One thing great about this year so far is the improvement by so many of our teams -- at least record wise. One of these prime examples are the 5th/6th grade boys team.
Once again, these are 5th graders -- and our 5th graders are not the tallest, and in basketball it means a lot -- playing in a 6th grade division. That itself is pretty courageous, and quite honestly, is possibly a reason why there aren't more 5th graders who play sports. But that's an entirely separate blog post.
Last year, when this team came together, 5 4th graders, and 4 5th graders, I said to myself, "If they could get one win, it would be spectacular." I didn't expect them to win any games. After all, pretty much everybody had never played a CYO game in their life, a few of them decided to join last minute and it didn't look like they were really familiar with the game at all.
And then I got the call from their former coach, Andrew Chack, and he told me they had won the game. I probably used some words I can't post on this blog, but I was stoked. They had done it. They pretty much did better than expected. They overachieved. Now this year, the bar was set higher.
They currently are (2-3) and in playoff contention. I spoke with one of their coaches after the loss on Saturday and he seemed genuinely upset with how the team played. To me, it's a good thing, because expectations are a lot higher. The bar has been raised. It wasn't good enough that the team played their best game a night before, when they scored 30 points -- by far their highest output ever. And I think all the players would agree that the way they played Saturday just doesn't cut it.
Why is it good? Because we are now talking about the next level. Getting to the playoffs, going into games expecting to win. Whereas a year ago at this time, we hoped to not lose by 20.
It has been a complete improvement from last year, and the coaches and players both have a lot to be proud of. Now the hard part, is getting to that next level, elevating your game to the next stepping stone.
Basketball wise, they need to improve on the fundamentals. They need to be able to grab rebounds, not turn the ball over, and basically have more court awareness. Some players still have trouble following the game.
If there is one negative, it would be that -- anticipating what happens on the basketball court. But that comes with experience, and they've played their share of games this year.
Looking at the big picture, this team has already exceeded their expectations and have a big upside for years to come.
1 comment:
Nice shout out Bryan!
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