Good evening readers, moms and dads everywhere. Today we got over the hump in many ways as a team and the girls are really rounding into form. It was there last day of skills and there has been a ton of individual improvement from there. Our guards are learning to see the floor better when they push the ball in transition, our wings are attacking the basket relentlessly, and our posts have the confidence to make a hard dribble move and take the ball strong to the hoop.
As a team the girls really seized the momentum of yesterday and played their Falcon tails off. We were flying around the court. We were loud, we were proud, and we were playing not only like we belonged, but like we were starting to believe that we were GOOD. There were countless times that more than one of our girls ran over to another to pick her up after a silly mistake, or congratulate her on a great play. Very rarely were we caught out of position on defense and offensively the ball movement was quite the sight. I thought more than once today “sure is a shame that we don't have a game still when we get back,” just so you can all see how well these girls are learning to play with one another.
After game time and meals today was the situational tournament. This was a hectic, chaotic, fun way to challenge the ladies both mentally and physically. Essentially we were in a division of four (us and three other teams in our regular league) and we were asked to execute various late game situations. For example: The Falcons are up by one with 10 seconds left. They are on defense against another team. They get three attempts against a different team in the division each time. Team who is leading after time expires, wins.
It was a difficult challenge mentally, but physically our girls worked hard to get to the right spots and we did not give up a lot of advantages when we were asked to play defense against the other teams. Offensively had the girls had a slightly more experienced coach (Coach Kyle was in charge of the situations) they may have been put in better spots to succeed. Having said that the girls had fun, worked hard, and finished tied for second in the tournament. The night was capped off with a combination of pizza, stories, and our routine of journals and signing shirts and a team picture.
Easily one of the highlights of our entire camp was our pizza dinner tonight. We scouted out a little picnic area on campus that was lit up with tables and devoured three large pizzas. But the best part was that the girls, rather spontaneously, began to break into random funny stories that happened throughout their school years. The laughter began when one girl told the story of another teammate who “stepped on a duck” during silent reading early in the eighth grade. This led to the victim of the first story sharing a tale of the original storyteller dribbling the ball off her face when her crushes name was once mentioned. The laughter just snowballed from there until we all had a fit of giggles. Every girl shared a story about a weird teacher, or something funny or strange that happened to them at school this past year. The train fell completely off the tracks when one of our rather “precise” girls could not give up the fact that our “popsicles that you push up” were NOT “push pops” as those area type of candy. After three or four attempts at refocusing the girls failed due to our collective giddiness, we finally had to get the girls transitioned to the final part of our night. Coach began again with, “so we have push pops in the freezer...” just as he had the last three attempts and this time, instead of yelling and laughter, our little correctionist simply held her breath to try to stop herself. So Coach waited.... and waited... and waited... until all the girls realized what he was doing, and our correctionist could not keep it in any longer.
“THEY’RE NOT PUSH POPS!”
And I have never heard Coach laugh so hard in my life. I was on one knee trying to catch my breath and I am pretty sure he almost fell out of his chair.
The final thought that needs to be shared is something that I will probably take away from camp for myself this year. NBC camps does an “open mic” night where kids are allowed to go up to the front and say something they have learned or something they are thankful for that they attribute to their week at camp. I didn’t think much of it at first, but then our quietest girl jumps up, and boldly strides to the front of the camp. She takes the microphone, introduces herself, and proceeds to tell the whole camp what one of our teams goals were this week. It went something like this:
“Hi, I am [Player A] and I am with the Falcons.” *girls wild cheering* “one of our team goals this week was showing gratitude and acknowledging our teammates. At first we were really stinking and didn’t play very well and one of our coaches said we need to start touching and encouraging each other all the time. And we did. And we started winning. We started beating everyone. We started playing really good. I really like it, because I really feel bad when I mess up a play or travel or throw the ball away. I get really mad at myself because I let down my teammates. But now it’s easier because I always get a pat on the back and someone on my team says right away, ‘don’t worry you got the next one.’”
Our burgundy and white Falcons have been a lot of things this week, but dull is not one of them. Every kid from a different team that sees our girls walking and sprinting and hustling and touching and being positive with one another has that, “man I wanna play for THEM” look in their eyes. It is really something special moms and dads. I literally have goose bumps as I write this and I am just so proud to be a small part of it. It could never have happened without you this week. Tomorrow is our final official day of camp. Go Falcons, Fly girls Fly!
Team Goal Update
1. Consistent energy and intensity on the court.
a. No real slow start today. Our girls were ready from the word “go” beating a league 1 team in our first game and avenging our worst game of the week against another team with a tightly contested overtime loss.
2. Acknowledge one another on the basketball court. Point for good plays and 'dap' for helping one another out.
a. See the above story J.
3. Learning to play as individuals within a team structure on both offense and defense.
a. Girls are working really hard on this. Lots of movement on offense and really working to be in the right spots on defense. Love this effort mentally.
As a team the girls really seized the momentum of yesterday and played their Falcon tails off. We were flying around the court. We were loud, we were proud, and we were playing not only like we belonged, but like we were starting to believe that we were GOOD. There were countless times that more than one of our girls ran over to another to pick her up after a silly mistake, or congratulate her on a great play. Very rarely were we caught out of position on defense and offensively the ball movement was quite the sight. I thought more than once today “sure is a shame that we don't have a game still when we get back,” just so you can all see how well these girls are learning to play with one another.
After game time and meals today was the situational tournament. This was a hectic, chaotic, fun way to challenge the ladies both mentally and physically. Essentially we were in a division of four (us and three other teams in our regular league) and we were asked to execute various late game situations. For example: The Falcons are up by one with 10 seconds left. They are on defense against another team. They get three attempts against a different team in the division each time. Team who is leading after time expires, wins.
It was a difficult challenge mentally, but physically our girls worked hard to get to the right spots and we did not give up a lot of advantages when we were asked to play defense against the other teams. Offensively had the girls had a slightly more experienced coach (Coach Kyle was in charge of the situations) they may have been put in better spots to succeed. Having said that the girls had fun, worked hard, and finished tied for second in the tournament. The night was capped off with a combination of pizza, stories, and our routine of journals and signing shirts and a team picture.
Easily one of the highlights of our entire camp was our pizza dinner tonight. We scouted out a little picnic area on campus that was lit up with tables and devoured three large pizzas. But the best part was that the girls, rather spontaneously, began to break into random funny stories that happened throughout their school years. The laughter began when one girl told the story of another teammate who “stepped on a duck” during silent reading early in the eighth grade. This led to the victim of the first story sharing a tale of the original storyteller dribbling the ball off her face when her crushes name was once mentioned. The laughter just snowballed from there until we all had a fit of giggles. Every girl shared a story about a weird teacher, or something funny or strange that happened to them at school this past year. The train fell completely off the tracks when one of our rather “precise” girls could not give up the fact that our “popsicles that you push up” were NOT “push pops” as those area type of candy. After three or four attempts at refocusing the girls failed due to our collective giddiness, we finally had to get the girls transitioned to the final part of our night. Coach began again with, “so we have push pops in the freezer...” just as he had the last three attempts and this time, instead of yelling and laughter, our little correctionist simply held her breath to try to stop herself. So Coach waited.... and waited... and waited... until all the girls realized what he was doing, and our correctionist could not keep it in any longer.
“THEY’RE NOT PUSH POPS!”
And I have never heard Coach laugh so hard in my life. I was on one knee trying to catch my breath and I am pretty sure he almost fell out of his chair.
The final thought that needs to be shared is something that I will probably take away from camp for myself this year. NBC camps does an “open mic” night where kids are allowed to go up to the front and say something they have learned or something they are thankful for that they attribute to their week at camp. I didn’t think much of it at first, but then our quietest girl jumps up, and boldly strides to the front of the camp. She takes the microphone, introduces herself, and proceeds to tell the whole camp what one of our teams goals were this week. It went something like this:
“Hi, I am [Player A] and I am with the Falcons.” *girls wild cheering* “one of our team goals this week was showing gratitude and acknowledging our teammates. At first we were really stinking and didn’t play very well and one of our coaches said we need to start touching and encouraging each other all the time. And we did. And we started winning. We started beating everyone. We started playing really good. I really like it, because I really feel bad when I mess up a play or travel or throw the ball away. I get really mad at myself because I let down my teammates. But now it’s easier because I always get a pat on the back and someone on my team says right away, ‘don’t worry you got the next one.’”
Our burgundy and white Falcons have been a lot of things this week, but dull is not one of them. Every kid from a different team that sees our girls walking and sprinting and hustling and touching and being positive with one another has that, “man I wanna play for THEM” look in their eyes. It is really something special moms and dads. I literally have goose bumps as I write this and I am just so proud to be a small part of it. It could never have happened without you this week. Tomorrow is our final official day of camp. Go Falcons, Fly girls Fly!
Team Goal Update
1. Consistent energy and intensity on the court.
a. No real slow start today. Our girls were ready from the word “go” beating a league 1 team in our first game and avenging our worst game of the week against another team with a tightly contested overtime loss.
2. Acknowledge one another on the basketball court. Point for good plays and 'dap' for helping one another out.
a. See the above story J.
3. Learning to play as individuals within a team structure on both offense and defense.
a. Girls are working really hard on this. Lots of movement on offense and really working to be in the right spots on defense. Love this effort mentally.