First off, the "Adults Ruin Everything" Portion. It's crunch time in the season for the Board of Directors for the community league. Lots of moving parts requiring approval for payment, and luckily enough, we have some money in the treasury. The fun Night at the Races promotion is going as smoothly as a Bolivian mountain road, but so long as I sell my tickets, I'm off the hook.
Then came the BoD meeting and just simple bickering from everybody.... Coaches complaining about refs, parents complaining about coaches, board members needing to remove unzealous parents from the bench area at games.
And off course, my favorite, "sticking with what we always did" is fine, unless you happen to have a friend who runs a trophy business... and that quote is too damn high.
This week we suffered from some mid-week weather that cause some more schedule adjustments. Outside of one coach asking to permanently changing their team practice to another (open) day and time, things went smoothly.
Millie's joint practice with the Bulls was miserable. We haven't gotten hit with any bugs, but for some girls (and boys on the team we share the court with), you can tell the winter malaise has kicked in.
Our Hazleton league cancelled Saturday games, due to an impending snowstorm, before 3pm on Friday. With a wrestling tournament at the local high school and other school functions already pegged for Saturday, our local school district waited until after 7pm to close all school buildings for the following, effectively cancelling all of our basketball games save our Sunday high school division
But that meant we still had Millie's Friday night Hazleton game, albeit with a subdued pre-snowstorm crowd.
Millie scored the first 4 of the team's 8 points in the entire game, and openly wondered why the boys weren't passing to anyone who was open... on either team.
The ended in an 8-8 tie although their was a valiant 3-point attempt for Millie's team as time expired.
Saturday ebbed and flowed with only three inches of snow all day, but just enough to cause dozens of accidents in the area. While we could have made all three of our games without incident, Referees and families traveling across the school district might not be as lucky.
Sunday was the Knights of Columbus foul-shooting contest and with free entry we decided "what the hay!"
The gym at the local Catholic grade school is dated, but it certainly worked. Everyone was nice, we ran into our new best friends in the 3/4 Sixers, and a few faces we haven't seen in awhile.
Considering this was an early afternoon event, I was disappointed in their shooting. Only one or two kids in their age groups shot better, but there was a focus on finesse when they still need some more core power at their ages. Still, it was a well-run event and the girls want to come back next year.
A quick ride back home to wait for my wife to come back from work and we were all back in the car for the Wyoming Valley Clutch AAU tryouts. Both girls fit the age brackets, but after our experiences last year, we were gauging the other players trying out, reading their informational handout, and listening for any doublespeak coming out of the organizers' mouths.
It's not too promising all the potential players are point guards, save one potential center. Add to all of that a desire for all the coaches to merge 3rd/4th grade and 5th grade into one 5th grade team, and I'm not seeing the benefit of paying $700 a kid for 2 local tournaments, 3 Philly/Harrisburg area tourneys, and two further drives to the beach to get slaughtered at most of them. I'd rather spend a lot less and have them get shellacked by much better local teams for Maja's travel team.
Speaking of travel team, four tryout participants dashed across the river to Kingston: Maja and Maja's friend, Millie, although she's not playing, and one 6th grade girl from the Dallas team they were playing.
It was a repeat from before, a big 38-9 loss. Despite added (and late) emphasis on conditioning, screens, and running plays, the Dallas girls are simply bigger and faster. I compared it to my wife trying to keep up with me when we go places, and no one argued.
Then came the BoD meeting and just simple bickering from everybody.... Coaches complaining about refs, parents complaining about coaches, board members needing to remove unzealous parents from the bench area at games.
And off course, my favorite, "sticking with what we always did" is fine, unless you happen to have a friend who runs a trophy business... and that quote is too damn high.
This week we suffered from some mid-week weather that cause some more schedule adjustments. Outside of one coach asking to permanently changing their team practice to another (open) day and time, things went smoothly.
Millie's joint practice with the Bulls was miserable. We haven't gotten hit with any bugs, but for some girls (and boys on the team we share the court with), you can tell the winter malaise has kicked in.
Our Hazleton league cancelled Saturday games, due to an impending snowstorm, before 3pm on Friday. With a wrestling tournament at the local high school and other school functions already pegged for Saturday, our local school district waited until after 7pm to close all school buildings for the following, effectively cancelling all of our basketball games save our Sunday high school division
But that meant we still had Millie's Friday night Hazleton game, albeit with a subdued pre-snowstorm crowd.
Millie scored the first 4 of the team's 8 points in the entire game, and openly wondered why the boys weren't passing to anyone who was open... on either team.
 |
| I don't know why either, Millie.... |
Saturday ebbed and flowed with only three inches of snow all day, but just enough to cause dozens of accidents in the area. While we could have made all three of our games without incident, Referees and families traveling across the school district might not be as lucky.
Sunday was the Knights of Columbus foul-shooting contest and with free entry we decided "what the hay!"
The gym at the local Catholic grade school is dated, but it certainly worked. Everyone was nice, we ran into our new best friends in the 3/4 Sixers, and a few faces we haven't seen in awhile.
It's not too promising all the potential players are point guards, save one potential center. Add to all of that a desire for all the coaches to merge 3rd/4th grade and 5th grade into one 5th grade team, and I'm not seeing the benefit of paying $700 a kid for 2 local tournaments, 3 Philly/Harrisburg area tourneys, and two further drives to the beach to get slaughtered at most of them. I'd rather spend a lot less and have them get shellacked by much better local teams for Maja's travel team.
Speaking of travel team, four tryout participants dashed across the river to Kingston: Maja and Maja's friend, Millie, although she's not playing, and one 6th grade girl from the Dallas team they were playing.
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| Maja vs the 6th Clutch tryout |
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