After having a very miserable, negative experience playing basketball last fall, Taite asked his dad if he would coach a team in the Preston Rec league. We figured if Taite was asking that was a positive, and Dave jumped at the chance to coach his team. The league was a 4-5 grade league with a very broad spectrum of experience in players. Dave's team came with little experience, but grew leaps and bounds in the 6 weeks they played together. It did my heart good to see my son actually enjoy playing the game again. They didn't come out of the league with a winning record, but they sure came out of it with winning attitudes, and I think that is what it is all about. I loved seeing Taite's enthusiasm as he headed into practices and games.
Shaylee too just finished her school season for 7th grade basketball. Our school doesn't have an official school team. They have tryouts and form two teams for each grade 7th and 8th. There were many frustrations along the way as we watched Shaylee try to deal with new players and the never ending drama from her grade. At the beginning of the season it didn't even seem like the same team we had watched play the past 4 years. Between trying to adjust to new players and a new coach the girls struggled with playing and with each other. It was hard as a mom to watch, and at times I wanted to pull my daughter, not because she was innocent, but because the stress of the situation was really getting to me. After a few weeks they did pull it together and played much better, and also got along much better. The first few weeks they were losing to teams the had beat over and over in other leagues, the outcome of the league was much more positive with them finishing 2nd in their division. My hats off to coaches that are patient enough to deal with girls and their daily ups and downs. I want to express my gratitude to Coach Kunz for sticking with the girls and helping them work on their skills both on and off the court. Something I certainly would not have the patience for.
So both of my girls might be upset with me for posting the next stories, but I have to do it anyway....as I am sure they will look back on the experience and smile (I hope).
Olivia's basketball story occurred early in the season, in fact I can't even remember who she was playing. As the game progressed and got a little rough you could see all over her face that she had had enough of the the girl that was guarding her. Liv got a steal and was headed in for a lay-up when the girl came up behind and gave her a push from behind. Liv ended up pinned against the wall with the opponent on the floor at her feet. Her story is that she was trying to get her foot out from under the girl, our story is that she flat out kicked the girl while she was down. The ref gave her a "friendly" warning and the game played on, but of course we had to tease her a little after...she to this day sticks to her story. I bet the opponent's mom was as mad as I was when Liv got punched in the gut against another team.
Shaylee got her first offensive foul ever since playing ball. They were playing a team that we have played over and over trading wins back and forth. With only a few minutes in the game left, Shaylee had the ball at the top of the key. The next thing we know she has tucked the basketball under her arm like a football and elbowed the girl guarding her as hard as she could. I was appalled and couldn't believe that was my kid with rotten sportsmanship. As soon as the game was over I marched over to get her side of the story. "Mom, I couldn't take it any longer", as Shaylee lifted up her shirt, "she was pinching me the entire game!" Sure enough Shaylee had little pinch marks up and down her sides. Hmmmm, was the elbow justified? Oh the emotions of girls playing ball...
Shaylee continues to play for her CV Elite team as well. This is really where her heart is right now, as she really fits in well with the girls on that team. There is only one problem, they are all a year older than her. It will be interesting to see what happens when they all move on to high school next year and Shaylee has to stay behind.
As for now we are putting Preston basketball on the backburner and looks like we will be moving on to volleyball for Shaylee, and a break in sports for Taite and Liv (unless she decides to run track ?).
Everything else is still same old, same old....school, work, taxi driving, rush, rush, rush, .........
No comments:
Post a Comment