Champions!

I have been assistant coaching my daughter's 9-12 year old basketball team the past few months and thoroughly enjoyed my foray into coaching. We ended up as the number one seed in the playoffs by playing the best defense in the league (11 points a game) and scoring the second highest number of points (17.9 points a game).

We had a bye week during the first round of the playoffs and learned that we would be playing the only Team that beat us in the championship game. What an opportunity!

We arrived at the gym during half time of the consolation game being played before ours so that we would be ready to warm up as soon as that game ended. The kids all looked so excited that they might throw up! The game before ours ended and we quickly took the court to practice our free throws and rebounding - our usual pre-game warm up.

Our league starts the "B" Team in the first quarter and also allows each player to shoot one free throw - that might be the only chance some of the kids get to score some points. Our head coach noticed that one of the boys on the team ("K") had a bloody ear and we had to send him to the bathroom to get cleaned up and ready to play. We were a player down and we hadn't even started the game yet. My Big Girl (the smallest kid on the team) calmly stepped to the line and sank her free throw! She averages less than a point a game and already she was on the board! Three of her teammates followed suit and we had a 4-1 lead before the jump ball.

Our "B" Team played good defense and took several shots, and ended the first quarter locked at the 4-1 score. The second quarter starts with free throws for the "A" Team and they added a point to our total. The coach's son typically brings the ball up the court for the "A" Team and as he came across mid-court, we could see him holding up his index finger as if he was signaling for an offensive set. I leaned over to Coach and said "I don't even know what #1 means, do you think any of the kids know what that means? "The "A" Team usually has the 11-12 year olds, so the level of play elevates and we played our best quarter of basketball all season, going in to halftime with a 12-1 lead. Soccer Mom was sitting in the middle of a group of parents from the other team and they were all commenting on how well our team passed the ball and hustled for every loose ball.

The second half was Coach's choice as to who to play and we kept our "A" Team in to start. "K", the boy with the bloody ear earlier, is known for his enthusiasm and tendency to lose focus. Coach did a brilliant job of subbing him in for a minute at a time and he grabbed several rebounds and had several shot attempts. He came off the court yelling "That was best few minutes of the whole season!". If only the rest of the team had played that well - we got a little sloppy and we let the other team close to within 1 point - it was 14-13 with about 4 minutes to go.

In my regular job I teach "soft skills" to store managers and one of the topics in our session is setting goals. We discuss that team members will put in extra effort if they see that they are close to the goal. I saw a text book example of that from our coach's daughter. She is our best shooter and for the entire season had set up on the wing to spot up for her favorite shot. The other team inbounded the ball and had to go the full length of the court. Coach's daughter hung back on defense against their best player and stole the ball! She drove down the court for a layup! I lived in Orlando for many years and one of my favorite Orlando Magic highlights is from the 1995 playoffs when Nick Anderson stole the ball from Michael Jordan - "Nick Anderson stole the ball! Nick Anderson stole the ball!" (Click here to see it - it is #4 at about the 3:20 mark) Her steal was every bit as exciting and game changing!

The other team took the ball out of bounds again and she stole the ball again! They recovered much faster, but the damage was done. We held on to win the game 16-13. My Big Girl has a gold medal with her name engraved on it and I have wonderful memories of winning that championship with her as her coach.