The league offers a second short spring season for 6th graders for basketball; not every community participates and last year our community only did it for the first time. So I wasn’t even sure if Cpher would have a chance to play an additional four weeks (plus the tournament).
And Cpher, the first time I mentioned it, has been quite adamant. No, no, no, no, no.
Turns out, we’re fielding two teams. While I’m home I’m slowly working on Cpher….hey, I’m going to sign you up, but, if you don’t like your teammates or coach we won’t do it. Most of the better players are off playing spring AAU basketball, so, Cpher, this should be your time to really try and shine….
Tutoring interferes with one practice a week, so, he’s happy that there’s only one practice a week (we made the conflict work during the regular season but man, for four weeks I’m not asking his tutor to change the schedule and Cpher to run from one place to another). And he’s happy about that.
The first weekend is two games, back to back, in Pewamo-Westphalia. The games are listed at the junior high, but, it turns out they are at the elementary school. Mom and Kevin both describe P-W as pretty much the back end of nowhere…..
Now, Fric and Frac have practiced at the elementary schools around here at times. It is not optimal because the basketball court is not full-size; I’ve never ever seen either Fric or Frac play a real league-game on a small court (..ok, maybe Cpher in 4th grade).
PW is that small court. It’s a small gym. A really tiny gym.
Game 1 is against Dewitt. Mom reports that Cpher touched the ball more in one game that he did all of the winter season. 8 points in all….
I finally get the video downloaded Tuesday night; watch it Wednesday.
OMG.
(told Cpher that in these extra games that he had (HAD TO) work on getting the rebound and going back to the basket with the ball. It’s understandable to kick the ball out to the better players on the ‘A’ team, but, not here. First basket is this one, he has the rebound, and is going to go back up with the ball for the basket)
I’ve always wondered, Cpher has always been on the back end of the A team….how would he look against B players. He’s solidly been on that ‘A’ team, but, always on the back end. And he’s a role player on that team. But this team, in the spring, is a mix of low-A, high-B players.
The answer? He looks good. Damned good. And the boy definitely was used a lot, no Mom-playing-issue comments….played all of the 1st, all of the 3rd, over half of the 2nd and 4th….
(this is right before the 2nd basket, we are inbounding the ball. The Dewitt guy is making a mistake, he should be between the basket, Cpher, and the ball, but, he’s a little too high. Cpher just takes this ball, turns, seals the guy out, and scores. Another has to (HAS TO) moment….has to be able to do this better…and he did!)
Turns out he had ten points. A ton of rebounds. Some highly amusing dribbling. A few nice picks. And just a mass of defensive stops and altered shots as kids came into the middle and met the big guy.
When I watched it, I was marking out the times of the plays for highlights…wanted rebounds, wanted shots, wanted good picks, wanted the baskets. There were 10 minutes of highlight! In a 40-minute game. Just amazed how active he was…really like moment where he is inbounding the ball (and he is good at this…he is aware of the five seconds but is very patient about it..) and we score immediately off of his pass.
You can click on the this picture to go to the video….
(this is the piece de resistance of the whole deal…the moment that Suzanne said made the whole long drive out there worthwhile. Cpher is passed the ball and he is looking to pass the ball to someone else, and Mom and Matthew start yelling “dribble. dribble! DRIBBLE!!”. And so he does…..I wish the play ended better, but, the whole sequence is really funny….)
They won that game 59-38. They lost the next one 61-46….that game was back to back and the boys were tired…I understand Cpher played a lot but not as many results…I have not watched the video as of yet.
