When it came time to sign kids up for basketball in November, I thought I would sign up to be Drew's coach, but only if they really needed me. Well, they needed me. I had tons of fun coaching Drew's 3/4 grade girls team! It was fun to get to know the girls, help them become better basketball players, and hopefully better teammates. We were not without our internal issues, which I guess every team has, but I think and hope I handled them OK and we were able to move on. We had practices every Tuesday from 5-6:30, which meant I had to have all 4 kids with me until Paul could pick up the 3 younger ones when he got home at 6. That was fun. I'm sure there were many times the parents of my girls wondered just what the heck I thought I was doing. I found that bribing Mason with babysitting money, and a bag full of fruit snacks and roll-ups helped, but it sure was nice when we saw daddy walk through the gym door so I could concentrate fully on my team. The Yellow Jackets ended up with a record of 3-4. Our last game we came back from down 5-12 in the 4th quarter to win it 15-13! That was one exciting game. We got blown out, we blew out a team, and one game was so awful I raged about it all day afterwards. I tried to remind myself I was dealing with 9 year old girls but that didn't help much. My competitive juices were flowing just a little to much that day. Overall I had a great time and I hope to coach Drew's team again next season. I mentioned to Paul that I will be able to coach my girls 8 years in a row now, won't that be fun? I don't think I got a verbal answer, just a withering look.
Drew had an awesome season. She was the youngest and shortest on our team but she didn't let that stop her. She started the season kind of slow, but ended it with a bang! I would say she was one of our top 3 players in the end, and that's coming from a coach, not a mom. She was much quicker than most girls out there and she would get the rebound and take off down the court in a fast break. She missed more lay-ins than she made of course, but she ended the season with 14 points, 6 of those being vital to our comeback in the last game. She played her heart out every time and it was so cool to watch her out there with that determined look on her face, not letting her size get her down. I think she had fun and liked having me as a coach. She said she did anyway. I hope she sticks with basketball because she is pretty good. Yeah! Happy mom!
This year was Mason's first time playing basketball. He hit the court with all the gusto he possesses! His practices were Thursdays from 5:30-7 so once again dad would come to the rescue after work and take the girls home. I ended up with an hour to myself! What luxury! I think Mason had a great time playing. He always had a smile on his face when he was on the court. There were 2 games of his I had to miss because Drew's game was scheduled at the same time, but I was able to see quite a bit of his playing time. Luckily I was at the game when he made his one and only basket of the season. You would have thought he just won a gold medal! He was jumping around and high-fiving teammates and they were hugging him. It was awesome. I was so thrilled for him. Though I told him next time act like you've been there before ;) He was great on defense and getting open for the pass, but not so good at catching the pass. His mantra for the season was "Gecko hands" because geckos have sticky fingers and I was trying to get him to catch the ball with his sticky fingers too. Not sure it worked, but that's something we can work on before next season. He enjoyed basketball so much he is trying to convince us to put up a hoop in our driveway. Once again, I'm a happy mom. I love that my kids love something I love too. I had so much fun this season, even though there were so many Saturdays taken up and so many fend-for-yourself dinner nights. It was just two months and it was a great time. We celebrated the end of the season as a family at Mr Fultano's pizza. I gave the girls on my team a certificate and a basketball key chain they can attach to their backpacks. I wasn't in to the whole after season party. Mason has a party this Saturday where he will receive his first trophy. I am so proud of both Drew and Mason and their willingness to work hard and have fun, and also grateful for Paul, Darcy, and Bree and their willingness to be so flexible and in the case of the girls, turned into gym rats for 2 months. Next up for Mason is Farm (coach pitch) baseball. He should technically still be in T-Ball for one more year but he is so much older and bigger than T-Ball players that I convinced them to let him play Farm. I'm secretly hoping he doesn't like that ball heading straight toward him and he is done after this season. We'll see.
