Today’s moment is an extension of this weekend’s momentum. We played our second game of basketball at the 8-9 level against a team much taller and on average more talented and better coached than my own. To begin, I coach a 12 person team of kids who, for the most part, have played less organized ball than I have (read less than 10 games). Most of the kids are short –very short–for their age and at least half just recently turned 8 in a league where a lot of their opponents are turning 10 during the season. The teaching needed could not be accomplished in the short window of time that we have and the result was two brutal losses, the second cemented by the fact that our top two scorers were unavailable to play.
At least the rotations were easier.
Now we have one practice left before the next game–one against a coach I truly want to beat. I’m thinking up ways to get my players to remember two key points. (1) spread out (2) crash the boards. I haven’t figured either out yet, but I am going to keep working through the night.