In the grown-up world of youth basketball, my wish of a full week of practices was not fulfilled. Late news of an after-hours spelling bee closing the one school caused a panic for reschedules. No one foresaw a series of snow squalls that same day not only produce a delay for the schools, but ultimately a late closure. The school administrators wisely rescheduled the spelling bee for during school hours the next day, so we did not lose another day....
On the kid-side, well... this begins two months of hell. Our local rec league is in full swing, with playoffs starting on February 8th. The rec league in the neighboring town started its game this week, so it was a little crazy with the half-hour drives between sites between the two leagues.
Thursday: A normal practice for Millie, with invitees from the Bulls and Warriors. The low point was introducing the concept of the screen to the ladies. Perhaps the high point of the season was starting a scrimmage with the 3/4 boys we share the court with. A learning experience for both teams.
After a quick drive home for dinner and homework, it was back to the school for Maja's travel team's spelling bee rescheduled practice, with a special guest appearance by Maja's rec team's Coach Rich. Lots of drills on breaking a full court press.
The girls slept restlessly that night.
Friday: Last year, both Maja and Millie played on the same team at the neighboring community rec league (WHYBL). It was an interesting experience, and this year we returned with the understanding that Millie would play in the Junior division (grades 3-4), while Maja moved up to the Seniors (5-7). Both are co-ed leagues that are 90% boys.
We raced down after work to Millie's Friday night game. We got there a half-hour early, only to discover the preceding game to hers was just finishing warm-ups. Add in four 8-minute quarters, a 5-minute halftime and the coaches using more time-outs in a game than I've used all season, and I think we were running into the proceeding game's time before the first one finished.
With all those delays, I need to run Maja and her friend back to their local rec team practice back home, so I got to see a whole quarter of Millie's solo WHYBL career.
Not a damn boy was passing to her, and she looked pissed.
We got to practice on time, and forty minutes later, Millie comes running into the school.
Me: How'd you play.
Millie: Okay, I guess.
My wife, later: They won 18-8, Millie had 6 points, a bunch of rebounds, and spent most of her night preventing this guy from scoring.
Nice to stay humble, kiddo.
Saturday: Busy day with Maja's rec league Bucks still having the same issues that plagued them in last weekend's loss. They just seemed loss, even being down 6-4 in the middle of the second quarter. After that, Maja scored 6 points in an 8-point run to close out the half, and perhaps thanks to that spark they pulled away to an expected 32-12 win.
Maja: 10 pts, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, and at least six steals.
Jump into the car again for a 25 minute ride for a game in 30 minutes for WHYBL, and it was delayed... again.... Add in four 10-minute quarters and maximum time-out usage and we barely had time to eat and get back home for the final game of the night.
Maja was the only girl on the court for her division, and again suffered from the lack of boys passing to her, but with her training and smarts, just like Millie she took advantage of her opportunities. It was a nail biter, but the green team lost to the black team 24-20.
Maja: 6 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 steals on 50% shooting. Considering the so-called "good" players were lobbing bombs from the arc with under 20% accuracy (most were under 10%), I'll take it.
Plus the entire second half, she was tasked with covering their big center.
She (and a little help from another player), held the big guy to 2 points in the second half.
Millie's Spurs had our second game of the year with the Warriors. After giving them a 16-1 drubbing last time, I demanded the same aggressive and smart play.
This time, we made mistakes, the Warriors were a lot more aggressive, and despite making a good effort of distributing the ball to everyone, it was a disappointing win, 23-16. Millie had 11, our star center had 10, and the young lady who couldn't hit the broad side of barn last week, ended her drought with the other two. We can't survive on bad passing and two players for most of the scoring... and we didn't set one screen... correctly. Back to the drawing board on Thursday.
We dashed off to our scheduled hockey game, and while there I got a call from the league president. Tonight was the first game all season between our pre-season villain Sixers and the new-ish villains, the Celtics. To the chagrin of the President, the kids were fine, but the adults, coaches, parents, and referees were simply maddening. He managed to prevent a poor situation from happening again... and with a full roster and good execution, the Sixers prevailed.
Of course, we're (unofficially) 4-3, and with four more games related (one each against the other teams in the division), I'd like to go into the playoffs with at least a 6-5.
Sunday: Maja's travel team had an 8pm start which meant we could have a good day at home cleaning, laughing, and letting the kids play with the neighborhood kids. The downside was we were subject to the delays of the entire day's games, so we start 40 minutes late.
Not sure of the logic, but the travel team is broken into two distinct teams for subbing en masse, with no overlapping. It balanced out to exactly the same time, but team one (without Maja) was dreadful. Maybe not dreadful, exactly, but when you're responsible for the 8-4 portion of the 23-4 win and you're the "good" 5th and 6th graders, it means something.
Maja - 6 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and two potential assists that generated foul shots for the other player.
This week: another high school game, a board meeting, part two of Screens: the Myth continues, and our final regular season game against the Sixers.
On the kid-side, well... this begins two months of hell. Our local rec league is in full swing, with playoffs starting on February 8th. The rec league in the neighboring town started its game this week, so it was a little crazy with the half-hour drives between sites between the two leagues.
Thursday: A normal practice for Millie, with invitees from the Bulls and Warriors. The low point was introducing the concept of the screen to the ladies. Perhaps the high point of the season was starting a scrimmage with the 3/4 boys we share the court with. A learning experience for both teams.
After a quick drive home for dinner and homework, it was back to the school for Maja's travel team's spelling bee rescheduled practice, with a special guest appearance by Maja's rec team's Coach Rich. Lots of drills on breaking a full court press.
The girls slept restlessly that night.
Friday: Last year, both Maja and Millie played on the same team at the neighboring community rec league (WHYBL). It was an interesting experience, and this year we returned with the understanding that Millie would play in the Junior division (grades 3-4), while Maja moved up to the Seniors (5-7). Both are co-ed leagues that are 90% boys.
We raced down after work to Millie's Friday night game. We got there a half-hour early, only to discover the preceding game to hers was just finishing warm-ups. Add in four 8-minute quarters, a 5-minute halftime and the coaches using more time-outs in a game than I've used all season, and I think we were running into the proceeding game's time before the first one finished.
With all those delays, I need to run Maja and her friend back to their local rec team practice back home, so I got to see a whole quarter of Millie's solo WHYBL career.
Not a damn boy was passing to her, and she looked pissed.
We got to practice on time, and forty minutes later, Millie comes running into the school.
Me: How'd you play.
Millie: Okay, I guess.
My wife, later: They won 18-8, Millie had 6 points, a bunch of rebounds, and spent most of her night preventing this guy from scoring.
 |
| That guy, in the paint. |
Saturday: Busy day with Maja's rec league Bucks still having the same issues that plagued them in last weekend's loss. They just seemed loss, even being down 6-4 in the middle of the second quarter. After that, Maja scored 6 points in an 8-point run to close out the half, and perhaps thanks to that spark they pulled away to an expected 32-12 win.
Maja: 10 pts, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, and at least six steals.
Jump into the car again for a 25 minute ride for a game in 30 minutes for WHYBL, and it was delayed... again.... Add in four 10-minute quarters and maximum time-out usage and we barely had time to eat and get back home for the final game of the night.
Maja was the only girl on the court for her division, and again suffered from the lack of boys passing to her, but with her training and smarts, just like Millie she took advantage of her opportunities. It was a nail biter, but the green team lost to the black team 24-20.
Maja: 6 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 steals on 50% shooting. Considering the so-called "good" players were lobbing bombs from the arc with under 20% accuracy (most were under 10%), I'll take it.
Plus the entire second half, she was tasked with covering their big center.
 |
| The big guy with the ball is a few feet further away from the others in the picture |
Millie's Spurs had our second game of the year with the Warriors. After giving them a 16-1 drubbing last time, I demanded the same aggressive and smart play.
We dashed off to our scheduled hockey game, and while there I got a call from the league president. Tonight was the first game all season between our pre-season villain Sixers and the new-ish villains, the Celtics. To the chagrin of the President, the kids were fine, but the adults, coaches, parents, and referees were simply maddening. He managed to prevent a poor situation from happening again... and with a full roster and good execution, the Sixers prevailed.
Of course, we're (unofficially) 4-3, and with four more games related (one each against the other teams in the division), I'd like to go into the playoffs with at least a 6-5.
Sunday: Maja's travel team had an 8pm start which meant we could have a good day at home cleaning, laughing, and letting the kids play with the neighborhood kids. The downside was we were subject to the delays of the entire day's games, so we start 40 minutes late.
Not sure of the logic, but the travel team is broken into two distinct teams for subbing en masse, with no overlapping. It balanced out to exactly the same time, but team one (without Maja) was dreadful. Maybe not dreadful, exactly, but when you're responsible for the 8-4 portion of the 23-4 win and you're the "good" 5th and 6th graders, it means something.
Maja - 6 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and two potential assists that generated foul shots for the other player.
This week: another high school game, a board meeting, part two of Screens: the Myth continues, and our final regular season game against the Sixers.
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