It is with a happy heart that I can say basketball season finished for Liam last Saturday. It was definitely an experience, coaching kindergarten basketball. My team had some of the smaller, least aggressive players on it and we did not win one game. There were a couple games in which we scored double digits and those where very exciting. It was fun to see the kids improve over the course of the season, though and I hope they come back next year for 1st grade basketball. But, I will probably never coach Liam again. I think I would have enjoyed his playing basketball if I hadn't been the coach. Thank goodness I had an assistance coach, to back me up. And, I had Marcus, who I brought to practices to help lead warm-ups, run drills, fill in for players and goof off a little bit, too.
Even though I put all the boys in the same sports, it's interesting to see how much the boys are different. Sports and sports skills come at each child's own time. Liam is a young, big kindergartner and is still working on sports skills. Through the whole season, Liam rarely wanted to practice and I had to bribe/threaten him to play in the games-at least to sub in for the other kids who needed a break. I think a little bit of that is because Liam sees his 3 older brothers play basketball and is frustrated that he can't dribble, pass and shoot like they can. Kind of living in their shadows. That frustration makes Liam not even want to attempt to practice, because, in his mind, he doesn't think he can improve. Makes for some fun times when the coach's son won't participate. But, I did see improvement in Liam's basketball handling this season. He liked to practice by himself or with me instead of with the group. Those little bits of practice with Liam were very sweet. I think he does want to get better, but we can't make a big deal about it.
The last game, Liam did great in the first half. He participated in the game great. The second half, he fell apart. He didn't get to pass in the ball when he wanted to and then sulked and cried. Ultimately, I had to take him out of the gym while the other coach took care of the team. *sigh Needless to say, I got no pictures of Liam with the team afterward because he still hadn't really calmed down. And, then, he started to cry because I didn't take his picture. Talk about making me feel bad. All we could do was go home. I got him to snuggle down with me on my bed, we turned on the tv-to a basketball game, no less, and Liam fell asleep. My poor, tired boy.
Will Liam play basketball next year? Who knows at this point. He will be older and maybe easier to work with. Liam will be playing soccer this spring. In a moment of weakness, I almost agreed to be an assistant coach. Almost. I think I will enjoy soccer from the sidelines.
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