My niece played her first season of basketball. She’s in the the 5th grade. She came off the bench. She didn’t get many minutes. She never scored any points. However, she had fun. She enjoys the game of basketball.

She had her moments when she didn’t know what to do. She didn’t understand why sometimes she only played less than 1 minute. I told her not to worry about playing time but to focus and learn about how to play the game, the rules of the game and playing on a team.

Some things I enjoyed during her first season of basketball: Her looking over at me in the stands during warm up after attempting her layups. Her coming over to the bleachers before heading to the bench to get her bottle of Gatorade or water. Then saying “Thank you, Auntie.” Her facial expression when her coach told her to check-in for the very first time. When she started jumping for rebounds, after I worked with her on jumping. Her first free throw attempt during a game. Her reaction while watching video of herself playing basketball. Her running faster during games because she saw how slow she was running while watching the video of herself. And sitting in the stands answering basketball questions from her little sister, who is in the 1st grade and will be starting her first season of basketball in a couple of weeks.

Continue reading →