Project 365 ~ Day 17 (January 17, 2009)

Today my topic is about my 10 year-old's basketball team! He currently is playing basketball for Clear Lake Boys Basketball, which is an excellent league. The only time he played basketball before this was for one winter season at the local YMCA. For this league, he tried-out for it last November. Results were posted a week later. Even the players were not allowed into the gymnasium to see the results (in order to protect those that did not make the draft) and only the parents were allowed in. Parents had been told in advance that if their son made the team, the registration and fees had to be paid for that night ($230) or they would lose their spot! When Hunter had try-outs for this league, it was the first time that he'd had a basketball in his hand since he played on that YMCA team nearly two years before! I was amazed (surprised?) when I saw that my son had made the list! Woo-hoo! The sad thing is that I had to tell one of his friend's moms that her son had not made the team. Both our boys were at fall baseball practice that evening and I offered to check the results of the basketball try-outs while she stayed with our boys at baseball practice. Needless to say, that was tough on me, especially when she asked me if Hunter (my son) had made it! Hunter's team is called the "Rockets" and they wear their league jersey tanks (white on one side and black on the reverse side) over short-sleeved red t-shirts and with black gym shorts. His coach is Bruce Johnson. Also on Hunter's team is his friend, Harrison Rodriggs, who played baseball with him at Nasa Area Little League last Spring season and also Austin Thornton, who Hunter knew from Cub Scouts in first grade and who attended Hunter's elementary school up until this year (Austin's mom is now vice-principal at another elementary school). Today, Hunter's team played another team (the "Spurs") and beat them! It was a close game with the other team having a 10 point lead through the first half. During the third quarter, the spread wasn't as bad but the other team was still ahead by several points. In the fourth quarter, Hunter's team caught up and ended up beating them by a 2-point spread! 14-12 Woo-hoo! The other team, the "Spurs", has a good friend of Hunter's from his elementary school (Matthew Tamburello) as well as two other friends from his last Spring baseball team (Travis Neill and Christopher Jacoby). It was fun watching them play each other. Hunter was guarding Travis most of the time. Christopher has stitches in his chin and wasn't playing this game. Hunter has another basketball game today that we are heading to shortly. By the way, his coach told him that he played "excellent defense" today. Way to go, Hunter! UPDATE: My son's team also won their second game of the day, 11 - 8! Way to go, Rockets!