Today was the last game for
Marina and Avery’s basketball league.
How fitting it was that they played against each other.
For some reason, Avery only had three other kids playing on his team (the Orange Team) which meant that his team of four would play the entire game (like Avery was SO upset about that!).
Watching Avery play is similar to watching an NBA star being born – the kid dribbles with both hands, runs down the court, twists and turns to get away from opponents, steals, blocks and can shoot with his eyes closed (okay, maybe one eye closed).
Marina on the other hand is a lot more………delicate. She’s great keeping her arms in the air while playing defense and runs up and down the court like a champ. However, she’s not aggressive in the least. You won’t catch her trying to steal the ball or go after a loose ball. But she has heart, and she’s getting better.
Today’s game, though, was the highlight of Shaun’s “kids playing sports” life. Avery’s team, even with only four men, was kicking Marina’s team’s buttocks. The “Maroon Team”, the name we gave them b/c of the color of their shirt, could not seem to get the ball into the hoop, try as they might. This one short, stout kid on Marina’s team (let’s call him Chunk for fun), would not pass the ball. And when he did, he would pass to the other “boys” on his team. Poor Marina would be standing underneath the hoop, arms up in the air like a “Y” waiting patiently for the ball and…..nothing. The other boys on the team would do the same thing. It got to the point where we were yelling from the stands, “THROW IT TO THE GIRL!!!!!!!!!” Nothing. So it continued on like this:
Maroon team has ball, girl in center with arms up waiting for it, doesn’t get pass, Chunk passes it to another kid on his team where either:
A) It gets stolen by Orange Team
B) They shoot, they miss
C) They drop it, Orange Team gets it
D) All of the above
So it would move on to Orange’s side of the court where, once again, a shot would be made (99% of the time by Avery with one eye closed).
As we watched the ball come back down to Maroon’s hoop, we wondered, “Could this be it? Might they finally pass to Marina?” FINALLY, Chunk sees Marina open (duh) and passes her the ball. In slow motion (at least for me), she turns to the hoop and shoots. SHE MAKES THE SHOT!!!!!!. The crowd gets on its feet, clapping and hollering like the NBA Championship has just been won!!!!!!!!! I almost stormed the court!
Okay, well it was just our section on our feet clapping loudly. But DANG! It felt good!
GIRL POWER!
5 comments:
Joelle had a similar great moment a few years back when she was playing T-Ball. She steps up to the T and takes a ferocious swing and makes direct contact. I begin to cheer like she had just hit a home run in the olympics. Suddenly the excitement was over because the line drive she hit drilled the pitcher who went down like a sack of potatoes. He was a lump of tears on the mound and the crowd went from jubilation from the hit to concern for the young player in a nano second. I had to turn the excitement internal as the exterior had to also show concern. The truth of the matter is I didn’t care about the wuss. I was too proud of my daughter.
Mina's shot was a thing of beauty. I had been waiting all season for that shot. She made us all proud!
I also should've noted that the shot was made literally a minute or so before the game ended!
as i was reading through this i couldn't help but think of how it kinda sounded like an episode of full house or something :-)
yeah, mina!!
The worst part of this whole thing is that Jermaine was taking random video footage throughout the game. As I reviewed the footage, I realized that he was recording the big play: Chunk had the ball, you hear a loving Auntie holler, "Pass it to the tall girl!", then the pass, Mina catches the ball and the video cuts off!!! AHHHHG!!
Post a Comment