Basketball

We started our basketball season last night with a W! It was a nice surprise as I didn't think my team was going to be very competitive. Granted the other team was not very good, but still, I thought we did ok. May be a better season that I had thought, but we def. have a long way to go!!! Tourney in Summit this weekend should be more of an eye opener for the kids, and give me a more realistic view on how the season may play out.

Basketball

Last night we took Cayle to watch the 7th grade girls basketball game in Eagle. He loves watching basketball, on T.V. and when I was coaching. But I did not expect what happened last night. He sat in the bleachers and watched an entire game. The only time he wanted to get up and move around was at half time. The rest of the time it was like he was in a trance... studying the game and watching the girls play.
I went to help "coach" a bit for the 7th grader girls tonight... to offer my "expertise" in a few areas. Afterward I came to the conclusion that this year's GCMS 7th grade class is one of the most athletic classes I have ever been around. The 7th grade boys won the league football and basketball championships. The girls, at least thru 7 deep are extremely athletic and talented with some height. It's fun to coach and work with athletes that have some talent and are still willing to put in the effort and hard work.

That's a wrap!!!

What a great basketball season it was! I liked coaching in IL but the season went on so long, and there was always a Christmas tourney, and then the season didn't get over until end of January or so. My first season of coaching in Colorado was for sure a different experience, but I did really enjoy it! The season was 7 weeks, which turned out to be about perfect. Over the week before Christmas. My team started out kind of slow, lacking confidence needed to take down the big teams (Summit and Eagle). As the season progressed I could see their confidence growing by leaps and bounds. They also learned to play better as a team, and learned to trust each other. I could go 10 deep and really not have to worry about anyone not wanting to play with anyone else, or have to worry about attitudes or egos. It was so nice in that regard! We finished up the season in fantastic fashion! Taking down the 1 seed and the 2 seed en route to a league Championship! We just kept getting stronger as the season progressed! If all these kids keep playing they will have a heck of a team next year, and on into high school! I had a great time teaching the game to my kids, and look forward to watching them in 8th grade next year, as well as getting a new group of 7th graders to work with.

Done

Had our last basketball practice tonight. It has been a ton of fun, but I am excited to be coming home after school again to be with Natalie and Cayle. We have the league tournament on Saturday, then a team party on Monday, and that's all she wrote. We have the 3 seed in the tourney and start off by playing the 6 seed, then we will have the #2 seed if we take care of business and win game 1. We beat the #2 seed on Tuesday of this week, but it may be difficult to beat them again. Hopefully the last win gave the kids some confidence! Regardless, it should be fun!

Basketball and a.... Lion!

What an awesome Day! Got a message this morning that a friend's husband had gotten a mountain lion last night (there is a mt. lion hunting season.) She said I was welcome to go look at it if I wanted. It was on the porch of their house about 10 minutes from us. So I called Rob, next door, to see if he wanted to go look at it with me, and he said of course! It was pretty freaking cool! What an amazing animal! They are apparently always watching you when you are in the woods, and you just never see them. Super sneaky. Always in the back of my mind when Mt. Biking. It's paw was the size of my hand, and it was about 6 feet long!

I have been in several overtime games with Middle School basketball teams, and have always come out on the losing end. Took care of that one tonight! We were playing the #1 team (Summit) in the league at our house. Played great the first half, and then laid a goose egg the 3rd quarter while they scored a bunch. Down by 7 to start the 4th quarter. Some aggressive steals off the press and a timely 3 and we tied it up with 4 seconds left!!! Held them on defense and into overtime where we took control until they drained a 3 with less than a minute left in overtime to cut it to 1. They fouled us immediately, and we drained our next 2 free throws to seal the win! Great win! Great team effort to comeback! Great fun!!! Love coaching this age level! 2 more practices then the league tourney and the season is over!

Fulford

We had a game last night at Vail Mountain School (VMS). Crazy! It's expensive to send your kid there. ($18,000/year) It was the first time I've ever see the school, and it's crazy nice! Big too, although it is K-12. Sits right across I-70 from Vail mountain. Most schools have a bike rack outside. VMS has a ski rack, with lots of ski's in it. Just really foreign to me, but pretty neat! Below is a picture of the cafeteria... Our cafeteria for sure does not look like that... :-) (we won our game, although they would prolly for sure beat us in a ski competition!)

On the way up to the game I spent some time talking to the 8th grade coach who is a long time local (native) and spends lots of times up in the hills. He also is in charge of the county roads dept. There is a town about 20 miles up the mountain from us called Fulford. We go up there in the summer every year to go hiking and just exploring. It's absolutely gorgeous! Anyway, there is an old mining town up there, that might have about 50 residents at it's busiest time, and only 2 year round residents. It's a ghost town now (no mining) but still has some shacks and houses. The only resident who lives there full time is also a bus driver for the school dist. The cool thing about this is the fact that the town is completely snow blocked from about September till June.... She keeps a truck and trailer at the point where the road is plowed to (about 5 miles from her house.) She has to ride her snowmobile down to her truck every morning, then back home every night. She also drives an event bus, so that means she won't be getting back to her parking lot until maybe 9 or 10 at night, then still has a 5 mile snowmobile ride back to her house in Fulford. The coach said he sees her sometimes when he is up there at 3 in the morning plowing the road, and she will say hi, and offer him some fresh baked cookies as she is getting ready to drive down to the bus barn for her morning route.... It's just such an intriguing lifestyle, and so completely removed from everything modern! They do have solar electricity, but not much else. I think it's so cool!

Coaching

Basketball has been going great. It's so much fun working with the 7th graders in that aspect again. I missed it more than I had realized. I have a team that runs 1o deep with talent. They lack size and belief in themselves.

We had a big test tonight against Eagle Valley Middle School, who also happens to be our biggest rival! We were coming off a 3 game win streak and starting to believe in ourselves a bit, but I knew my kids didn't truly believe they could win tonight. They believed that they really wanted to win, but the confidence just wasn't there. We played great the first half and 3rd quarter. We held our composure until 4 minutes to go in the 4th quarter. We were up by 3, then gave up 3 easy layups, and turned the ball over on two consecutive trips. We lost by 10.

The kids were pretty disappointed, as was I. I was more disappointed for them because I believe they are the better team. I have to try to get them to believe in themselves more... Of course, it never helps when you go 13/30 from the free throw line.... ouch...

A week off for Thanksgiving break. Time for some rest and family time! Looking forward to spending lots of time with Natalie and Cayle, and Natalie's brother's family in CO Springs!

Like a Jigsaw Puzzle

What do Middle School basketball and a Jigsaw puzzle have in common?

Specifically, I'm not really that sure, but it occurred to me after our loss today over in Frisco against Summit Middle School that coaching a bunch of 7th graders to play effective basketball is kind of like solving a tricky jigsaw puzzle. Allow me to explain....

First of all... about my team. We don't have much height, but run 6 deep on strong talent, and the other 4 on the A team are solid. We practice well, but fall apart in games.

1. We turn the ball over WAY too much.
2. We struggle to break a press.
3. We struggle to run our zone offense.
4. We struggle with boxing out when rebounding.
5. We forget in-bounds plays randomly.
6. We make too many stupid mistakes.
7. Most importantly we SOMETIMES play hard.

So while we have anywhere from 2-3 games a week, we have to work on all these things at the same time while trying to win basketball games, and still have FUN doing so.... It's like trying to put the puzzle pieces together to make the picture. Once the big pieces start to fall into place and the little pieces follow, we will be a pretty dang good team!

I offered sodas for rebounding today, that seemed to help a bit, now how to solve the other pieces of the the puzzle????

On another note... Cayle is super sick today :-( Just laying around and sleeping all day, fever and no energy. At least it happened on a weekend!

Basketball!!!

I coached middle school basketball for 3 years in Chatham, IL and loved it, but when we moved to CO, I decided it would be nice not to deal with the amount of time that it takes to coach. Until this year. The opening for the boys basketball position for 7th grade came open a couple of weeks ago, and I decided it was time to begin again. Monday was the first day of practice. Everyone was telling me to take what I had experienced in IL and dial it back about 10 notches... (basketball is not the biggest sport out here)

You can only prepare yourself so much for reality... I came home and told Natalie after practice yesterday that it was going to be a long 2 months, based on what I had seen. One kid shot a free throw over the backboard... :-) Oh the joys of 7th grade basketball... However today was much better. There are actually 5-6 kids that have some skills. There are 18 out total, so we should have enough for an A and a B team, and I think we will be alright. I have not yet seen the competition, but we have tournament coming up in 2 weeks, so I may get my eyes opened. We don't have much size, but we can deal with that. We do have some athletic wings, so that should make things a little more fun.

I am excited to see what the season brings!