No sleeping in on Saturday mornings for this here guy. This year my son’s basketball practices include Saturday morning from 7am-9am; that’s cool with me. I don’t mind getting up early. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to sleep in… in fact, I probably could sleep all day if I had an open day, but getting the day started early… I’m good with it. Today, we’d have to get up a little earlier than normal. My son was playing in a basketball tournament which began at 8am at a high school which wasn’t 10 minutes away like his grammar school. Away we go…
It was an 8th grade tournament. My son, and 3 of his 7th grade teammates, were “playing up” this weekend. Here’s the truth of the matter: my son’s team and the 8th grade team are pretty close, meaning, to make the best single team, you need the 7th graders. Although my son wouldn’t be starting on that team, although maybe I think he should be, he would certainly be the first guard off the bench. It’s all good. It’s good experience for the boys, because come next year, they ARE the 8th grade team. The first game wasn’t close; it was a 20 point lead at the end of the first quarter. My son played pretty much the remainder of this first game. Sure, the competition wasn’t great, but it was still a team full of kids a year older than him. He played confidently, bringing the ball up, moving it around; I loved what I saw. He even listened to me… and instead of taking that first open trey, pump faked, drove the baseline, and dropped in a floater; it was a beautiful thing.
The second game would be more competitive, by a long shot. Still, my son got his chance in this one too. He delivered a nice dime and looked ready to compete before getting scratched in the eye. You see, the problem with this “scratch” was that it was right on his “black eye”. Yeah, he bumped heads during the week at school with a kid, and it turned purple. Now, he was scratched right on it. Could we have went back in? Probably. We talked about it, but the good news was, his team won. 2-0 to start the tourney. But this all day basketball Saturday wasn’t over yet…
His regularly scheduled 7th grade game was late in the afternoon at home; the boys crushed them. One of the best plays of the game was when my son fired this pass to his teammate on a transition break. He zipped it right between defenders, right in the pocket, and his teammate laid it in. His passing has been getting better and better. He scored a couple buckets too, but most importantly, the team moved to 10-0 for their regular season schedule. Before we concluded the day, we stayed and watched some of the other teams, finishing hours later with the 8th grade girls. Down 9-0 we were ready to leave, but we didn’t… I had a feeling, and after the 2nd half of cheering from the boys and die-hard fans/parents still in attendance, the girls rewarded us with a 1 point victory. It was an exciting finish to this basketball Saturday. The tournament would continue on Sunday, while the final regular season game will be Tuesday. Playoffs right around the corner…
Leave a Reply