Basketball!

It’s basketball time here at Casa Erickson. John’s got a team of buddies that he played baseball, soccer and now basketball with. It’s great to have so many boys his age in the neighborhood, and it’s even greater that we have such good sports dads who are willing to coach them! When I asked him originally if he wanted to play basketball, he said, “No. I don’t know how to play basketball.” I had to remind him that this they would TEACH him how to play, and that his friends were all going to play basketball. He was in. So, every Wed night and Saturday morning, you can find us (well, some of us, at least) at a basketball game.

Look at that boy get some air!

He’s got some really aggressive boys on his team who tend to do all the work. I told John that if he wanted to score, he was going to have to get the ball away from Tucker and Carl so he could shoot. In his 7 year old wisdom, he said to me, “Why would I want to get the ball away from them? They are on my team!” Well put, son. But he has had his share of time with the ball and last night he even made a basket! It’s so much fun to watch these little guys play. Dribbling is optional. Nobody is called for fouls, or annoying double dribbles and all that. In fact, there’s very little arguing with the refs, since there aren’t refs. And no one keeps score! It’s all for fun.

After one of his games, we all got out there on the court and did a little shooting. Even Kazuki, our Japanese exchange student, got into the fun.

Contrast that low key sports team for little kids to the 9th grade team try outs. Megan has been playing basketball with her friends for the past few years (and done quite well).

She’s quick and can steal like crazy, and those skinny little legs can jump.

Well, Timberline has been having open gym where the girls who want to try out come after school for two hours and practice, play, and train twice a week for two weeks. And this week they held try-outs. I was going to say ‘auditions’ but I guess you audition for a play, not a basketball team. Monday and Tuesday Megan and her friend Shaylee were there from 3-5:30 working their butts off to show those coaches what they could do. When I picked them up, they were lamenting how sore they were, how tired they were, or how bad they had done on different things. But they were having fun. Tuesday night, the results were posted at 7. So, before YW, I took both girls over to the school to see if their names were on the list. Oh, the tension and excitement. Joy of Joys, they BOTH made it. Also on the team are two girls they’ve played basketball with, and one girl from her soccer team. Which is good. That means I know 1/2 of the girls on the team already, and it will be that much easier to learn the other girls’ names.

My excitement waned a little bit as I just put 30 games on my calendar. Just what I need as I enter the “concert season”. Thankfully, there’s a bus. So if I can’t make it to those away games, at least I don’t have to figure out how she’s going to get there. And I don’t have to drive her to practices, they are just after school every day. We’ll work it all out.

It’s not the high school team, but we still couldn’t be prouder!

Watch out, this may just turn into a sports blog yet!