Hoop dreams
Halfway through the boys' basketball seasons -- I coach both teams -- and it's been fun. Crazy, sometimes frustrating, sometimes awesome, and fun.
Ben plays on a kindergarten team in a league in which no scores are kept. In our previous game, we played a team that was shooting the lights out (for kindergartners at least -- I swear, their players made perhaps their first seven shots), but we kept up and scored about seven baskets, which was our season high. We got to this week and put up more shots then we had all season, but nothing fell. So many shots rimmed out. But we played good defense and were passing the ball better than we have all season (and better than an average kindergarten team does, I bet). It was just bad luck. We weren't shut out, though, and we were complimented by the other coach how well we played. I was proud of them.
Ben is having fun, too, though this first season of hoops reminds me of his first season of soccer, in which he was sometimes not lost, but not fully engaged. He made it to his second soccer season and got a lot better. I'm hoping for the same improvement next year. I both proud and annoyed with him the previous game. He got the ball close to the basket ... and passed to an open teammate. It was a great play, but his best chance to score all season. I'm keeping my fingers crossed he gets a basket by the end of the season.
I was keeping my fingers crossed some of the players on Michael's first/second-grade team could get their first basket of the season tonight, and it finally happened. Until tonight, only four of the nine players had scored baskets. Four more did tonight, including at least two kids who had never scored a basket in a game ever. Here's the funny thing: We lost 24-14, but I felt like we played our best game of the season. We had a lot of shots rim out, too; we were missing one of our better scorers; another one of our tall kids had a coughing fit and left after the first quarter (and in retrospect, didn't play well when he played); and our two best players didn't play well (in fact, Michael had a fast break on which he forgot to dribble and got whistled for traveling. We didn't play very good defense the first three minutes or the last three, and I think we panicked a little in the fourth quarter (as evidenced by Michael forgetting to dribble). For the 18 minutes in between, we outscored our opponents 14-10 and rallied back from a 10-2 deficit to almost tie the game at one point. We were passing better, dribbling to the basket well, rebounding and mostly playing good defense. And four kids got their first basket of the season, including the smallest kid on our team.
As a sports journalist, I sometimes can't help to view games in terms of winning and losing. But I know this -- Michael's team may not have won the game, but wow we had so many victories tonight.
Ben plays on a kindergarten team in a league in which no scores are kept. In our previous game, we played a team that was shooting the lights out (for kindergartners at least -- I swear, their players made perhaps their first seven shots), but we kept up and scored about seven baskets, which was our season high. We got to this week and put up more shots then we had all season, but nothing fell. So many shots rimmed out. But we played good defense and were passing the ball better than we have all season (and better than an average kindergarten team does, I bet). It was just bad luck. We weren't shut out, though, and we were complimented by the other coach how well we played. I was proud of them.
Ben is having fun, too, though this first season of hoops reminds me of his first season of soccer, in which he was sometimes not lost, but not fully engaged. He made it to his second soccer season and got a lot better. I'm hoping for the same improvement next year. I both proud and annoyed with him the previous game. He got the ball close to the basket ... and passed to an open teammate. It was a great play, but his best chance to score all season. I'm keeping my fingers crossed he gets a basket by the end of the season.
I was keeping my fingers crossed some of the players on Michael's first/second-grade team could get their first basket of the season tonight, and it finally happened. Until tonight, only four of the nine players had scored baskets. Four more did tonight, including at least two kids who had never scored a basket in a game ever. Here's the funny thing: We lost 24-14, but I felt like we played our best game of the season. We had a lot of shots rim out, too; we were missing one of our better scorers; another one of our tall kids had a coughing fit and left after the first quarter (and in retrospect, didn't play well when he played); and our two best players didn't play well (in fact, Michael had a fast break on which he forgot to dribble and got whistled for traveling. We didn't play very good defense the first three minutes or the last three, and I think we panicked a little in the fourth quarter (as evidenced by Michael forgetting to dribble). For the 18 minutes in between, we outscored our opponents 14-10 and rallied back from a 10-2 deficit to almost tie the game at one point. We were passing better, dribbling to the basket well, rebounding and mostly playing good defense. And four kids got their first basket of the season, including the smallest kid on our team.
As a sports journalist, I sometimes can't help to view games in terms of winning and losing. But I know this -- Michael's team may not have won the game, but wow we had so many victories tonight.
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