D's Notebook

Tag: volleyball (Page 1 of 2)

Going Out in Style

March 12, 2019 /

Hey! Another super long post about kids sports! This one is a little special, though.

After five years, M’s CYO sports – and likely all sports – career is over. It was not a bad ending.

Her volleyball team came back from the brink of losing twice in their tournament, closed out their arch-rivals in the championship game, and ended the season as B-league City champs!

First off, they got very lucky with how their tournament worked. Her team had a bye so started play on Saturday. A quarterfinal Sunday, semis and finals Monday night. The tournament that C’s team played in, on the other hand, stretches over three weeks for some reason. They won’t be done until a week from tomorrow. That’s just stupid.

Anyway, the games…

Saturday’s quarterfinal was an easy, two game win. They were way better than the girls they were playing, and it was a good sign they didn’t mess around and make it close. The only bummer to the day was the inevitable scheduling issues. We were match five or six of the day, with 45 minutes allotted for each match. I think we started about an hour and 15 minutes late. Sitting in a hot, crowded lobby with hyper kids running around was fun.

Sunday’s quarterfinal only started about 15 minutes late, which was much better. The competition was better, too. We lost the first game 25–20 but it really wasn’t that close. St. M was really good and seemed to never let a ball hit the floor. In the second game we were up most of the time but hit a lull in the middle of the game and dug a hole. We were down 21–18 and parents were getting nervous. We got the ball back, though, and one of our best servers won six-straight points to force the third game.

The third game was sensational. Our girls played the best they’ve ever played together. We started out 6–0 and never let St. M get back into it. We were up 9–3 and you could see the St. M girls getting frustrated. Meanwhile our girls were all giddy and bouncing and confident. They knew they were winning that game and closing out the match. They were running down every ball, getting last-second tips at the net, and our best hitter was putting balls away. We ended up winning 15–5.

M was so pumped after the game. She kept talking about how badly she wanted to go to the championship game and win it. The other St. P’s B team, made up of 7th graders, reached the opposite semifinal and she kept saying how she hoped they would win so it could be an all St. P’s final. Seriously, she said this same thing at least five times Sunday night and then again Monday morning before school.

Late Sunday night the team got an email from our hitter’s mom saying she had come home from the game, pretty much collapsed in bed, and now had a 102-degree fever. Not good. If you can’t go to school, you are ineligible to participate in any after-school activities. She’s probably our fifth or sixth best player overall, but she’s also the only girl who can play above the net. We would need her to win.

Around noon Monday the mom sent out a message saying the fever had broke, her daughter was up and feeling fine, and they were headed into school so she could be cleared for the game. It didn’t matter if she played well or not. If she wasn’t there I think it would have gotten in our girls’ heads, so her mere presence was all we needed.

Onto the evening semis. Our girls’ old nemesis, St. B, cruised pretty easily in their semifinal against our 7th graders. The first game was close but the second was something bad like 25–5.

We were playing HM, a team we had beaten 15–11 in the third game earlier in the season. This match ended up being almost exactly like our quarterfinal match. We lost the first set 25–20, although this one was back-and-forth until the very end. The second set was also very tight until HM squeezed out a couple points to go up 21–18. I leaned over to S and pointed out this was the same score that we started our comeback in Sunday. She looked at me like I was dumb. We ended up winning 25–22.

WHO IS THE DUMB ONE NOW, MY DEAR????

(I did not say that to her.)

Our girls were pumped. But they had also just played a very tight, stressful, three-game match while St. B had been resting for an hour after an easy win. A couple of our girls looked totally gassed. The girl who was sick had not played well at all. Oh, and our girls had never beaten St. B’s in an even-talent competition in five years.

St. B’s beat us 26–1 for a City title in kickball in sixth grade. They beat us two other times in the kickball regular seasons. They knocked us out of the semifinals in the fifth grade volleyball tournament. They had beaten us earlier in the season in two very close games. Hell, their A team had given our A team their only loss of the year. The only time M’s class had beaten them was in 6th grade spring kickball, and that was against a St. B’s team that was mostly fifth graders. And we still barely won.

I guess you could say we were due.

Surprisingly, our girls looked fresher to start the match. St. B’s big hitters kept putting it into the net. Our girls built up an early lead but then had three-straight servers put their first ball into the net. It was back-and-forth for a bit but we pulled out the first set, I believe it was 25–20.

The second set both teams looked tired. Play was a little more ragged than in the first game. We got a little margin and then it was a lot of point for us, point for them. Which was fine since we were up. Avoid the big run and we can nickel-dime our way to the win. They got within one point at 20–19 before a mis-hit gave us the ball with a 21–19 lead. We had a server who is capable of serving quite well but has a tendency to crumble in tough spots. So of course she had four perfect serves. On match point a hit sailed just long and our girls went crazy. They jumped on each other for a moment, collected themselves for the handshake line, and then piled on each other again. M’s voice clearly rang out above the shouting, “WE JUST WON CITY!!!!!” There are benefits to being a loud talker.

In the stands parents were high-fiving and hugging each other. There were tons of other St. P’s parents there between the other B team playing earlier and many of the A team families coming to watch. It was all very cool.[1]

The best thing about the weekend, beyond the results, was that M played the best volleyball of her life. This year she’s been a front-row only player and doesn’t get many chances to set because our best player is a setter. But she’s gotten better and hangs in there on points. In the third game on Sunday, she made a couple huge plays, including one punch of a ball that was headed into the net that avoided the defense and landed for a point. She set our hitters for a couple kills. She ran down a ball that was headed toward the stands. In the second game of the championship match, she made probably the three best sets she’s ever made, which her best friend put away for kills all three times. She’s always been one of those kids who was just on the team. A good teammate for sure, and a good friend. But often she had little to do with the final outcome. It was great to see her contribute, and I could tell she was proud of herself.

I thought it was funny that somehow she wiggled her way to the middle of her team and when the CYO director handed over the trophy, it went to her first. She paid her dues!

Unless something crazy happens, I can’t see her trying out for any sports next year. So after 10 seasons of kickball, five of volleyball, a few of soccer way back, and three summers of swimming, this was it for her competitive athletic career. It was a pretty great way to end it.

  1. A few miles away our C team was winning their tournament at the same time. And our A team plays tonight in their semifinals.  ↩

Kid Sports

March 4, 2019 /

One staple of the blog that I’ve ignored of late is the Kid Sports update. So, here is a long-ass post with too many details about what our girls have been up to.

M and C have been playing volleyball for the last couple of months. C returned after taking a year off and really enjoyed it. She’s still pretty spazzy on the court – there’s no other way to put it – and often that cancels out her natural athleticism. She also developed a bad habit of hitting the ball the wrong way. Her intent was clear: she was often trying to pass the ball to one of the few girls on her team that could hit. But sometimes she did it by passing the ball from the net to the back row. If you’ve not a volleyball aficionado, that is a less-than-ideal pass.

Her team – the sixth grade B team – struggled early, I believe they lost their first four matches. But they came on late, winning two of their last three, including a nervy, three-set win against the team that we bet will win the season-ending tournament. That was fun!

However, there’s something about this class… I’ve shared this during kickball seasons but the observation remains: these girls just struggle to show enthusiasm, they don’t have a leader, and if one girl gets down the entire team falls part. They had a really good coach this year – C said he was her favorite coach she’s had in any sport – but since he wasn’t a parent of anyone on the team, teaches at another school, and is super nice and positive, I think he had a hard time pushing these girls to improve their mental game. We know there were a couple personality conflicts within the team, too, that did not help.

I’m not sure what the coach, or any coach for that matter, could have done differently. I don’t think you can yell and scream at sixth grade girls. That would just make this group shut down even more. It’s frustrating because they have a bunch of good athletes and they are capable of playing better. But the hive mind takes over and sabotages them.

Yesterday was their first game of the City tournament. They lost the first set fairly handily but then had a six-point lead in the second set and seemed poised to push it to a deciding set. Until they fell apart again. They ended up losing the second set 25–21 to close their season.

C had fun, which was the important thing. I haven’t asked her yet if she’ll play again next year. We were just glad she had something to help her burn off some energy in the winter.

M’s team was about the complete opposite of C’s. They were the 8th grade B team, and had a couple girls that just missed making the A team that really pulled up the talent level. They went 5–2 in the regular season with their tournament starting next weekend.

M became a setter this year, and primarily played front row. Which was fine, except for the fact that one of her teammates who could have been on the A team is also a setter and has played club for four years. So a lot of time M just stood around and tried not to get in the way. She was generally subbed out when her spot came up to serve; I think she only got 3–4 chances to serve all season. Which was fine because she’s never wanted to practice outside of the season and was about the only girl on her team who still served underhanded.

I think all that bothers her a little. But she’s also always been more interested in being a member of a team than in how she performs. And over the past year she’s become pretty tight with a small group of classmates, a couple of which were on her team, which makes her enjoy the team even more.

As I said, they are 5–2 and generally play really well and are fun to watch. Their two losses were both very close. In their final home game they got pushed to a third set after blowing through the first set easily. They had serve, our best server started the set off, and she proceeded to serve 15-straight points to get the win. It’s not like she was serving ace after ace, either. The other team was doing a solid job returning but our girls just kept making plays. I think it got to 7–0 or 8–0 and then the other team just kind of gave up and we finally started getting some aces. It was crazy to watch, and we’re hoping that girl still has some of that serving in her when the tournament starts.

Also the volleyball program did a cool thing last Wednesday at the A team’s final home game. They invited M’s team to come and get introduced before the game with them. The seventh graders made signs for all the eighth graders and they were announced as one team. It was a nice way to end M’s CYO sports career.

As for L, she had zero interest in playing volleyball. Well, if she could have played on the boys team she might have been talked into it. She went home with one of her buddies after school and then went to his team’s practice. They let her serve and apparently she was ripping overhand serves. She still says volleyball is dumb because you can’t run.

Instead she’s been going to a weekly soccer shooting camp that’s run by a local high school coach. It is a small group – I think they’ve never had more than nine kids – that ranges from ages 8 to 14 with more boys than girls, so it’s been a good experience for her. She’s always been a natural and I never wanted to fix things that might not be technically correct but still worked for her. Her coach played national level soccer for his home country beginning when he was in his teens and then played professionally in the US. His son plays in the MLS currently. The guy knows what he’s doing. And he is great with the kids. She has learned a lot and I’m hopeful one day it will warm up so we can get outside and work on what she’s picked up. I think she will likely continue to take classes from him going forward as we figure out what the next step for her in soccer is.

As far as spring sports go, M is out. Some of her classmates decided to play CYO soccer but she had no interest. Eighth graders generally do not play spring kickball because they take their DC trip in the middle of the season. Her coaches and I decided last fall between that and the inevitable spring weather issues it wasn’t worth trying to make it work.

C is going to play kickball and we’ve finally talked her into running track. As good as she is at cross country, I think she can be even better at track. She has middle distance sprinter written all over her. I’m going to help coach her kickball team this year. A few weeks ago she asked me, “When I’m in eighth grade, can you help coach my team?” I told her I was going to help this year and she got very excited. That made me quite happy.

I am “forcing” L to play kickball again after taking the fall off. If she moves into a club soccer program next year she won’t have time for kickball anymore so I figured I should use my powers as coordinator to get her on the team one more time. She also decided to play CYO soccer so she can play with her classmates, although a couple of the classmates she wanted to play with the most ended up not playing. I was kind of against her playing CYO soccer. I’ve heard from other parents it’s kind of a mess because of the mix of grades – her team runs fourth through sixth grades – and talent. Fortunately she went to some clinics her coach ran last summer so he has an idea of her skill level and I don’t think the older boys will be able to push her aside.

Last Saturday they played in a 4-on–4 futsal tournament. It was a little strange because they made the team from the entire St. P’s program, so L was the only fourth grader on a team that had mostly seventh and eighth graders. She was about the smallest kid on the court and some of the rules restrictions slowed her, too. She didn’t score but came close twice and made a couple really good passes.

(Futsal is basically indoor soccer on a hard surface – in this case a basketball court – with out-of-bounds lines instead of walls. They played a variation this week that was without goalies, but also prevented the offense from shooting inside the basketball lane. That’s where she makes her money so she had a hard time getting good scoring opportunities.)

She had her first official CYO soccer practice yesterday, again in the gym because of the weather. C’s first track practice is next week. And I’m going to try to start kickball practice in two weeks, weather permitting. Then, as soon as we get back from spring break, the games/meets will begin.

Snow and Sports

January 14, 2019 /

A busy and fun weekend around our house.

Saturday C and I headed out at 7:00 am for her first preseason volleyball tournament. At that point in the day we had about 2” of snow. The roads were not great, but not terrible either. It helped that no one was out on them, other than parents going to volleyball tournaments. We were at one of two volleyball facilities that back up to each other. There was a long line of cars to pull into each, more traffic than I saw on the 30 minute drive there.

C’s team did ok. They won three of four sets in the pool play part of the day. Then they lost their first playoff match before winning the second in dramatic fashion. They were down 13–9 in the third set, against a bunch of fifth graders, before they came back to win 16–14. Six hours in a cold gym on hard, metal seats wiped me out. C was tired, too. When we left all the cars were covered in another 3+ inches of snow. The roads were, again, not great but still usable. We made it home without incident.

We ended up getting about seven inches of snow at our house, which I believe was the biggest snowstorm in Indy in nearly five years. We were overdue. We were pleased at how well our new snowblower worked. We replaced our 12-year-old blower in the fall. I had my eye on some higher end models but S insisted I stick with a more budget-friendly pick. Our choice runs at least twice as fast as our old one, and is lighter to boot. S ran it once Saturday while I was out, and I did a second run Sunday morning. I cleared our whole driveway in less than three songs on the old American Top 40 I was listening to!11

I was very thankful that the KU-Baylor game matched up with the first half of the Colts-Chiefs game. That way I missed the Colts laying a big, fat turd and was able to move on to other things when the KU game ended.

A disappointing end to a surprising and successful season for the Colts. They enter the off season with a young, talented team, more cap space than any team in the NFL, and a general manager who absolutely cleaned up in last year’s draft. There’s every reason to believe even being half as successful in this year’s draft and free agency will make the Colts the AFC South favorites next year, and right up with the Chiefs and Patriots as best teams in the conference. Of course, football always surprises, so whether the results match those expectations is another story.

For the Chiefs, although I watched very little of the game, I thought of one very promising comparison. The 2006 Colts were absolutely terrible on defense late in the year. In December it looked like it was going to be another waste of an epic season by Peyton Manning and the offense. They the defense flipped a switch when the playoffs started and were amazing. In fact, other than in the second half of the AFC title game, the offense was pretty mediocre through the entire playoffs and it was the defense that got the Colts their only Super Bowl title since coming to Indy.

I’m not sure whether the Chiefs can sustain what they did defensively on Saturday. But if they can? Look out. You only need a halfway decent defense with that offense.

My other predictions were so-so. I thought the Cowboys-Rams game would be closer that most folks expected. I went to bed before it ended, but it wasn’t the complete domination that some predicted.

I whiffed on the Chargers. My bad. And apparently Tom Brady reads this blog, as his comments after the game about all the people who thought they sucked and couldn’t win a game were clearly aimed at my comments about the Pats on Friday.

That Philly-New Orleans game was really solid. I feel for Alshon Jeffrey. That guy has made so many big catches over the years and whiffs on a fairly easy one that cost the Eagles a chance to pull the upset. Sports are brutal sometimes. I’m sure Philly fans will handle his mistake gracefully. Some people believe every championship team needs a gut-check game along the way to wake them up. Perhaps yesterday was the Saints’ gut-check game.

Sunday we had all the two-year-old nephews over to play in the snow. We only spent about 20 minutes outside because the winds were beginning to pick up, but we drug them around on sleds, made snow angels, and L and C made a snowman. It was pretty funny watching the little guys play. They’re beginning to separate a bit more in both abilities and personalities. Throw in none of them being at the developmental stage where they can co-play or begin to understand sharing and it can be a volatile mix at times. But for the most part they are very entertaining. We’re watching one of them next weekend, so this was good prep.

Big Weeks

February 12, 2018 /

It was a big week for L.

Last Thursday was St. P’s annual leadership day, where they invite other schools to come in and take a look at several of the leadership programs they run for the students. Last year L got to give a brief speech about her experiences in the program.[1] This year she took a big step up and got to be one of the two student hosts of the sessions. She and an eighth grader helped run the central part of the program for the visiting teachers, administrators, and students. She received a script that we worked on for about a week, so really it was just reading and being comfortable in front of crowds. Still it was another fine entry into her resumé for about eight years from now when she’s applying to all the finest colleges.[2]

M and C were also involved in leadership day in smaller roles, and all three girls got their pictures on the school’s official Twitter and Facebook accounts for their efforts. Big week for our Brand!

Yesterday was also day one of the tournament for L’s basketball team. We have no idea how the brackets were made, as there is no explanation on the league’s web page. But somehow, despite finishing in the top half of the league our first round game was against a team that finished higher than us, and then the winner had to play the third-place team, a team that beat us by 3 two weeks ago. I’ll blame this on Indiana, where you can somehow combine a blind draw with byes for the highest ranked teams.

Game one, our girls played really well. One girl, who is normally a complimentary player, must have been pissed off by something because she had like 20 steals. She was just a terror, running around grabbing the ball from anyone that got close to her. We had a comfortable lead the entire game and ended up winning by eight. L had six points although it took her about 30 shots to get those six. She’s become a bit of a chucker. If she ever learns how to shoot she’s going to be trouble.

We were supposed to have an hour off between games, but that stretched to nearly two hours as the other games were getting backed up. The game before ours, which was a fifth grade game, took literally 25 minutes to play a six-minute quarter between all the fouls, timeouts, breaks to settle down pissed off players, and arguments from coaches. At one point the game had a chance of going to overtime. Our head coach walked over and whispered to me, “If this game goes to OT, we’re forfeiting and leaving.”

Thankfully it didn’t come to that. Although perhaps that would have been a good idea.

All the energy our girls played with in game one was gone. Everyone was walking around, losing their defender, failing to help on defense, not bothering to rebound, and generally looking like we did way back in early December. We knew this team had one play, that we had figured out how to stop two weeks ago, and somehow we just let them run it over-and-over. In the final minutes of the first half we had a couple girls that literally gave up and just stood around and stared at people.

We led 2–0 and then gave up 56-straight points. Or thereabouts. I think it was 19–2 at halftime, although we were all so frustrated that my eyes weren’t working right.

At halftime we completely revamped the lineup, figuring to have any chance we needed to put our best five on the court. We also challenged the girls to score eight points while limiting the other team to none. That almost worked. We started the half on a 6–0 run, the girls were playing D, getting every rebound, and actually setting screens so we could get good shots up.

That was too big a deficit to make up, though. And by playing our best five together, we ended up subbing in another group that should not have been on the court together. To their credit, that five played a lot harder, too, but they just didn’t have the ability to keep the momentum up.

We got the lead under 10 a couple times, but ran out of steam and the other team hit several shots late to stretch it out again. I think the final was 31–18. So we won the second half! L finished with six again, although it could have been eight. Like I said, it was all a little blurry. That other team was just better than us. They knew how to play together, were great at helping on D, out-worked our girls for rebounds and loose balls, and had the best player on the court who was really good. I’m really not sure how we had a lead on them two weeks ago and only lost by nine.

So we’re done with hoops for the year. The girls all got a lot better from when we started practicing in November. No official stats but I’m pretty sure L was the leading scorer for the season. There were lots of frustrations – don’t get me started on how our girls refused to run inbounds plays correctly even though we have one for baseline, one for sideline, and we’ve practiced them every single practice for three-plus months – but they were further along than most of the other teams we played. Of course, we were in a C league. I can’t imagine what the A teams are like at this age. They probably already play like 80 games a year together. Our girls are far too goofy for that kind of commitment. Plus it would get in the way of kickball!

M had a good athletic week, too. Her volleyball team won back-to-back games to even their record for the season. The first match they won easily. The second one was a struggle and went to three games. The team they played probably should have been a B team, but our girls fought hard and pulled out the third game. That one was a bit of a grudge match for our family, as it was held at the parish around the corner where our girls all went to preschool. When we walked into the hallways, M said, “Oh! It smells just the same as it used to!” Apparently the odors in the hallway have not changed in nine years. I suggested it was the scent of urine and tears, which made some of the parents around us laugh.

  1. And you may recall that in the fall of her second grade year she was asked to introduce Sean Covey at a regional conference as part of the same initiative at St. P’s.  ↩
  2. She now wants to go to Purdue to study engineering, then go to Stanford for law school. All while playing soccer at the international level. Which is more ambitious than I ever was, or have ever been.  ↩

Kid Sports

January 29, 2018 /

Our first weekend with sports on both days for awhile.

Saturday M had her first volleyball game of the year. They lost in two games, and neither was very close. The other team had one good server who ripped off 6–7 straight points early in each game and that was pretty much it. They were also better at passing than our girls were.

M is playing on a C team. Sometimes C teams are garbage, with a bunch of girls who have no clue or ability lumped together. But M’s team should be ok. Although they lack a complete player, almost every girl is good at at least one skill.

That said, I did sense a bit of disappointment among the team Saturday. Like a good chunk of them were upset to be on the C team. They didn’t talk very much during the game. I bet if you put the same group in the B league they would have been more vocal. A couple of the girls seemed outright surly. Now whether that was because they were on the C team, or just normal teenage girl stuff I have no idea. We reminded M that she was playing with a bunch of her friends so she should do all she can to make the games fun. They play again Wednesday night so hopefully the attitudes and performances will be a little better.

Sunday L closed out her basketball regular season with two games. We got a big break and played at our local high school, so we had a 10-minute commute instead of the 45 minutes to an hour we had the first three weekends.

Game one was great. We fell behind 2–0 and then dominated, winning 26–3. The girls were really good on defense and on the boards and actually ran their plays halfway decently. At least in the first half. The second half was just chaos. L had eight points, including two breakaway layups in the first half. She also hit a long jumper that was pure chucking and lucky to go in. I had a couple texts after the game from parents on the other side of the court laughing about what a lucky heave it was.

Four-game winning streak, 4–3 on the season.

Game two we played a team that came into the weekend 5–1. We can see total points for and against but not individual game results on the league’s website. All we knew about them was the only game they had lost was to the first place team, who was undefeated, and they were outscoring opponents by a total of 55 points through four games. Yeesh.

A couple parents snuck down to watch part of their early game while we were playing our first. The scouting report was that they had some size but weren’t all that. In fact, they ended up losing their early game by one point to another team that came in 5–1. If we win, we’re tied with them going into the tournament with a tiebreaker.

The first quarter was just a nightmare. Both teams were attacking the ball on defense so nothing was happening on offense. We finally got a bucket late in the quarter. We got another early in the second, they scored, then we got one more to go into halftime up 6–2.

The second half was just terrible basketball for the most part. But the other team had a play that worked. L was on their point guard. She would go left where two teammates were waiting to screen L. We’ve been working on switching on defense for three weeks in practice, but our girls just stood there and watched as the guard dribbled in and tied the game on two-straight layups. We called a timeout to yell at the girls about switching. I also told L that she should know what’s coming, so don’t run into the screen, go around it and beat her girl to the baseline.

Next possession they run the same play. As soon as the guard makes her first move, L turns around, runs all the way around the lane, and sets up under the basket. Not quite the right execution, as she left her girl way too early and didn’t watch the ball, but at least she got the concept. Even better was one of our girls switched down and cut off the drive! Everything kind of went to shit and they didn’t get a shot.

Next possession, same thing. L turns tail and runs away, our center slides down to cut off the drive. But then the guard decides to throw in a 15’ baseline jumper for the lead. Damn, kid was good.

Sadly that was it for us. L hit a free throw early in the fourth quarter but that was the only point we scored in the second half. The final was 10–7. I spent roughly half of the second half with my head down in my hands because of another dumb turnover. But that is 3rd grade basketball for you.

So we finished the regular season 4–4. The girls got so much better over the course of the year. We figured out how to coach them better, too. Of our opening three losses, I bet we’d beat two of those teams if we played them again.

Which we may get a chance to do. We have a week off then begin a single-elimination tournament. I don’t know how they’ll divide the 18 teams, but based on the standings going into last week, we would be playing a team similar to the one we beat Sunday. And our girls know they can hang with one of the best teams in the league. In other words, we’re the best 4–4 team in the country, and no one should want to play us!

Kid Sports

January 16, 2018 /

Boy did we have a Sunday. Nine-plus hours of kid sports!

Things started with L and I leaving the house just before noon for week three of basketball, once again playing about an hour from home.

Game one was a barn-burner. We have exactly two plays on offense, variations on the same theme where the point guard either comes off a screen at the free throw line for a (hopefully) good look at the bucket, or passes off to a trailing teammate for a shot. We spend about 15 minutes of every practice running these plays. So when the other team ran this exact play on their first possession of the game, you’d think we would be able to defend it, right? Nope, easy layup, and we three coaches were all looking at each other like, “It’s going to be a long day if we can’t guard our own plays.”

Luckily our girls were on it. We were getting all the rebounds, played really solid D, and mostly controlled the game the rest of the way. Of course, in third grade basketball “controlling the game” means you have a four-point lead because you shoot roughly 10% despite all those rebounds. Man, our girls were good on the boards, we just could not buy a shot. I think we got the lead up to six in the fourth quarter, but when both teams could press after the 3:00 mark, everything kind of fell apart.

Seriously, those three minutes are the longest minutes in sports. It seems like there’s a turnover, foul, or timeout every 4.9 seconds. It’s just brutal. We were up four and kept forcing turnovers, but since all ten girls were grouped together, that TO would turn into an immediate held ball. Line up and do it again. I think we literally had eight changes of possession on the other end of the court in a 30 second span.

Their coach finally called a timeout and had his best player loop around some screens and run up court. Of course we were totally unprepared for it (coaching!) and she hit a nice, guarded 12-foot jumper to cut it to two with a minute left. Literally a lifetime in this game.

We missed a couple shots, they won a held-ball, and we called timeout. Instead of pressing, we decided to pull four of our players back to the midcourt stripe. Our girls all looked crazy confused but we told them just to pick up there like normal. Meanwhile, we would going to have L pressure the ball.

Fucking genius.

L got a steal, missed a shot, we got the rebound, she ended up with it, and then hit a crazy baseline shot in traffic to push it back to a four-point lead. We were on the opposite end of the court so I was screened and just saw the ball go in, but a coach waiting for the next game looked at me after her shot and said, “Damn! How’d she make that?”

We held on and got our second win of the year.

A good start.

We had an hour between games so went and watched the game on our next court. One of the teams was Ben Davis, which is the west-side Indy school that went undefeated in 6A football this year, won boys 4A basketball last year, and has a long history of turning out great athletes. The school is racially mixed, primarily working class. Their team had two tiny girls who were little speed demons. They could both really handle the ball and would get rebounds and just beat everyone downcourt. Then they had a couple big girls who were kind of thick. They were both at least two inches taller than our biggest player and out-weighed her by over 15 pounds. And then they had a girl that, I swear, was taller than M and weighed 140 pounds. I’m guessing she was 5’5” already. This girl was big and skilled. They’d throw her the ball, she’d take a dribble, spin, and lay it in off the glass.

“Good Lord!” I thought, “That is a kick ass fifth grader!”

BD was playing another team sponsored by the high school we’re playing for, so I asked our head coach what grade those girls were.

“Third grade!”

Holy crap. This Ben Davis girl would probably have been able to play with our 7th and 8th grade CYO teams and she was just a third grader! And she was playing in a B league! [1]

On to our second game, which went about as well as we could have asked for. We were up 15–0 before they hit a free throw and cruised to a 29–6 win. Our girls literally had 15 break away, unguarded layup attempts and maybe hit three of them, so it could have been even worse. The girls weren’t running any offense and kept getting lost on defense, which was driving the head coach nuts. I leaned over and said, “We’re up 15. Just let it go until halftime and we’ll get them refocused.”

A rare moment of clarity from me during a youth sporting event!

L scored seven in the first game, eight in the second, and was the leading scorer in both. She, and the team, had a really good day.

Back in the car and across town to M’s preseason volleyball scrimmages. Her team was playing a bunch of other Cadet (7th & 8th grade) C teams in 13-minute sessions where you could substitute freely, no score was kept, etc. I missed her first game, but apparently she served 13-straight points in it. I think we got to see her play twice before they wrapped up that session. She was also asked to play with one of the B teams, as they were missing three girls. So we ran out to get a quick bite then had her back in the gym for the evening session.

M played really well in both sessions. She’s a setter and does a pretty good job. She’s also become a pretty good passer. She was really disappointed that she didn’t make the B team, but seeing the girls on that team I understand why. They all serve overhanded, most of them can hit at the net, and while her setting is good, it probably needs to be just a touch better if she wanted to play up.

She was excited to get the chance to play so much, though. The B coach never subbed her out, which we didn’t really understand but also didn’t complain about. Last night her team scrimmaged against that B team and she was a little frustrated afterward at how the B team was better than hers. That’s good; she needs a little athletic fire in her. Hopefully that will push her to keep improving. She’s come a long way in two years and I like that she’s not satisfied with just playing with her friends anymore.

We rolled into the house around 9:30 Sunday, so L and I had a hell of a day. Good thing Monday was a holiday and the girls could sleep in.

Thankfully despite the windchill being –20 this morning, school was back in session and on time today. A four-day weekend immediately after Christmas break was not cool for any of us.

  1. We’re in the C league. We’ve heard there weren’t enough A teams this year so all the A and B teams got thrown together, so her team likely would have been in the A league otherwise.  ↩

Winter Sports Wrap Up

March 22, 2017 /

I realized over the weekend that I never closed out our winter sports season. I think part of the delay was because of how winter sports ended for our two oldest girls.

Let’s start with M, whose volleyball team had a fine regular season, going 5–2. By the end of the season they had a number of girls who could consistently rip off a long stretch of serves in a row, including M. They also had several girls who could set well and a couple girls who could hit at the net.

For the first game of the city tournament, they faced a team that had only won one match all season. Our girls won the first set rather easily, with M closing it out with seven straight from the serving box. As tends to happen, for some reason, the entire team lost their focus in set two. M and the two other girls who had served best in set one won a combined four points in set two. They never really got into it and we went to a third set to see who advanced.

It was tight through the first 4–5 servers for each team, but St. P’s was always playing catchup. They got the serve back down 14–7 and won five straight before a ball into the net ended their season. It was a frustrating loss because they seemed to be a lot better than their opponents. But they lost their serves and their confidence in set two and never got them back.

M continued her steady improvement. She had some games where she served really, really well. She was almost always good for a point or two when her turn came up. Her passing got better and she was one of the second-choice setters. She was the loudest kid on the team. You couldn’t not hear her yelling “COME ON GUYS!!!!” anytime they lost a point. Most of all, she really enjoys the game.

As for C’s team, as you will recall we had not won a game through our first four of the regular season. In game six, our girls played as well as they had played all year. They won set one, lost set two narrowly, and in set three raced out to a quick lead. They got the set to 14–7 and needed just one point to win their first match of the year. You could see the excitement and the preparations to celebrate on our girls faces.

I was keeping score this game, so rather than being on the bench I was sitting at midcourt. The other team won a couple points, and then our best player muffed an easy pass. And then another. 14–11 and I could see every ounce of confidence just drain out of our girls. 14–12. 14–13. 14–14. In youth volleyball it’s just first to 15, you don’t have to win by two points. Another good serve, another poor return, and the set and match were over.

Huge bummer. They were so close. There were some tears.

In the next game we got our asses thoroughly kicked by a team that had like eight girls who could serve better than anyone on our team. And in the tournament, same thing: we just got hammered by a team that had a roster full of servers. These games were tough to watch. It’s like the other teams had fifth graders and our girls were all third graders. You now it’s bad when the other coaches, who were all moms/aunts/big sisters, give you sad, “I’m sorry for your girls” faces when you shake hands after the game.[1]

Our girls did improve over the year. The head coach and I just couldn’t figure them out. They would be silly and laughing and loose in practice, but as soon as the games started they tightened up and stopped chasing the ball. As I mentioned before, the head coach played in college – and was really good I should add – and I think she struggled to figure out what she needed to say/do differently to get the girls to put what she taught in practice into their game performances. I told her after our last game that a good chunk of these girls will probably be a lot better next year, and the base she gave them will be responsible for that improvement.

This was my first time coaching volleyball and I realized how complex the game is. I played a lot of volleyball into my early 30s and I always just played without thinking too much about strategy, positioning, etc. I’ve coached soccer and basketball before. Soccer, at the youth level, isn’t too tough to relate to kids. Basketball can be complex, but I’ve focused on the basics which I think are fairly easy to grasp. But volleyball, with knowing when to go after balls, when to let your teammate get it, how to move around the court, etc. is deceptively complex. I often found myself at a loss at how to help our girls. My contributions generally were yelling “You have to call the ball, girls, and if you call it, you have to go get it.” I told the head coach I was pretty much there to throw and shag balls in practice and stay out of her way.

C has a chance to be a decent player. She was the most athletic kid on her team. She can hit the ball hard. But she is just so unfocused. She’ll hit a couple perfect serves, then go through a couple games where she was lunging for the ball and couldn’t get it in to save her life. She got to the ball better than anyone on the team. But almost every time she would wind up and hit it as hard as she could instead of gently passing it over the net. I kept telling her, use your legs to pass, but every time she’d start with her hands near her ankles and end with them above her head. One game she just hit the shit out of the ball and knocked it straight up into the gym rafters. The look on her face was classic, like she had just broken a window or something. She would get excited when we played in gyms with really high ceilings.

So volleyball is done. C started kickball practice last week. M starts Friday. L has her first soccer practice next Thursday. Spring sports have already sprung.

  1. Not in a condescending way, either. Like they were genuinely sorry for beating us so badly.  ↩

Winter Sports, Vol. 2

February 22, 2017 /

Time for another Kid Winter Sports Roundup.

L finished her basketball season last week. Our team went 3–4, losing to the eventual champions in the tournament.

We started the season 1–3 so obviously finished strong. Our best game of the year was our final regular season game, when we played the team we were tied with for second place at the time. They jumped on us early – leading 8–0 and 11–2 – and I was feeling a little helpless on the bench. Then a dad who helped me last year but was on the bench for the first time this year slid over and said, “Have M (his daughter) set a screen for whoever has the ball. She learned how to do that in fall league.” This is interesting and useful information!

I called a timeout, we showed our two ball handlers how to use the screen, told M where to stand, and sent them back out. First possession, points! Unfortunately it wasn’t always that successful. Our girls kept missing close shots. Our two best players (one of them is L) for some reason refused to use the backboard when they had a layup. So despite getting clean drives to the rim over-and-over, they kept tossing the ball across the rim rather than off the boards. Criminy!

With about 4:00 left in the game, we were down 23–16. I called a timeout and told the girls we could totally win the game. But we had to get every rebound and every loose ball from here on. No more standing there and watching the other team grab the ball while it rolled on the ground.

We sent them back out, ran our screen play, and drew a foul. My best player hit the first free throw then missed the second. My tallest girl, T, crashed in, got the board, and for the first time all year shot right away rather than backing up and waiting for the defense to collapse on her. Swish! 23–19.

The next 3:00 were awesome. We got every damn rebound. We got every damn loose ball. L scored six of the last eight points of the game and we won 29–23. That’s a 13–0 run to close, if my math is right.

When I gathered the team afterward, I told them all how proud I was of how hard they played. They did exactly what we asked and it was awesome to watch. I singled out each girl for what they did, but then I said, “Everyone was great today. But T was our player of the game. She didn’t let the other team get a single rebound in the last three minutes.” Man, the look on her face! It’s little moments like that that make coaching fun.

There was some controversy going into the playoffs. Somehow despite finishing second (out of four teams), we got stuck playing the first place team. I’m not going into the explanation I received, but I think the first place coach was more pissed than I was. We’re pretty good friends so I wound him up a little once I knew he was upset. It eased my annoyance to ramp his up!

We hung with them for the first half, but couldn’t in the second. We were down by 18 or so at one point, but made a late run to lose by just 12. They have three of the five best players in the league and went 8–0, so it was a respectable loss. We missed so many shots, though! They were better than us but if we shot a little better we would have been right in it at the end again.

L had a decent season. She started wearing glasses last summer and played without them. I think that affected her shooting. She told us she had trouble seeing sometimes. We didn’t think it was worth the money to buy sports goggles from her optometrist and have her wear them for just two hours a week, so we ordered some $40 ones online. They ended up being worse than if she went without so she played half-blind. She missed so many shots close to the rim and I can’t help but think it was because her vision and depth perception were off. She had a couple games where she didn’t score at all. But the last two games of the year were by far her best. If there was an all-league team, she might have snuck onto the first team, or been at the top of the second team.

M and C are wrapping up volleyball. M’s team is one of the 5th/6th grade B teams, and is pretty solid. They have one really good server and a couple other girls who can bring it most nights. They’re learning how to run offense and not just stand in one spot. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. They’re getting better, though.

They had to play without their best server on Sunday. Before we dropped her off, I told M that she and all her teammates just needed to pick up two extra service wins a piece, and that would make up for missing J. Apparently she shared that with the whole team. More about that in a second.

M came around to serve midway through game one, with her team up 13–7. Her serving has been better this year, but she’s never won more than a couple points in a row. I’m not sure what got into her, but she looked more confident than she’s ever looked. She calmly bounced the ball a few times, took a step, and smacked it into play. She did that 12-straight times and closed out the game! Other coach even tried to ice her by calling a timeout and she was all like, “Naaah,” and just kept serving winners. We were pretty pumped on the sideline and she looked awfully proud of herself on the bench between games. I must say that the team they played was not the strongest they’ve faced. But points are points, bitches.

After they closed out game two, one of our coaches came over and said, “That was perfect what you said to them, about every girl just needing to pick up two points to make up for J not being here!” I have my moments I guess.

M’s team has a winning record (not sure if they’re 4–1 or 3–2) and just one game left before the tournament.

I’m helping coach C’s team and that’s been a whole different experience. In 4th grade, if you get the ball over the net on the serve, you’re usually going to win the point. And our team just can not serve. We have one girl who can bomb it pretty good, but she’s also crazy inconsistent and is as likely to serve it into the net or long as run off a stretch of 4–5 points.

It’s always random what division each team ends up in, and unfortunately every team we have played always has 5–6 girls who can consistently hit it over the net from the service box. That’s just a killer when the girls are all learning how to return serve, pass, and help each other out.

It’s been a little frustrating to watch. The mom who is our head coach played division one volleyball in college. She’s awesome at teaching the girls and very patient. But in games, both of our competitive sides start coming out and we mutter back and forth to each other as we continue to miss serves. We haven’t won a match yet, and have only got a match to a third game once. But we have two more games and then almost two weeks before the tournament. So hopefully there is time to get a few of our more athletic girls serving better.

C is doing ok. She’s probably the most active kid on the team, and has started moving around to follow the ball more. Her play fits her personality: she’s a little flighty and has trouble dialing her enthusiasm back. When she gets a chance to pass, she winds up and smacks the crap out of the ball, often sending it up into the rafters or way out of bounds. I keep telling her to keep her hands below her chest, she nods at me, and then ends up with her hands over her head as she wacks the ball again. That’s alright, though. Aggression we can work with.

Winter Sports, Vol 1

January 18, 2017 /

An early winter sports update, starting with L’s second year of basketball.

She is playing in the pre-CYO league run at her future high school by the girls coach there. I’m coaching her team again this year. This time around I have eight girls – four second graders, four first graders – all from St. P’s. In fact, of the four teams in the league, three are from St. P’s.

I had two of the second graders last year, and both have improved quite a bit. They are hitting some shots and can handle the ball a lot better. My new second grader is our tallest player,[1] is a good defender, and understands how to turn and shoot. L is probably our best all-around player, although she is way too cocky and tends to start giggling when guarding people she knows.

Three of my first graders get lost on defense constantly. A pair of them are twins, and in both of our games I’ve called them the wrong name at least once while trying to tell them to stay with their girl. Another first grader, bless her heart, looks scared to death 90% of the time. Each time I check her out of the game and ask who she was guarding, she gets a look of pure panic on her face. The fourth first grader is a lot like L: she’s fast, can shoot, goes after the ball after shots, and plays decent D. When those two are on the court together, we get a lot of fast-break opportunities.

Through two games, we are averaging 25 points per game. Which, based on last year’s scores, is just about right.

Ah, but the real story is how we got to that average.

Week one we scored six points. Week two we scored 44.

I know, right?

A lot went into that variance. Week one we played what I think is the best team in the league. They somehow ended up with the best athlete in the league and the most height. They just dominated us on the boards. And my girls could not hit a shot to save their lives. We caught the rim and the backboard over-and-over and nothing would drop. There were also a lot of week one jitters in there. We were awful matching up on defense and gave up too many open looks. Still, we only gave up 28 points.[2] I knew if we could learn to rebound and get some shots to drop we’d be fine.

This past week’s game was a lot better. We jumped out to a 12–6 lead. Then I got us lost in some bad defensive matchups without seeing them and we were on the wrong end of a 20–2 run to end the half. At halftime I told our girls it was my fault we lost our lead. I promised to keep them in good defensive matchups if they would just keep rebounding and working to get good shots.

So we promptly ripped off a 10–0 run to start the second half.

Coaching, man. Coaching.

There was also no defense in the second half. It was like the Louisville-Houston game in the 1983 Final Four: just up-and-down basketball for 20 minutes. On offense we kept beating the other team down the court and even made the occasional pass to an open teammate across the lane.

We had a 4–6 point lead for most of the last ten minutes. We got to the last minute and had a four-point lead. L got a defensive rebound and took off. She was 10 feet ahead of any defenders. I’ve been working with her on controlling her speed when no one is in front of her. She tends to go 1000 miles and hour and then fire the ball off the backboard, giving it no chance to go in. She had done better at jump-stopping and hitting short jumpers all day. So, naturally, this time she pulled up from 10 feet, threw the ball in the general direction of the rim, and hit nothing.

The other team went down, worked for a shot, and cut the lead to 2 with 10 seconds left. They called a time out to kill the clock, but were out of time outs. It’s a 1st/2nd grade league so the refs just had us inbound the ball. I should have called a timeout myself and told the girls to get the ball up the court and don’t stop, no matter what. Instead our girl with the ball dribbled right into a swarm of players, froze, lost possession, and the other team took off toward their hoop as the clock counted down.

If there was video of me in this sequence, you would see me screaming, at the top of my lungs, “STOP HER!!!!” Their player had a wide open lane with a chance to tie the game, while my girls chased and looked at each other, unsure what to do.

Fortunately, the shortest girl in the league had the ball. This girl looks like she’s four. She collected herself, tossed up a shot just before the buzzer sounded, and barely got it six feet off the ground. I went over and collapsed against the wall for a moment.

Our girls were happy that we won and I was immensely relieved.

This coming week we play a team that I think is a pretty even matchup for us. We practiced last night and they seemed to be understanding the idea of not chasing the ball and staying between your girl and the basket on defense. Then we scrimmaged and half of them were standing on the wrong side of the ball.

M and C are both playing volleyball. They’ve been practicing for a couple weeks and start games next week. M is playing for two coaches she’s had before, and they’re starting to have them run actual offense. I haven’t seen them practice, but I think M is going to be one of the setters. She really enjoys playing.

I’m helping coach C’s team, which is kind of a funny story. Her coach is a mom I know a little bit. She doesn’t have a daughter in 4th grade, but coached last year as well, so I figured she just liked coaching and this was part of her time/treasure/talent contribution. When I told her I’d be happy to help as my schedule allowed, I thought about mentioning how I used to play a lot of rec volleyball and even won a 4-on–4 league one year! I’m glad I left that out, because when she sent out her introductory email to the entire team, she mentioned how she played D1 volleyball. I looked her up and she’s still third all time in assists at her alma mater. Yeah, my little 4-on–4 championship experience will really come in handy!

C’s team is funny to watch. This is their first year playing, and most of the eight girls are big goofballs. Like most fourth graders, they struggle at returning and passing. But we have a few decent servers so hopefully we are decent.

  1. Which isn’t saying much. My team is small.  ↩
  2. Actually 26. One of my first graders hit a sweet, 10-foot jumper. Alas, it was in the other team’s basket.  ↩

Our Other Winter Court

March 1, 2016 /

I’ve shared quite a bit about L’s first basketball season. C didn’t play a winter sport, but did go to a softball clinic Saturday and had a great time. She’s excited to play both softball and go through her first kickball season this spring. That leaves M, who is in her second year of volleyball.

Unfortunately, we had a lot of conflicts between volleyball and basketball over the past month. And since I was coaching basketball, I only got to see M play in about half of her games. But I’m happy to report that she improved a ton from last year.

In her fourth-grade year, she rarely got a serve over the net and struggled returning the ball. She was one of several kids who made it onto the court only for a few plays before being subbed out without serving.

This year, though, she has made fantastic strides. She has a pretty decent serve. It arcs just over the net about 85% of the time, which causes all kinds of problems for the receiving team. Those front-line girls are never sure if the serve is going to be short, catch the net, or make it over. M has had a number of aces because the other team is frozen, unsure how to react. When I’ve watched her play, she’s had two different runs of serving five or more straight points. Most notably, this year when she gets subbed out, she usually gets put back in when her spot in the rotation is due to serve. It’s made me a little extra proud that a lot of the season she has been paired with a taller sixth grader. That girl comes in when their spot is on the front line, and M comes back in when it’s time to serve.

She’s done a really good job returning and passing, as well. Last year she seemed afraid of the ball, often made moves at it late, and if she made contact, she wasn’t sure where to aim. Now she calls loudly for the ball, goes after it,[1] and does a really good job getting it back over the net. It’s like she’s a completely different kid this year. She’s been a lot of fun to watch. It’s cool to see her realizing how much she’s improved, too. I think those moments of pride for kids who aren’t athletic studs from day one go a long way.

As for her team, CYO groups fifth and sixth graders together. St. P’s has five 5/6 teams this year and she got slotted onto one of the C teams. Which was about right for her skill level. M’s team finished the regular season 4–3. They go smoked pretty good in all three losses,[2] had a couple lopsided wins, and won their other two matches in three sets. This week is all practice before the tournament begins next Tuesday.

The level of play is much easier to watch at this level. Most girls are capable of making a decent play on the ball. There aren’t a ton of long rallies, but there are more 3–4 hit rallies than there were in 4th grade. As always, though, the serve is the most important part of winning. The team that can consistently start a point by getting the ball over the net has a great chance to win. And if they have a girl or two that can serve over handed, you can almost give them the game. In a match last week, the other team started out on an 11–0 run thanks to a girl who could smack her over-handed serve with some decent pace. She might have served out the game if she hadn’t sent one just wide on the 12th point of the game.

As with every sport she’s played, M is always excited to be part of the group. She’s enthusiastic and supportive. It makes it more fun to watch as a parent now that her skill level has improved and she’s a contributing part of the team. Throw in the ways she’s changed physically in the past year – she might still be around average height compared to her classmates, but she sure seems taller this year – and it’s like watching a completely different kid than we watched a year ago.

  1. Sometimes too well. As pleased as I am by this new-found aggressiveness, I did have to yell “Stay in your spot!” at her once last week after she called off the girl playing front-center when M was supposed to be in the back-left slot.  ↩
  2. I saw one of those losses. That school must be loaded with talent, because they had two girls that were in the 5’8’‘–5’9’’ range. On a 5/6 C team!  ↩
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