5th Basketball Season, Slam-Dunked!

{A} just finished up her fifth basketball season with the Plymouth Girls Basketball League, and what a season it was!

Last year as a player on the junior league, she had a really great playing year, with all of her acquired skills finally coming together, gelling, and showing out there on the court. This year, she started with the senior league, and she was really looking forward to it. Of course, she really loves this game.

Try-outs were at the end of October, and she did really well there. We heard she was one of the first girls drafted by one of the coaches, who we were not very familiar with because he was a senior coach.

She would be playing for team Liberty, and she realized very quickly though, that this year was going to be different for her.  After the year she had last season, it was a tough pill to swallow.  If anyone knows {A}, she’s just a happy-go-lucky kind of girl.  A very sunny disposition. The kind of person people say to “Do you ever stop smiling?”.  She is very sociable, friendly, self-confident, and loves to joke around and have fun with people of all ages.  Even her coaches.  She’s serious about playing well, but she’s really light-hearted about it all too.  She just likes playing hard, but having fun doing it.

Well, it’s safe to say she stopped smiling quite a bit this season. Especially early on in the season. Because she realized at her very first practice, that her coach this year was all business.  He’s all about the game, teaching the girls to use their skills properly, and make them better players. He wants certain things done, in certain ways.   He’s tough, direct, and not the least bit hesitant about being loudly vocal to anyone who doesn’t follow his exact directions.  What a clash for our Little Miss Sunshine!

We knew she had a rough year ahead of her. Unexpectedly rough.  But as her parents, we thought it was a great thing for her. Why?  For one thing, this guy was an excellent coach, and we knew she’d come out of the year,  even a better player.  He knew this game well, and he was passionate about defining the skills of any girls on his team.   Teaching them proper form, thinking ahead, “looking around”, and “being smart”:  terms we heard him shout frequently this season.

It was also an opportunity to build her character.  A way for her to experience, how the world is filled with people with very different personalities than her own, and there will be times in her life, when she’ll need to find a way to work with such people in her life, gracefully. To respect authority in certain situations. There was much to learn this year, that would go far beyond the game of basketball.  She would grow not only as a player, but as a person.  It could only be a good thing.

Coach just passed out shirts at the start of the season, and she was none to pleased to see she was number 1.  “No pressure.”, she said.

Practices were a bit of hard work, with a lot of skills drilled,  and strategies taught, and {A} never missed one.  As tough as Coach was, it was easy to see all season, that he knew what he was doing, just looking at the score boards. They had an excellent season of 10 games, with 8 wins and 2 losses, only by a point or 2.  I didn’t take photos all season, but {A} was finding her groove, and learning how to handle Coach,  a little more every week.   She was out there on that court every game, always sporting her crazy big sneakers, and only sometimes, her smile.

Last weekend was play-offs, and the Championship game, for the teams left standing.  Our team, Liberty, won their first play-off game on Friday night, 26-4.  Play-off game 2 on Saturday was another win of 12-19. {A} played awesome those 2  games, on offense, defense, and shooting as well. They made it to the Championship game scheduled for noon on Sunday.

Here they are pre-Championship-game on Sunday, huddled down the school hallway, listening to Coach.

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Warm-ups.
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Game time, playing against the Monarchs . . . .

Catching the rebound.
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Coach was all about his marker board.  He used it to explain every thing, whether it was a bad call on the girl’s part, or a plan when they got back on the court.  It was an excellent tool, that really helped the girls who benefited from a visual to clearly understand.

#2 was one of our boys ‘other’ favorite players, besides their sister.
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It was surprisingly tense game.  I am super competitive, and one of  ‘those’ moms, cheering, hooting, hollering, or screaming from the sidelines, making a scene.  You have no idea.  By half-time, the score was 10-8, with Liberty leading.  Too close for me.

In the end, the Monarchs won by 6 points, with a final score of 13-19.   The other team simply played a better game that day. (That’s me, practicing sounding like a good sport.).

I need the practice, because next year, the boys, {JM} and {S},  start playing basketball too.  We’ll be living at the gyms  every year during basketball seasons,  from then on out.

The crowd was only on one side of the gym – the side I was shooting from.  {A} was the first called up, to receive congratulations, and her trophy.  They had both learned to appreciate each other, for their strengths and weaknesses, as they both saw it.
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The whole team: Liberty.   There she is on the far right, smiling.

There is no shame, in being runner-ups!
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But our girl is still #1, to us.

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