No, I’m not going to talk about the Roquan-less Bears today. We all understood what was going to happen, what will happen the rest of the year; I can beat that dead horse another day. Today, I’m going to talk about my son’s 5th grade basketball team; don’t think I’ve talked much about that lately. Let’s catch up.
After last night’s victory, they are 5-0 on the season; they are a good team. As of a week ago, the last boy in their class joined the squad; now, they have all eight 5th grade boys on the team… that’s really cool. Assuming they all remain in this school for the next few years, they will be playing together for a long time. I can’t wait to see how they all look when they’re in 8th grade. Just between this year and last year, I’ve seen a difference. They’ve been blowing teams out. I’m ready for them to have a challenge, to play a back and forth, down to the wire game… and win of course, but yeah… it’s been fun.
I’ve decided to become the unofficial, official stats keeper for the team. I would do it for my son anyways, plus, I was the “official” scorekeeper for a couple home games, so… makes sense. Now, they all come asking me their stat line after the game… points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks I can tell them. Like I said, it’s been fun. Of course, I will always have things to say, things that I think they should be doing differently, things that I don’t like… it’s the coach in me… I can’t help it. Speaking about things I don’t like…
We’ve learned over the last 2 years that the rules may depend on the team you’re playing, the refs that are officiating, or the specific league you’re in. I’m not sure which one was the cause of this most recent “rule”, but I didn’t like it. If one team goes up by more than 10 points, on defense, they all need to stay in the paint; excuse me, what!?!? So… once we went up big, we told our kids to play no defense?!?! What are we teaching the kids??? That’s what it’s all about at the end of the day. It’s all about what are the kids learning; what things are we showing them. I understand the whole “running up the score” thing; I don’t think it should be done. If we’re cruising by 20+ points, don’t continue to press the other team… don’t leave your best guys in there to crush their souls… Try some different stuff, give all the kids a chance to get some shots up, bring the ball up, etc. The coaches have done that in the past; I agree with that. However, to be told we can’t play defense… that makes absolutely no sense.
First off, our kids will start to develop bad habits, although I’d like to think it may have the opposite effect… you know, where the kids can’t wait to play defense again next game; they have shutout 2 teams in the first half so far. Secondly, you’re letting these other kids score; that’s sort of disrespectful the other way. They should earn it. At that point, you might as well line them up at the free throw line until they get close; heck, I’d even be up for what they did in the 4th grade game the other day…reset the score at halftime. Something other than forcing out kids to not play, and letting another team get buckets. As a baseball coach, I would never “run up the score”… send my kids around the bases when I’m up 18 runs. At the same time, I’m not going to tell them to “not swing” or “let the ball go through your legs”… no, no way. You have to play the game. And yes, there are opinions on the “right way”, but forcing kids to play no defense is NOT one of those right ways.
OK, I’m done. I could go on… I think one of the dad’s was getting sick of me talking about this topic last night… so I went to talk to another one… haha. That other day had an interesting comment too; don’t let the kids play zone at this age… force them to play man to man. I’d be good with that. At the very least, the kids should learn to play both. Anyways… yeah, 5-0, the team is doing well, my son is doing well… all is good. Two more games this upcoming weekend; can we stay undefeated, unlike the other Eagles on MNF? Let’s go!!!
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