"Put me in coach!"

As a way to get my 1st grade daughter, "K", to join her first organized basketball team I agreed to coach her team this year. I grew up playing basketball, attended many camps, spent lots of time practicing by myself and with many different coaches, so if there was going to be a sport I was willing to coach it would be basketball. I am proud to say that after last night our team is 3-0 and I am having more fun coaching this group of 1st and 2nd grade girls than I ever imagined I would. Most of my joy comes from seeing these girls learn the game and get so excited, it's infectious. Points are hard to come by so when we do score a basket I have a little habit of jumping up and down, to the point that now after we do score the whole team looks over at me to see my reaction. I am so proud of "K" and how hard she plays. She does remind me of myself in the way she plays the game. Only time will tell if she takes it as far as I did. I will say that the basketball gods were smiling on me when I was given my team as I have some real talented players. I was actually surprised by how good these girls were at our first practice. I have one girl who is my hardest worker and very scrappy, let's call her "M". She also says some of the funniest things during games. During our second game she was on the bench getting a breather. I was ready to make a substitution so I asked my assistant coach, also my wife "B", to get the girls ready. She asked "M" if she was ready to go in and "M" looked her dead in the eyes and said "I was born ready!" Are you kidding me??? How can I loose with that kind of excitement to play. We have 5 more games (there are only 5 teams in our league so the season is pretty brief) and I am hoping for an undefeated season (look out coach Summit, pictured in this post), but even if we don't win another game I can safely say this experience will be one I will always remember.

UNTIL NEXT TIME...DAD IN TRAINING OUT!