Day 2 of 7: Basketball

Josh's spring basketball season has come and gone.



His team had 6 regular season games. They're record was 4-2. They made it to playoffs. Unfortunately, they lost their first playoff game, which closed the season for them. It was a great game though!

Josh showed lots of improvement over the course of this season. He definitely isn't the best on his team but he still enjoys playing. That's what counts, right?










His team is white shirts here and Josh is putting up the shot.



I need to work on my indoor sports photography skills!

Speaking of photography... the coaches wives (or team moms) take the team's photo each season instead of subjecting us to high price team photographers. I personally like paying an arm and leg for the cheesy but traditional sports photographer. I feel the same about the kids' school pictures.

Here is his team and solo photo from fall season. The two kids on the left didn't play again this season. The other seven did play again with three new teammates.

Basketball Season Ends

Josh's basketball team came in 4th in their division, which lead to a playoff game against the 1st place team from a different division. They got a pretty good beating; the final score was 91-26. Ouch. This season is over but the team will play together again in the spring season.

New Season, New Team

Josh is playing on a new team this basketball season in a different league than the one he played for in the spring. This team is coached by two of his classmates' dads. Four kids from Josh's class at school are on the team, which lends to more comradeship than he had with his other team.

Josh got to tip-off at the second game. He is the second tallest kid on the team, but the tallest was gone that day.

His team is very good. His coaches are serious about winning and pushes the kids, but never pushes them too much or makes them feel bad about anything. He's a good balance between tough and fun.

So far they've played three games, winning two and losing one.

Josh was a little slow to at first but he's been trying harder and harder each game. I'm really proud of how much he's learned. I know he'll continue to improve throughout the rest of the season.

Way to go, Josh!

All-Star Game

While I was in San Diego, Josh's team had their championship game against the undefeated team. They did really great but ended up losing in the end.

Josh played incredibly well that game and was selected by his coaches, with two other teammates, to be on an all-star team.

These are the trophies he received. One for second place. One for MVP, which everyone received.



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Josh, #15, played in his all-star game on Friday on team White.



Two kids from his original team were on his all-star team. His all-star team only had 7 players so Josh got lots of playing time.

The location was different and the period times were different.

The team he played against, Black, was coached by the 1st place coach (the infamous undefeated team) from his division. A few of the kids from the 1st place team were on the Black team.

We really really really wanted to see them lose... just once.

It looked like it was going to happen too. White was in the lead until the last 2 minutes of the game. Then White had turnover after turnover while Black started making all their shots. Black caught up and passed White in the score.

Josh's team lost by 3 points. It was so close. He was so sad.




He did have a great time playing in that game though. He likes the medal he got.

Basketball Star

(Day 5 of my 7 daily posts)

Josh is playing basketball. He came home from school one day with two basketball league flyers asking me to sign him up. He hasn't played with a league since he was 5 and at that age it wasn't competitive basketball, like no stealing and no score-keeping.



The spring season started back in early April. Josh really has had basketball experience only from playing at school during recess. He has improved tremendously over the past two months.



The league he's playing with is newly expanded to our area so there are only four boys teams for Josh's age group.



They've played each team twice. And then had one playoff game. Next week is the championship (and consolation) game.



Josh's team is ranked #2 of four. The team they play for the championship is undefeated.



These videos, taken on my phone, are of the last minute of the playoff game last week. They're playing a team that had only won one game but Josh's team trailed the whole game, until the fifth period. (They play 5 - 8 minute periods per game.)

Josh's team went into the 5th period trailing 8 to 15. They worked hard to bring it back. I started the video just after his team scored taking the lead by 1 point, 16 to 15.


Josh steals the pass right at the beginning of the video. His teammate didn't make the shot and the other team got the ball down the court. Timeout was called by the other team.


This is just after timeout when the other team inbounded the ball. They made the shot bringing the score to 16 to 17 with the opponents up by 1 point and only about 9 seconds left on the clock. Josh's teammate brought the ball down the court, threw up a 3-point shot and MADE IT! His team won the game 19-17. It was an amazing finish.

Next week is the championship game! Against the undefeated team. It should be a great game.