Basketball

On a less serious note. I have been coaching 8th grade basketball this year. What a ride. What a complete frustrating roller coaster of a season. Great girls. Not-so-great aggression and understanding of the word compete. I guess not everyone can grow up with four brothers where competition and aggression were just part of daily life. Some call it survival of the fittest. So...understanding meekness and fear of physical contact was difficult for me...and hard on my patience. It seemed that early in the season the girls could compete for one quarter. We'd play great...with passion and desire. Then we'd fall flat on our faces and play like scared, confused, and frustrated little girls. About midway through the season we had grown to putting together two, sometimes three, great quarters. We won a few games. We could have won more...as every coach believes. Somehow eveyone kept telling me not to worry about it. These girls just weren't talented. They just didn't have the "court smarts" to pull through and win. True. They didn't...and many of them didn't know what we meant when we said, "you've got to see the court. Look at what's open before you pass, and then pass quickly." But I couldn't help but think about the few great quarters they'd put together each game.

Saturday was our conference tournament. If you can believe it, we went into the tournament seeded third of five teams. There is one team that was 11-0 and all other teams had similar records as we did...2-10. I just knew that Saturday we'd play another great part of a game and go home for the season. My girls proved me wrong! For the first time all season, this team put together a FULL game. OH MY WORD! I've never seen them play so well...and so confidently. They had fun, they played hard, they played aggressively, and they played to win. Even when things started to get a little rocky, they pulled through and got right back on track. I've never been so incredibly proud of a group of girls in my life. Never.

So...when I thought the season was over, my girls smiled and said, "not yet, coach." Tomorrow night we play in the championship game. Smile and laugh because I'm sure it's not the first time a Cindarella team has made it to the big dance! BUT...regardless of how they do tomorrow, I'm still so incredibly proud of them. They played their hearts out for an entire game and that's what I've asked of them all season long! Wooooooooohoooooooooooooo! :)