Ingenuity

This is a mind at work. 

When your brother isn’t around to play defense, you secure a ladder. 

Ingenuity at its finest. Love him big!

They Missed Him

While we were living it up out West, the middle school basketball team had a game Monday night. The team lost. Big. The boys looked bad. After the Game, the boys went wild running through showers, yelling, acting silly. A fellow eighth grader said, “You wouldn’t be acting this way if Keagan was here.” Then he broke down in tears - embarrassed that his team was in such disarray. After a long pep talk and a “we’ll get ‘em tomorrow guys,” Coach went home and told his wife, “I’m flying Keagan back for Tuesday’s game. I can’t handle another game like we had tonight.” Unfortunately, Tuesday’s game was just as bad. Keagan was despondent; he hated missing the games and receiving texts about the scores knowing he wasn’t contributing!

Tonight Keagan was back. And he played the point like he hadn’t missed a week of training. The best part, though? We came home with a Dubba!

One of These Days

Basketball Week #5 may have brought new competition, but the same bleacher comments were made that have been made almost every other week.

1. What do you feed that boy? He's a big 'un.

One of these days I am going to have a really good come back. Today I just smiled and said, "Well, yesterday he ate a three pound bag of cutie oranges for his afternoon snack."

Evan's team won again today, even without two of the starters, 21-13. Evan got a three pointer, and I was the only one who seemed to notice.


2. Where did that little 'un learn to play basketball?

One of these days I am going to be bold enough to lie and say, "Those mad skills came from his mama. I can ball like no other."

Keagan's team won again today 14-11; this makes a two game winning streak. Keagan had an awesome pick that allowed another student to score. It just so happens that he and Coach discussed it at halftime and Keagan was able to incorporate it like he had been doing it all season.

We're on break until January. You will be able to find the boys in the driveway with the hoop, though, practicing those 3s and setting up picks.

Basketball Woes

Four games this week. Four losses. Lots of tears. This time it was the boys and not me. I have given up on believing we can win so I surprisingly sit quietly and watch the game like any normal parent. I still fail to find the humor, though, in eight year olds who shoot on the wrong goal or walk with the ball down the court. The other parents laugh and say, "Oh, Lordy Be! How cute is that?" I swear under my breath and put my head between my legs so that I don't hyperventilate.

I will try to concentrate on the positive, though. Evan had six three pointers this week, and he scored 16 of his team's 18 points in Wednesday night's game. He did not foul out, or if he did, the score keeper took pity on us since we were losing by 20 points.

Keagan scored six points in Tuesday's game, and he scored all five points in Thursday night's game. I was asked by another parent in the stands how many basketball camps the boys had attended, and I said none. She then asked who taught them how to play basketball, and before I could give an honest answer, Keagan piped in, "My mom was a star basketball player and played for the A team when she was in school." The other mom looked at me with doubt written all over her face, and when I saw the that-can't-be-so look on her face, I ran with the story. Never mind I played for my junior high team, spent some time on the bench because I wasn't fast enough, and won only one game the entire season. I WAS THE STAR, according to Keagan anyway.

The King's Fast Boy

Evan's first basketball game was tonight. I have commented once or twice that we can assume to win no games since we have no African Americans on the team, our star player is Evan who has only played basketball for one season, and we have three boys that have never dribbled a basketball before. The mantra White Boys Can Jump could not be further from the truth, or at least in the case of this season's U-11 Kings.

I should have known we were in for trouble when Evan took out his Youth Sports issued shorts and asked, "Why do my shorts say Fast Boy, Mama?" I had to reply, "That's East Bay, Baby. The brand name of the shorts." Seriously. He is so smart, it hurts, and yet the team relies upon him, the boy who believed his shorts had been monogrammed, for a win. Unfortunately, he had to sit on the bench the last quarter because he fouled out. That happens when you tackle as you rebound or slide tackle as you run down the court.

After the game, Evan walked into the house and said, "I really wanted to write about my first bball win and put it in the 2013 In a Jar, but I can't really celebrate a loss and five fouls now can I?"

We still have seven more games in the season. I foresee many more losses. At least I don't have to worry with close games, buzzer beaters, and celebrations that include kissing the strange soldier sitting next to me in the stands. Not that this would have ever happened to me, the-mom-who-must-win-at-all-costs. No. Not me.

The Beast of the Bulls

Here's another sports post. I promise we have a life outside of sporting events, albeit very limited. We are currently in the middle of basketball season. Last year, Keagan decided during registration that he didn't want to play, and when the games began in January and he had to watch his brother play while sitting in the bleachers, he regretted his decision for months. By the time December rolled around again, he was more than ready to hit the court.

Today was the Bulls first game. I had serious doubts that we could pull anything off because we have four adults that all try to coach, and at Thursday's practice, the kids spent 15 minutes running in circles while the coaches debated who would be the best player to jump in the opening tip off. I came close to screaming, "Go with the tall kid," but decided I better not when I remembered all the bleacher coaching I would be doing today. As it turns out, they went with the tall kid anyway. Good choice, Coach 1, Coach 2, Coach 3, and Coach 4. 

Despite the lack of ability to make quick decisions with tall kids and tip offs, it was looking very promising this morning when we had more than five players show up to the game and there was no opposing team in sight. As it turns out, we won by forfeit. Most of us had gotten out of bed really early on a Saturday morning,  though, and we didn't plan to go home so easily. We rounded up some random kids in the gym who agreed to scrimmage us, and we were good for our first game. 

The play of the game was Keagan's game winning basket with 23 seconds left on the clock. While the stands went wild with cheers, I'm pretty sure I pulled a Victor Cruz and did some salsa dancing in the bleachers as my victory dance. Of course neither my dance nor Keagan's shot were captured on video. I was busy bleacher coaching after all, but I did get a couple of not-so-great highlights. Highlights that could only be appreciated by the mom and dad of number 11, or as the other parents now refer to as "The Beast."

Nugget of Advice: Let's Learn the Chest Pass

Evan's basketball season tipped off today with their first game. While Keagan's team has a plethora of coaches, we have struggled to keep a coach. The first coach was around for only one practice, and then he left for Fort Polk. Our second coach was a dad that just got orders for Afghanistan. And now we are onto our third coach. At our first practice with coach #3, he won me over when he had the kids running, and they ran so much, one kid began to cry and call out for his mommy.
I felt what I am sure was an instant connection with the 20 year old private.

While the Nuggets began with a team of eight players, we are now down to five. I can only assume these missing ten year olds were just not interested in playing a sport that required running.

One of the players that is still on the team is ten year old fifth grader that is about 5 feet 2 inches tall. She is a beast, and because no one can ever remember her real name we have begun, coaches included, to refer to her as Big Girl. When I first saw Big Girl, I thought for sure she had been placed on the wrong team. After all, Evan is only in third grade and I just couldn't begin to believe that he was old enough to be placed on a team with a girl who was as tall as most adults and wears a bra. So I asked to see her birth certificate.

Apparently, Evan is old enough to be placed on a team with a girl as tall as most adults and wears a bra.

Big Girl is so tall she doesn't have to jump to make a basket. She can touch the rim, and she does from time to time when she takes a shot. Unfortunately, she still doesn't make a lot of points. Herein lies the biggest disappointment of the season. Evan believed Big Girl was the secret to a winning season. After today's game, he realizes a new strategy is needed. I think our new strategy will include learning the chest pass.

In Evan's mind, though, it was a good game. He did get a three pointer in today's game!

I personally think all five kiddos on the Nuggets are the winners. They played the entire game, running back and forth on the court, keeping up with the opposing team, and not one of them cried and called out for their mama!