Here we go again… Back for another basketball season, my son’s 6th grade team played their first game on Saturday afternoon on the road. Let’s do this!
I was trying to do a little season preview show on the car ride up there, but my son was a bit nervous; I told him that’s only natural for the first game of the season. I still rambled on a bit before my wife told me to shut up, and my son started dozing off; sorry if someone is excited… Yes, last year his team went undefeated, breezing through all the 5th grade teams in their league. My son was MVP, averaging almost 11 points per game. How do I know this? Well, I am the unofficial stat keeper for the team. Some of the kids ask me how they did after the game; I sent the totals to the coaches after the season. Yes, I will be doing that again this year, trying to add in shooting percentage across the board. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t easy… it’s getting tougher to focus on the game, but I’ll give it a chance. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I really didn’t need to focus too much on their season opener; it was their opponent that didn’t have a chance.
38-16 was the final, but it could have been worse… much worse. I’ll try to keep my rant short, since I haven’t stopped talking about it to anyone who was willing to listen since the game ended. Because they were up by so many points, they essentially couldn’t play defense; they would just stand there, in their zone, with their hands up… letting the other team shoot. This had happened last year, and I bitched about it then, but the second part of this “rule” was ridiculous. They couldn’t score either! If they won by more than 30, per one of the kids on the team, the coach would get suspended; I was losing my mind… trying to keep the frustration inside, but… that didn’t work. Who the heck made these rules? It must be somebody who either doesn’t know about sports, or their kid sucks at sports… I’m convinced it’s one or the other. Here’s my thing: I’m all about NOT rubbing it in 110%. So if you’re killing the other team, put in your subs, don’t press, etc, etc. But, BUT… you still have to play! The second half of the game was a complete waste for my son’s team. Not only could the other team STILL not score, we spent a minute each possession passing around the ball. How do we expect these kids to get better, on both sides of it? My son’s team needs another challenge; hoping the rest of the teams have gotten a little better, because my son’s team did… and they were already undefeated last year, so… Secondly, how would it feel to see the team you’re playing letting you shoot, and not playing hard? I’d be more embarrassed than getting my ass handed to me honestly. Plus, once you get your ass handed to you, there’s one of two options: don’t come back on the court OR get better! This is what we want right? We should want ALL the kids to get better… OK, I’m done.
My son didn’t score any points; he didn’t need to. Believe me when I tell you, his team probably could have put up 100 points on these kids; they called off the dogs early. My son’s only shot attempt in the first half was a heave at the halftime buzzer, which I had to count as a shot attempt; he was not happy about that… haha. Yeah, he took 2 more shots early in the 2nd half, when we could still shoot (SMDH), but came away with 3 assists, 2 steals, and 2 rebounds. Most importantly, his team won; that’s the message. The other take away is how do we get these kids to play against better competition. That’s not on my son of course, but I’ll be inquiring… Everybody loves to win, but… is my son and his team getting any better blowing their opponents off the court, playing one half of basketball every game, and standing around for a half? Next game Thursday; that other team HAS to be better…
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