth. By the time she was 15 years old, the minor leagues of basketball were calling her name. Somehow they had all convinced upper management a girl was worth it.
So, at the age of 16 she was recruited to a B league team. All boys. The first girl ever. That whose she was defining the sport for all girls. Now, she wasnt out to the world at this time. That came later. Not that she entirely hidden but it would take another 3 years for her to be ready to tell the world. She never really understood why, she herself didnt care. Her parents were fine with aspect. Becoming a basketball player for job, that was different story.
Anyways, her coming out coincided with her landing a spot on the Raptors team. Makes for one hell of a story right.. wrong. Management was untoo happy that she came out in the same breath of, I'm going to the NBA. But after saving the game that night as last minute replacement sub, they began to promote the hell out of her being a lesibian.
First woman basketball player... a lesiban.
That was a headline. One heard around the world. Fans came out in rainbow pride and anti-gay slurs. She took all in stride. Playing some of her best games with hate slurs being screamed at. The worst was when they came directly at her after a game, even one she was a high scorer in.
It was in part do to this she was on that flight that day. There was a rumor of an attack at the team airstrip, that they ended up diverting her plane from Portland up towards Canada. To ensure that no one knew when she was landing. The plane she was in, there was her agent, the pilot and herself that was it. It was going to be long flight back to Toronto.
About a third of her way, something began to change. She could feel it in the plane. Something was right. Maybe it was the turbo engine or the fact it was one smallest planes shes been in. Whatever it was, she could feel something wasnt right. The plane began to drop. And shake. And she could tell the pilot was scared. She heard the fateful "mayday".
She doesn't remember much except for waking up to a smiling young woman in a cheerleading uniform and having warm butterflies. That look, I'll remember forever she thought to herself before going black again.