Youth Baskeball Championships

Game 1

My son played for the league championship in basketball today.  Prior to the game, my son thought that his team had a good chance to win it all. He was familiar with the opponent because they played them two other times during the season. His team lost both regular season games, but by a combined 8 points. In those games, my son's team did not have the services of their big man who was out with a broken wrist but had since returned to action. We all thought that the big guy would be the difference. Well, the other team showed up with 3 all star players we had never seen before. One of these 6th graders was about 6' 1" and had facial hair. The other two looked like McDonald All Americans.  My son's team lost by 35 points. My son scored 6 points but he was deflated. I felt bad for the kids on the other team who did not get their minutes because of the super subs. The coach for the other team was going to win at all costs.

It was a good year for my son. Baseball is his main sport, so he had never concentrated on basketball before. Prior to this year, he had only played rec level for the town league and for his parochial school. Sixth grade is the year when his school league has tryouts and creates A, B and C teams. My son made the A team. I am pretty sure that my son was the last guy to make the team.  Many of his teammates had played competitive basketball on AAU teams. He made the team based on his athletic ability and hustle during tryouts and not his basketball skills. The coach of the A team is a paid coach who really knew the game. He taught my son how to play the game.  By the end of the season my son was a starter. He was still not a polished offensive player but he played terrific defense and hustled non-stop. I was proud of him.