Text by Claire Baiz
It’s been less than twenty-four hours since Josh Parocai got out of the Cascade County Detention Center, and he’s sweating it out with a heavy implement dealer, a retired lawyer, a senior airman, and the Director of Development at the University of Great Falls.
Half of them have their shirts off. For a few, it ain’t pretty.
By 12:30, sixteen players have joined Parocai on the basketball court at the Great Falls Rec Center, 801 2nd Avenue North. There are four black guys, at least two Native Americans, a handsome dark skinned blue-eyed guy, a spectrum of Christians and Agnostics, a second-generation American Muslim, and a woman. Their ages range from 20 to 66.
“It’s the best pickup game in town,” says Kylie Diedrich, a former UGF Lady Argo. Diedrich is just another player—except, in a game of shirts and skins, you can be pretty sure which team she’s on.
