The Boys from Joes The town of Joes, Colorado was founded in 1906. Almost everyone in town had someone in their family with the name Joe, and that's how the town got its name. The Boys from Joes is an incredible story. This is a group of ten small-town kids who were never expected to go anywhere in basketball, or to achieve their goals. The total enrollment at Joes High School was sixteen girls and twenty boys. Ten of the kids who signed up there played basketball. All the boys were over six feet tall. Lane Sullivan, the new coach of the basketball team, had never even touched a basketball before he started coaching. Sullivan had never coached anything before he started coaching the Joes' basketball team. To gain knowledge about the sport, he purchased a book on the subject. He began coaching in 1927, but before the 1928 basketball season, Joes High School didn't even have a gym. Instead, they trained outdoors, on a dirt court, and took a bus twice a week to the nearest gym, which was ten miles away. In order to play home games, the boys had to play at the local dance hall. The “court” was nowhere near regulation size and the ceiling was so short that the kids couldn't shoot a bow shot. The people attending these basketball games had nowhere to sit and watch the game, they all stood around the edges of the court and on the small stage. Joes High School finally got its own gymnasium at Christmas time because the people of Joes donated their time and materials to make it happen. The 1927-28 Joes basketball team wasn't just your average basketball team. They finished their real basketball season with a record of nineteen wins, five losses, and one tie. The boys won the race... middle of paper... ous. They didn't even earn a penny from their talent. The Great Depression occurred shortly after the Joes basketball epidemic and people say it was a little easier to endure than other areas. Joes' basketball championships led to other state championships in baseball, track and field, band and debate. One of Joes boys became a very successful man. Some of the others remained in Joes and continued their lives. Some others moved to places like Denver, San Francisco and many other places. Their coach, Lane Sullivan, finally wrote a book, which was the main reason he took the job at Joes. He thought he would be calm enough to concentrate on writing. The Boys from Joes is a truly incredible story. These kids went from not even having their own gym, to going undefeated and winning state championships.