Miss Abbie has been playing basketball in the local recreational league this winter. It has been somewhat of a harsh season for their team, the Pistons, but they have managed to keep their chins up and will finish up the season this weekend. I'll spare you all the details, because if you've spent much time around me or a Piston parent, you probably know how we feel about it, but...suffice it to say the teams were divvied up in a rather lop-sided fashion (draft, or not) which shouldn't happen when you have kids playing together that range from 3rd grade all the way to 6
th grade + co-ed. I'll say this: I commend the girls who wanted to play for sticking with it and not letting the lack of female participation deter them from playing. They haven't been the most aggressive players on the team, but they did make some shots along the way, and when plied with
pre-game chocolate, I noticed they became more assertive as those tasty
choco-endorphins kicked in, so... there was that lesson learned this season; therefore it was not a complete loss. Not to mention Abbie has had fun. I don't think she liked getting her tail handed to her each week, having people elbow her non-stop; but she wouldn't take her dad's advice and make it her goal to foul out each game. She clearly is too sweet to understand that sometimes fouls are good. But...she had fun. She said she did. And we believe her. She especially had fun chatting up her pal Alena Jo as they ran down court...girls just never stop talking.
In all, there has to be a lesson learned in watching something so painful - feeling your blood pressure rise to dangerous levels each Saturday afternoon as you watch your nice little wholesome team get spanked mercilessly.
My epiphany is this: The unfortunate, uncomfortable tension that is created when we play against each other...our friends should be avoided. We need to start playing other towns if we are to continue to play intramural league Basketball! It is really easy to send your players out on the
ballfield or court, pat them on the
hiney and imply it's a good thing to want to
de-whisker the
Jarrell Cougars or pluck the Salado Eagle's feathers - that's pretty much expected. You know they are plotting to skin our Buffalo hides! That's just part of long standing school rivalry...but, it is very hard to send your kid out there when they are playing their classmates & friends in a competitive environment and ask them to draw blood (or a mere foul). And it's a little unfair. The kids want, and should, play to the very best of their ability. But what happens when the 6
th grader that can steal, drive down the court and sink layup after layup does it over and over against 3rd graders that just can't compete with that? As a coach, you should never ask your team or players to not play to their fullest potential - if so, you probably shouldn't be coaching - because if you are coaching, you
should be coaching to win. At some point though...there probably should be some consideration put into how much you are willing to stick it to the other team that has to look each other in the eye when it's all said & done.
I pointed out to last weeks opposing coach (who was
actually just filling in for the usual one) that when Florence plays against Florence, it's a lot like the Civil War - not much good can come of it in terms of body count and casualties because they all belong to us. It's different when we pair off against other schools - that's like the U.S. against
Afghanistan & Iraq. Regardless of victory or defeat, they drag their wounded back home and we don't have to face them back at school next week - Conversely: it's so awkward to gut-check a friend on Saturday and then have them grading your paper on Monday morning. Oh well...I guess
all's fair in love & war, right?
Seriously...would you gut-check her? She's so darn cute!
