More Basketball

Pretty much all I've got these days is basketball.....

Last Saturday, Jayden's basketball team started out their season with a double header.  Poor, poor Jayden's team.  Both of the other teams we played, it was obvious they had been playing together since kindergarten.  One of the teams had 4 kids from Jayden's kindergarten class on it and I know they've been playing together since then.  Both the other teams were running set plays while ours was just kind of everybody out for themselves.  I'm not sure if Jayden's coaches have even played basketball before, (Royal says definitely not) but it's run on volunteers and with this being Jayden's first year and us not knowing other coaches or players, this is just the team we got. 
Royal swears he will not let our kids play basketball at the Andover YMCA again, not because Jayden's team got creamed, Royal doesn't care if they lose, but because there is no consistency with coaching or especially with reffing the games.  I thought Royal was gonna lose it on the sidelines watching the refs (granted highschool kids) call 1 out of every 10 travels, or 1 out of every few double dribbles, or not call someone stepping way over the line while in-bounding the ball.  He didn't care which team they were missing the calls for, he just couldn't stand the fact that they just didn't call them.  Royal is big on teaching our kids how to play the game right, if there are rules to follow that those get enforced all the time, which I get, consistency is important.  Royal won't coach Jayden's team because he doesn't want Jayden (and really the other parents) to hate him for doing nothing but dribbling drills, or jump stops, or pivoting for the entire practice.  We don't even have a hoop at our house, but that doesn't stop Royal from practicing with Jayden and Willow.  They do a lot of dribbling and passing.  :)  But for now, I have a purse full of lollipops to stick in Royal's mouth when he can't seem to keep it shut during the game.  I'm also pretty sure Royal might show up in a black and white striped shirt next Saturday and tell the high school kids to step off the court because he will be reffing Jayden's game.

I was a little nervous for Jayden not knowing how he was going to handle doing something he'd never done before (he tends to fold under pressure) and doing it in front of 2 bleachers full of parents and kids, but he did great.  I asked him afterwards how he was feeling before the game started and he said, "My stomach felt like there was a huge boulder sitting in it!"  Jayden picked the number 13 to be put his jersey, just like his grandpa had when he used to play.

There were a couple things watching Jayden play that made me feel so proud of him.  Whenever he got the ball, he would dribble it up the floor, stop, and then PASS the ball.  Most of the kids (on both teams really) would dribble, stop, dribble, stop, dribble, and then try and shoot.  (See why Royal was losing his mind? no fouls called....)  But Jayden was so good when he would get surrounded by the other team, to stop and not move his feet and then look to pass the ball.  The other thing, and this is what made me most happy, was that he was pumped for anybody on his team who scored points.  He would track the kid down and then give them a high-five.  Most of the time these other kids would just look at him weird, like "what the heck are you doing", but Jayden was genuinely excited for the other kid.  He had the best team spirit out there!

Willow also had a game on Saturday and her games are just hilarious.

Here she is convincing the kids she's "guarding" - they get paired up with colored wrist bands - to wrist bump her.  Whenever she'd run down the floor and find her man, she's make him bump colors with her.

And sometimes having your very best friend on your team is just too much.  It's hard to pay attention to whats happening around you when you have something to say to her!