Unbreakable bond: Ruston High’s trio

The matching pairs of lime green and highlighter pink Puma shoes are hard to miss.

Standing inside Ruston High gymnasium, where everywhere you look is put together with Bearcat red and white along with basic hardwood flooring for the court, the in-your-face sneakers make their presence felt.

Meanwhile, the Ruston High boys basketball team calls out offensive sets, defensive switches — all while sprinting in transition drills.

It’s your typical high school gym and typical high school basketball practice.

But two players — and two sets of shoes — stand out from the rest.

The duo walks together. They celebrate with a different sense of pride when the other has success. They laugh as they walk off the court with a certain comfortableness that can’t be taught.

It’s not too surprising how in sync they seem if you knew how close they are.

No, Joran Parker and Aidan Anding aren’t brothers.

But they do everything brothers would, with matching distinct basketball shoes as just a sliver of their story.

“Brothers from another mother,” Parker said with a laugh. Anding cracks one of his signature smiles when asked who got the shoes first and who took the badge of “copying” the other.

The sophomore guard explained they both had their eyes on the shoes at the same time, but it took a bit longer for his to be ordered.

On- court drip aside, the sophomores weren’t a complete group yet, as Zheric Hill was still returning from playing linebacker for Ruston on the gridiron and wasn’t at practice yet.

And the self-named “three stooges” trio isn’t whole without him.

But it’s not all fun and games (of which there’s plenty with this group) between the trio.

Even if Hill isn’t physically present, Anding couldn’t go a minute without mentioning who they were missing.

They care about one another — truly care.

This isn’t one of those high school friendships that ends when the school bell rings.

Hill puts the bond in clear terms, marking this friendship as bold and unique as the shoes that first catch your eye.

“It’s a brotherhood. It’s hard to explain,” Hill said. “Our friendship is like a chain that can’t be broken.”

A second family

Urica Edwards and Candace Anding shouted directions to their sons during a summer AAU game in Arcadia — a few months before Parker and Anding started seventh grade.

The two moms had never met before that point, but they quickly caught each other’s attention as they relayed thoughts to their respective sons.

Edwards, Joran’s mom, watched her son get off to a hot start, leading Candace to offer short and sweet advice to her son Aidan.

“ She was yelling, ‘ Stop number two!’’ Edwards recalled. “And so then I was like, ‘No, stop (Aidan)!’ And then we just started laughing and we spoke afterwards.”

It was in that gym, during that in- game exchange, that the first seeds of friendship were sown. The start of a second family was about to take off.

Parker moved to Ruston Junior High before the start of seventh grade and began to get to know Anding once he started attending school.

Facing natural shyness and a timidness toward the new environment around him, Parker looked to Anding as his steadiness and an entry point into a new home.

Once he shared with his mom how welcoming Anding was, Edwards told him to not let go. “I told Joran, ‘When you find your people, you definitely want to keep those relationships,’” Edwards said.

And it was more than proximity that connected the group together — all three were raised in single-parent, singlemother households.

Parker and Anding said they never explicitly discussed with each other growing up with their mother as the primary caregiver, but they definitely noticed it was a commonality.

All three mothers made their sons’ lives as stable and focused as you could hope, and it’s why Parker said the trio hopes to find success after high school to give back to their mothers for all they provided.

“We would rather do something for them and ourselves and be better than our fathers were,” Parker said.

Shan Chambers, Hill’s mom, said Anding and Parker are more than just friends of her son — they’re like her children too.

With everyone coming together, despite living different lives, she saw all three kids choose to embrace their circumstances — not let it hold them back.

“I look at them like I gave birth to them,” Chambers said. “That’s their bond.”

Chambers said the friendship formed between the boys is special not only for the care they have for one another, but it can’t be ignored how they lean on each other for the strong role model they were missing growing up.

Relationships like this trump family circumstances.

“ We do everything we can to ensure that life doesn’t have to stop because you don’t have that strong father figure in your life,” Chambers said. “You can beat the odds. We’re looked at as statistics as single parents. But the way we structure, we monitor their friendships, we teach them not to be followers. Be leaders.”

Leading each other toward bigger and better things is what Hill appreciates about Anding and Parker.

They all dream and have aspirations of turning their athletic gifts into a springboard toward comfortable living.

And every day, the trio stay up to date through a group chat or as they pass in the hallways of Ruston High.

“ We talk about making it big so our parents don’t have to work anymore,” Hill said. “We stay true to ourselves. We stay true to each other.”

Hearing the boys talk about moving past Ruston makes Edwards emotional. Words can’t express the power of what the relationship has given the boys and the belief they’ve given each other.

And as all three families have morphed into one, Edwards said nothing like that can be broken, replicated, or ignored.

“Blood couldn’t make them closer,” Edwards said.

Accountable till the end

Ryan Bond thinks there’s two types of basketball programs.

As head coach for the Ruston High boys basketball team, Bond is tasked with bringing the Bearcats back to postseason glory — now in his fourth season at the helm.

He played collegiate basketball as a Louisiana Tech Bulldog.

Team dynamics and intangible makeup in a basketball team have been on his mind for decades.

And he’s happy to say Ruston High — with Hill, Parker, and Anding as focal points — is one of the rare types of teams.

“I’ve seen the quote a bunch of times, ‘On the good teams, coaches lead. On the great teams, players lead,’” Bond said. “We can do a lot, but we don’t score, we don’t defend, we don’t rebound. I drive the bus, I wash their clothes. That’s really all I do, and I try not to overcomplicate things for them.”

Bond said the friendship amongst the boys is special to anyone who’s been around them for an extended period of time.

It makes the heavy lifting of locker room chemistry easier and keeps them accountable for each other.

When you have a team that can’t stand to let each other down, Bond said success on the court comes easy.

“ They hold themselves accountable,” Bond said. “ They’re always working in the classroom, they make good grades. They set good examples for their teammates.”

Accountability applies to more than the basketball court for these friends.

Making it big doesn’t come overnight. It takes hard work and keeping your life straight in the classroom and out of school.

Candace knows the trio is genuine in their desire to get on top, but they know it won’t happen without discipline. But they’re ready to do it together.

It reminds her of the classic Biblical verse of how brothers are supposed to care for one another.

Candace said a friendship this real at such a young age will be a guiding light for years to come.

“It’ll serve them because I am my brother’s keeper,” Candace said. “Sometimes we forget that as adults. Sometimes as adults we forget that, so when you find that accountability at a young age. It’ll benefit them in the long run and benefit other people seeing them.”

“ It’s really unique because they’re young, it’s a genuine love. If one hurts, they hurt. If one smile, they all smile. They’re really family. Not by blood, but by love.”