A Little B-Ball

Saturday is the Stake one day youth basketball tournament. The young women were having their one and only practice on Tuesday night before mutual activities (not anything like the old days in Dover, DE and Valley Forge, PA where you practiced once a week and played a whole season). Typically I only teach on Sunday and can't go to the mutual activities because Daniel has cubscouts and it wouldn't be very productive for me to show up with 3 children I have to watch. But since this practice started before cubscouts, I called the YW president and asked if I could come help out. It was so funny because I had these giddy excited feelings - "I was going to play basketball!!" "Lucky Me!" I kept trying to talk my body out of these feelings, saying things like, "it's just a dumb practice", "you don't even know if they need you to play etc...", "Why are you so excited?"

Well the YW president called me and told me that she was really happy that I was coming because she was having some conflicts so could I please run the practice and help out coaching on Saturday. WHOA - that's a whole different set of circumstances. I've never coached before. I know how to play but I don't necessarily know how to help others learn to play. So I thought of some very basic drills and explained the rules etc... We worked on a few things, I worked with some of the newest younger players one on one and then we scrimaged for 25 -30 minutes. AND.....I GOT WORKED!! Oh I hid it well, I kept up and played every open position, and beat the fast breaker down, but I was huffing and puffing while trying to call out explanations and techniques etc...(I couldn't let them think I was that old, infact I could probably play with them at the tournament and no one in the stake would know the better) But, my throat was burning and ears ringing, not to mention that my face turned the color of a turnip. And it was MAGNIFICENT! As I write this now, my heart is racing and I feel excitement and I really miss basketball.

In the past the ward has called someone to be the YW sports specialist but the girls haven't really liked the coaching styles. Our girls are not extremely athletic or really competitive and haven't liked the intense "gotta win" attitude by their past coaches. So I was really worried about my coaching since #1. I'd never done it before and #2 I like to bark out what I see, what needs to be done (get open, hands up, follow your shot etc...). I was really excited when the YW president called me later that night and said she had a lot of positive feedback. The girls had had fun and some of them said they finally "get it". The YW pres. also told me when she walked in during our scrimidge that it was some of the best ball she'd seen them play. WHEW!! She said some of the girls expressed interest in coming to play once a month before activites and would I want to play with the girls since I can't find any women who want to play. YES YES!! I'll get to play basketball and the girls will have a chance to learn and practice techniques throughout the year and not just one day before the tournament.

It's been almost 7 years since we left Valley Forge where I got to play basketball on a regular basis. I have really missed it and although I am totally out of shape and my body is really sore today, I wouldn't change it. I look forward to playing more often, getting my body back in shape and getting my shot back (I'm terrible).

Wish us luck on Saturday!!