Girls Basketball
Two and a half weeks of practice and one week of pre-season games and I want the old team back so badly it hurts.
New Team: slow
Old Team: greasy fast
New Team: mentally slow
Old Team: combined 3.8 GPA
New Team: hesitant, tentative
Old Team: fearlessly aggressive
New Team (first two games): 0-2, 18 points scored
Old Team (first two games): 1-1, 47 points scored
Yes, I know the scores of girls basketball games from three years ago -- leave me alone.
It's hard on a variety of levels, to instill dedication, heart, courage, determination where it exists in only slowly cracking kindling. I'd trade all those things for a little bit of natural athletism. Especially in 7th grade, especially for a group of girls who didn't really have P.E. in elementary school and can't play in organized leagues because they aren't any on the East Side and anyway, they cost way too much for families in our community. The hardest thing is finding the balance between skill instruction and strategic instruction. Moreoever, how much do I harp on doing things the fundamentally correct way, over just getting it down functionally (ball still goes in).
Bright spots:
-After being shut-out (not a typo) in the first game, they spent the next two days telling me how they were going to win.
-Tied at halftime.
-50% foul shooting
-Willing and wanting to practice on Saturday
New Team: slow
Old Team: greasy fast
New Team: mentally slow
Old Team: combined 3.8 GPA
New Team: hesitant, tentative
Old Team: fearlessly aggressive
New Team (first two games): 0-2, 18 points scored
Old Team (first two games): 1-1, 47 points scored
Yes, I know the scores of girls basketball games from three years ago -- leave me alone.
It's hard on a variety of levels, to instill dedication, heart, courage, determination where it exists in only slowly cracking kindling. I'd trade all those things for a little bit of natural athletism. Especially in 7th grade, especially for a group of girls who didn't really have P.E. in elementary school and can't play in organized leagues because they aren't any on the East Side and anyway, they cost way too much for families in our community. The hardest thing is finding the balance between skill instruction and strategic instruction. Moreoever, how much do I harp on doing things the fundamentally correct way, over just getting it down functionally (ball still goes in).
Bright spots:
-After being shut-out (not a typo) in the first game, they spent the next two days telling me how they were going to win.
-Tied at halftime.
-50% foul shooting
-Willing and wanting to practice on Saturday
posted by Kilian Betlach at 9:50 PM
1 Comments:
After nine years of coaching, I'm *not* coaching this year as I'm in a planning year for a new high school we're opening up. Through all the headaches of the kinds of things you write about in this entry (and I've been there, trust me), I loved coaching those girls as much as anything I've ever done.
Enjoy it all... even the losses, because those moments on the court with your girls will change your life and theirs.
I still have to figure out if -- as a principal -- I can assistant coach or something, because I haven't gotten my head around the idea that my teaching-educational life could *not* involve coaching.
Have fun.
Post a Comment
<< Home