Basketball

Jack and Kate have started playing basketball this year in a local league, 3rd grade girls and 5th grade boys. We almost signed Jack up last year, then changed at the last minute and he did swimming instead. (After a few basketball practices, he said, "I love basketball! Why haven't I played before this?" And I said, well, you did swimming last year. Which do you like more? No hesitation. "Basketball. I hated swim team. Well, I didn't hate it. I just didn't like it.") A couple of times he had basketball and baseball practice at the same time. He wanted to go to basketball.

Kate seems to enjoy it. She wanted to do it, so we signed her up. I'm not certain she is really engrossed in it, but she gamely runs up and down the court waving her arms and generally smiling, so that's good. She had her first scrimmage the other day and a pass was sent her way and she tried to catch it. It's going to be a learning year for her.

Jack more or less knows what he's doing out there. He goes to his spots on offense and defense, runs hard up and down the floor, tries to guard people and participate on offense. He had a scrimmage last week and looked kind of overwhelmed. A lot of the kids did, we got clobbered by a better team. I believe they were called the All-Stars or Ringers or Globetrotters or something.

But the practices are helping, seem to be anyway. We play a lot of Horse in the driveway these days. I wish I could say I let him beat me, but that would not be entirely accurate. He likes to play, likes to practice, go out and shoot.

Tonight was his first real game. It was a lot like the scrimmage. We got clobbered early, the team looked like it needed a lot more practices, lots of kids didn't know where to go or what to do. When Jack handled the ball or tried to defend other kids he did fine, but it's not instinctual, clearly. Still figuring things out. I think he had a steal at one point, which was cool, and then he got saved from either a travel or a double dribble by a timeout.

With about 30 seconds left in the game he got a pass, and went to shoot for the first time, and they called a foul. So he went to the line for the first time. We were at the other end of the court so we couldn't see him, but I imagine he was nervous or excited or both. Seemed to hurry the first shot and missed, off to the right of the rim I think. Coach told him to slow down, take his time. He bounced it a couple of times and took the second shot. Banked it in off the glass. His first point.

He and the team jogged back down the floor. I think he was trying to be cool, but this little smile was peeking through. Then a bigger smile. Half a minute later the game ended, he had the post game meeting, and came over to us. Still smiling.

We congratulated him, chatted a bit with other parents, went outside. Jack was talking about this lucky quarter he found before the game and put in his shoe. "I'm always going to have this quarter," he said. Later he was still smiling, either about making his free throw or his lucky quarter, I'm not sure which.

Put him to bed, congratulated him again. He was still really happy.

So, the kids play basketball now.