A Successful Basketball Season

Brishen's basketball season ended tonight after a loss in overtime. It was a great season, yet the only game they won was a forfeit. These are some of the reasons I feel it was successful:

1. Only one (1!) practice per week--seriously, I cannot stand that so many coaches put such emphasis on hours of practice at this age. Brishen has been on teams with more than one 2 1/2 hour practice during the week in addition to a game or two. I didn't touch a volleyball until my first practice in 7th grade, and that used to be the norm! Now they have to be amazing players before they even think of joining a school team.

2. Really positive coaches. During crunch time tonight, one of the boys lobbed the ball all the way across the court, and no one was there to catch it. Brishen has had a coach who would have yelled at the boy and jerked him from the game. The coach tonight told the boy that he liked his thought process. Wow!

3. Equal play for everyone. Brishen was on a team in the fall where kids were pulled from the game the second they made a mistake. Some kids played most of every game, and others played only sporadically. This season's team usually had about 10 players, and different ones got to be starters each game. Then they would swap out all five players several times during the game. Even during overtime tonight, the coaches didn't try to put the best possible team out on the floor. They put in the 5 kids who had been on the bench. That may have cost us the game, but I'm so thankful that Brishen has coaches who are not so set on winning that they forget what this level of sports is all about.