Basketball

The boys are doing Upwards basketball thru the church and we are about midway thru the season. Riley's team is the Longhorns and Jake's is the Panthers. Jake's games are at 8 am and we need to be there by a quarter til, which is kind of rough on a Saturday morning.

The kindergarten teams are pretty darn funny to watch. Traveling, double dribbling and not being allowed to steal the ball are all facts of life at that level. Riley's group pretty much is following all the regular rules for the game. They aren't ultra strict, but he's held a lot more accountable.

Jake is doing pretty well. This morning, he made three baskets and got a star for good offense. He's starting to display a little too much competitiveness. Last week, he got really mad at the kids guarding him. It wasn't because they were doing an outstanding job of guarding him, it was more about the ball smacking him in the face at least three times when he was trying to rebound. I told him to raise his hands when he looks up for a rebound this week. It worked much better.

He's also kind of being a ball hog and wanting to be the one to drive it down the court each time. He was giving his coach attitude this morning for not letting him be a ball hog. We've discussed it and hopefully he'll do a better job of being a team player. Riley went thru a similar thing with soccer last spring, but by fall he was a great team player.

Riley is also doing well. He's a speedster and if he gets the ball, can be down the court before the other team even knows what's going on. Unfortunately, his lay ups and shooting need a bit of work. He's all about passing to the good shooters if he's not in good position, so his team effort is excellent. He's also very good at stealing the ball. It's all about being quick with him. The other guy will be dribbling along and all of a sudden, Riley has the ball and is driving back down court.

Boy Quote of the day - I was bantering with the boys on the way to the game this morning and accused them of having monkey brains. Riley is a very serious voice said, "Look here. It's better to have a monkey brain than no brain at all." It cracked me up.