First basketball game of 2008

Ashlyn had her first basketball game of the year on Saturday. She is on a new team this year with a new coach and is absolutely loving it. Last year's team was very rag-tag and the only thing the coach taught them was to pass the ball to her daughter. Also, some of the kids, due to the lack of coaching, thought that when they had the ball and the coach's daughter was not playing their only option was to shoot or stand cowered over surrounded by the other team. Last year was maddening for me, because I just think there are some parts of the game that are so elemental it should be easy to get kids to do them. Like, oh, I don't know, PASS THE BALL!

This year Ashlyn's coach is named Tom, and I'm not sure of his last name other than it's hard to say, especially with a drawl, so I'm not going to try. His granddaughter Taylor plays on the team, and last year she did not make a single basket all year long. Well, she made one Saturday. Yay Taylor! She was so excited she almost started crying. Well, it was either the excitement or she may have gotten hurt when all the girls mobbed her.

Coach Tom is a wonderful coach. He has taught them defense, which was never covered by last year's coach. In the YMCA league you cannot play defense until the ballhandler gets to half court, so he taught them how to break a half court press. He also stresses stopping the ball, because they play man-to-man, and the girls will let someone dribble right past them and shoot a lay-up because it's not their man. So he has shown them to stop the ball until help gets there and then you can go back to your man. Ashlyn is learning so much! They also have plays. Do they execute them? Well, no, but they have them if they are needed. Ashlyn plays shooting guard, like I did. And the other girls? They pass the ball. They love to pass the ball. They are the passingest group of people I've ever seen. So everybody gets a chance almost every time they have the ball.

So Saturday we went to the game and of course I sat right on the front row so I could take pictures and yell. I can't wait for her to get into an actual competitive league so I can yell at the referees to "my God get her off her back!" or "Get your head out of your ass and blow your freakin whistle!" Huh? What's that Ashlyn? I'm embarrassing you? Well, of course I'm embarrassing you, THAT'S WHY I CAME.

In the YMCA league they don't keep score on the scoreboard because they don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, which doesn't work because everybody just keeps it in their head. After the game I told Ashlyn I thought they had won and she immediately said "Oh, yeah, we won, 14-4." Last year she wouldn't have known that, and it tells me she's getting more competitive. And at one point she had the ball and a girl from the other team tried to slap it away from her and the look Ashlyn gave her almost killed her on the spot. I'm just sayin', nothing brings me joy like seeing little Ashlyn getting all fiesty over a basketball. I was so proud I nearly exploded.