All of the boys played winter basketball. It was Weston's first year to play, and it might be his last year as well. He enjoys playing at school, in a less structured environment, but he doesn't do so well with the structure and pressure of a team. He was pretty good about running and standing in "his spot" on the floor. He did a lot of jumping up and down too. One time he nearly blocked his own teammate's shot. He doesn't dribble it very well, and he only shot the ball a handful of times all season. He never made a basket (and he even got 2 freethrows one game). His team only won one game as well, so it was a pretty tough season. His coach tried the best she could to work with him, but she also yelled a lot and didn't actually give him the minimum time for each of the games. All of the kids are supposed to play at least one half of the game - one full quarter in the first half and the equivalent of a quarter in the 2nd half. He only got the minimum 4 of the 8 games. That was a little frustrating for me. I understand the desire to win, but I also think it's important for the kids to get a chance to play. For one of the games, he showed up at the beginning in tears, not wanting to play. Obviously he didn't play much that game - just part of the 3rd quarter. However, the next game he did want to play, but still got docked on time. He played 4.5 minutes in the 2nd quarter, and then the coach called a time-out and pulled him out of the game. She put him in for the last 3 minutes of that quarter, but then never went back in the game. I asked her about it after the game, and she said it was because Weston said he didn't want to play (and so his "unsportsmanslike conduct" caused him to forfeit his time for the rest of the game). Hmmm... possibly he said something about being tired, but he was already out on the court playing when she called a time-out to take him out! That's not a stubborn kid sitting on the bench not wanting to play. She did that again with 2 more games - he was playing, she called a time-out, he started to go back out on the court and she pulled him out.
He got frustrated during the games because his teammates rarely passed to him, and he just ran back and forth down the court, hopping around and sticking to his spot. It was a frustrating season for him. He enjoyed the practices more than the games, when the assistant coaches were running practice. Weston said his head coach was "intense". Unfortunately, he said he doesn't like basketball anymore. I was proud of him for sticking it out this season even though it was hard for him. The last photo is their one win - he's got his arms in the air. He was pretty excited about winning!
Owen enjoyed his season but didn't have a lot of wins either. They did win the 1st round of play-off games, but got beat by the #1 team in the 2nd round. He really improved on his defense this year, and his height helped him get several rebounds. He did score some points too - his best game was 6 points. He's not a great ball handler, but he's always in the right spot and a good team player. He had a good coach too, who gave everyone fair time and recognized there was more to the game than winning. I'm hopeful that Owen will keep playing next year - he seems to enjoy it.
It was Jared's last season of basketball, because he's going to do cross country and possibly try out for the soccer team in 9th grade school sports. Jared works really hard, and his team did well this season. They were tied for 2nd place after the regular season play (and their 2 losses were only by 2 points). They had an off game the first round of play-offs and had a tough loss. Jared did make a 3 pointer in the game though, so I was glad to see him hit one of those. He likes to shoot the 3 pointer, but didn't connect much this season (he made more three's last year). Jared doesn't handle the ball much, but he is a great defender and sets lots of screens for his teammates. I think his best game was 4 points and 2 steals.
Nathan played frosh (freshman-sophomore) basketball again this year. His team had a good record - 9 wins and 1 loss for the regular season. The season didn't go as expected for Nathan, despite working really hard. He had high hopes going into it, since he got a lot of playing time during summer league. He was 1 of 3 sophomores on the team (of 15-16 players), so he thought he would be a starter. But for some reason, when the regular season started he didn't get much playing time. To make it worse, when he did get to play, he had to play with 3 of the weakest players on the team. He also had to either be the ball handler OR play the post position. In the 3rd photo, you can see he was guarding a guy who was much taller than him. He did pretty well despite the height difference.
Nathan got about 1 quarter of play each game. His high for the regular season was 8 points and he made 11 points during tournament play. One of his best games was the last one - 7 points and maybe 6 rebounds. He was good at rebounding and got some good blocks too. He was a great leader, communicating a lot on the floor, always working hard, and staying positive. He got himself to and from practices, getting up at 5:00am to get ready and walk to the 6:00am practices.
Nathan was given the "Character" award at the end of the season, for his attitude, leadership, and being a good person on and off the court. That was well deserved. There were only a few awards given - one for MVP, another for most improved, and the character award, so I was proud that the coaches recognized Nathan.
Proud of all the boys for their hard work in basketball this year!
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