Oh yeah, Hollywood is calling.  And they want to tell the Perry Reese Jr. Story.  Have your people call his people and we will all do lunch in Bel Air to talk about the story most people in these parts already know.

The real-life story will be made for the silver screen ...

Young, single, Catholic black male moves into the heart of Amish and Mennonite country to become an assistant high school boys basketball coach.

Stars will be in Berlin this weekend only it will be a different type of celebrity, a collection of the state's best high school girls basketball teams and players.  They will converge on the small town, which is one of the largest Amish settlements in the world, for a three-day tournament appropriately dubbed the "Classic in the Country."

The event, which starts Saturday, features 31 teams.  USA Today labeled Classic in the Country one of the top three high school girls events in the United States.

The tournament will be held in the 1,800-seat Perry Reese Jr. Center, one of the finest high school basketball facilities in the state.

The current population in Berlin is 600, although Berlin Hiland High School draws from an area of about 4,000 people.

When Reese first arrived at the high school as an assistant to legendary Charlie Huggins in 1982, the only thing more scarce than Catholic males in eastern Holmes County were black, Catholic males. 

The lights go down, and the real-life story begins ...

At first, the townsfolk view him with suspicious eyes.

Soon, he captures everyone's heart with his passion for the game, but more so because of his compassion for his fellow man.  They give him the nickname of "The Original Black Amishman."

He begins turning out terrific baseball teams, winning the school's first state championship in 1992, erasing a seven-point deficit in the final 38 seconds to win a semifinal game, 64-62, and returning the next night to win the title with a 74-71 victory.

The townsfolk go crazy.

Reese becomes an icon, riding the wave of his success on and off the floor to incredible popularity.  His teams make three more trips to the final four while their coach helps bridge the gap in race relations

Then, suddenly, disaster.

An inoperable brain tumor is discovered.  A few months later in late 2000, 17 years after he had first walked into the school, Reese was dead at 48, stolen away from the people who loved him.

Reese's memory, and the memory of what he stood for, is renewed every year.  The Perry Reese Memorial Scholarship Fund was started shortly after his death, with the initial $30,000 coming from Reese himself.

Shortly after Reese passed away, a writer from Sports Illustrated arrived in this small town to write the Perry Reese Jr. story.  Gary Smith turned out one of the greatest high school basketball stories ever written.

That is why Hollywood is calling.

Disney has purchased the rights to Smith's article and Jerry Bruckheimer, who has produced such films as "Remember The Titans," "Black Hawk Down," "Top Gun" and "Pearl Harbor," has been hired.  So, too, has Gregory Allen Howard, the man who authored the screenplays for "Remember The Titans" and "Ali."

Together they will tell the screen version of how Perry Reese Jr. changed the face of not just a small town, but of an entire county.  They will tell the story of how Reese withstood the racial insults that were hurled his way early in his career.  They will tell the story of how a young black man left his hometown of Canton and moved into the heart of white America and not only survived, but flourished.

In the fall of 1967, Tom Jenkins was a sophomore at Cary High School, in Cary, N.C.  To this day, Jenkins, the director of the Classic in the Country, vividly remembers his first day of school that year.  It was the first day of integration, and Cary High was the first integrated school in the state.

"I remember walking into the lunchroom, and there were kids of color sitting at one table," said Jenkins, who was president of his class and the starting point guard on the basketball team.  "They were sitting there by themselves, and the white kids were bombarding them with food.  I knew I had to make a decision right there and then.  Was I going to be white, or was I going to be right?

"I went over and asked one of those kids if I could sit with them.  The food stopped coming.  Now, I don't know if it stopped because I was white or if it stopped because of my status at school.  All I know is that it stopped, and that was OK with me."

Jenkins, who soon became a member of the radical group, Students for a Democratic Society, eventually graduated from Pfeiffer College, in Misenheimer, N.C., and the Atlanta Law School.  He became a civil rights attorney.

Jenkins eventually ran a trucking company and a sports bar in Montego Bay, Jamaica, before returning to America and relocating in Cincinnati.

Today, the 52-year-old serves as an advisor on "one or two" race discrimination cases a year, but most of his time is spent working as a guru of girls high school basketball.

The connection between Reese, Jenkins and basketball was a natural.

"When we first started this, we felt it was our duty to make some sort of social contribution to further Perry's cause," Jenkins said.  "Hence, the Classic was born."

Jenkins said two full scholarships were awarded last year.  The event has 58 sponsors and over 200 volunteers showed up for the first planning meeting. It is estimated that at least 10,000 fans will attend this year's event, which features some of the top teams in Ohio and is being called one of the top three tournaments in the country.  Up to 150 college scouts are expected to attend.

"When you walk into the gymnasium, you become aware right away that this tournament is being played in memory of [Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.] and Perry Reese," Jenkins said.

Dave Schlabach, the girls basketball coach at Hiland and one of the tournament organizers, said it costs about $30,000 to stage the event.  He also estimated that it brings about $400,000 into the community through money spent in area restaurants and hotels.

"We felt our community would welcome the event and it has," said Schlabach, who was one of Reese's best friends.  "I'm sure that Perry is up there looking down on us and smiling.  He wouldn't be happy that so much attention was being focused on him, but he would be thrilled with the success of the event.  He would enjoy the week."

Just as so many people in the community came to enjoy Perry Reese Jr.