This week has been quite a bit more calm than last week. However, you never know, things could change. On Friday Harmony and I were finally able to have the head coach from the basketball team, his wife and their 15-month-old over for supper. I had been talking with him about getting together ever since the end of the high school basketball season but then with Harmony working all the library hours until recently and me getting involved with the 4th-6th grade basketball program it didn't happen as soon as we would have liked. However we had a really nice time with them and it was great to spend time with another couple our own age. We have certainly enjoyed spending time with the families from our church who are older than us and find that a very good opportunity to learn from their example but it's also nice now and then to be able to spend time with those who grew up in the same culture you did. I think that's one of the biggest things we miss from our time in Evanston; our close connection with so many friends who were in our same age demographic.
So how's the 4th-6th grade basketball team going anyway? Well, glad you asked. It has been difficult over the past couple weeks with the tragedic death of one of the players' mom (and another's aunt). We didn't start out with too many fifth or sixth graders anyway so to have a couple kids out for an extended period of time and another couple struggling to stay eligible, it's been tough to fill out both a 5th and a 6th grade team. I've basically been reserving the 5th and 6th graders I do have for the 6th grade team and playing all 4th graders on the 5th grade team. This makes it kind of hard on them at some points (the other kids are bigger and more experienced) but it's also a good learning experience and as I've tried to encourage them, wins and losses at this stage don't mean anything. The main thing we want to work on is helping them become better basketball players for the future.
At our first tournament, because of the aforementioned problems, we ended up only having enough players for one team...and they were all 4th graders! In fact, we should have had six fourth graders but one came down with the flu the night before and so we were left with five 4th graders who had to play in two games against fifth graders without any subs! In last week's tournament we had a few more kids and so were able to put together two teams (even if it meant having up to three fourth graders at a time in the 6th grade game!). In spite of the incredible odds, we almost pulled off an upset against Turtle Lake's 6th grade team. We were up 2 at half-time (first time all season) and down 3 with 18 seconds left. I tried to run a play to get three points (no three-point line) but it didn't work and so we lost a close game.
In addition, I've been struggling in coaching the younger kids. My only pervious experience is in coaching high schoolers and apparently I have a very revisionistic view of what I was like as a 4th grade basketball player. I've especially found it difficult to draw the line between being an Ambassador of Christ in my words and actions and maintaining discipline during practices. I must admit that on at least one occasion I have failed to maintain the former at least. A number of these kids don't have godly male role models in their lives and so I definitely see this as an opportunity to demonstrate what it looks like as a man to live for Christ. However, I also see the need to instill some modicum of discipline in our practices. Now I am not much of a disciplinarian and thus have found it difficult to know where exactly to draw that line.
With all that said, the last week or so has been a lot better. The kids are starting to get it. They've been in most of their games recently (at least until the second half) and are certainly improving. We have games Thursday, Saturday and next Tuesday remaining. It won't be easy but I think they have a chance at getting at least one win this season. Which would be quite remarkable seeing as in every game we are out-sized, out-experienced and out-manned...and quite possibly out-coached too :)
I guess for a "normal" week this turned out to be a longer blog entry. Apparently I had a lot on my mind I hadn't been able to get out in the craziness of the past couple of weeks. This past Sunday I preached on Matthew 2 and entitled the sermon "Who's the King?" If you want to listen to it you can be clicking here.
By God's Grace, Jeff
No comments:
Post a Comment