4th Grade winter basketball started off the season with a bang. Alright, not a bang. More like a small pi-chow. Bball Girl and her squad took a loss for the first game. My disclaimer here is that this is the first season for most of these girls, and they have had two practices to date. They are a bit rough around the edges, but then again, this will be a test of The Hub's coaching skills. If he can do something with this group, I might be impressed.
My little sweet 9 year old had herself way too much fun the night before at a super-duper house party. Girlfriend even won the prize for best dancer. I'm not convinced she was the best, but I know the girl has no reservations. She might have looked like she was about to break something but she was out there with it and that's what won her the prize. There is always one, at every party, that precious soul who is out there dancing their butt off...by themselves...to their own tune...and moving like they have a mission to complete. Or like they might hurt somebody. That would be Bball Girl. Strange, it brought back memories to one house party my sister had when she was in middle school and I must have been an elementary girl. I can clearly recall break dancing on the floor in front of all her friends. She was probably mortified but I established a name for myself amongst her friends. To chants of "go Rachel, go Rachel," I danced my little heart out. No shame. Goal achieved.
Nevertheless, Bball Girl's action-packed evening resulted in a pretty tired girl on the court Saturday afternoon. I believe she hit the floor more times than her feet left the ground. She took an elbow to the face, did some wrestling moves that I can't believe she thinks are part of basketball, and tried her coach's patience from the sidelines. You will be happy to know he kept his composure. Even with all that, she was the team leader. She scored 6 of the team's 11 points. Yes, 11 points. Most of the shots were wild, air balls. We've got some work to do as a team. Turnovers killed them. The Hub will be coaching these sweet girls about what to do under pressure and to stop throwing the ball any and everywhere when they are drowning. Bball Girl had some beautiful steals and took the fans by surprise. Did they not know? My girl can ball.
The biggest outcome of our first season game would have to be the discovery of the insider track. At that basketball assessment The Hub wondered why some of the coach's were going for 4th and 5th round draft picks. Saturday's game revealed why. Coaches purposely rated the girls they wanted low so they could easily get them in the draft. My goodness, the horror. What's wrong with people? What ever happened to good, old-fashioned, fair competition. From the looks of the opposing team on Saturday, we could see that this first coach, at least, stacked his team accordingly. I've decided (as if I'm somebody) the coaches don't need to be the people doing the assessments. If grown adults can't be expected to play fair, what in the world are we teaching our children. This one little small example shows why our world is so corrupt today.
I'm not going to hold these dads to the downfall of our world, but I am more than a little shocked at the deception people will go to, just to win. Amazing. My conscience would never let me be deceptive to get ahead. I'd feel so bad for those I left behind. So, our team was genuinely unprepared on Saturday. These girls haven't played together as a team prior to this game. They don't know each other's names yet. We have work to do, but what is better than a come-from-behind kind of story. Stay tuned, folks. I believe that The Hub has his work cut out for him, but that competitive edge that he eats, sleeps and breaths with won't go away quietly. This could get ugly.
The silver lining on the weekend, coming off that game, would be the sweet soul who got saved on Sunday. Brought by a teenage friend of ours, this precious girl said she has never attended church before. Wow. There are those out there that have yet to attend a church service, have yet to know the name of Jesus. Friends, there is still work to do. Sometimes, we feel like everyone knows, and they are each making a choice for themselves, to accept Him or not. But you know what, there are still those out there that don't know about Jesus. Sunday's service was proof-positive of that. This beautiful young teenage girl gave her heart to the Lord on Sunday. She accepted Christ in her heart for the first time. Amazing. Such a blessing to see the start of a wonderful change in her life. As her tears flowed, she opened her life to a new way, a new journey.
So, friends, you lose some and then you win some. That's the way of the world. That's why we keep pressing forward, knowing that in all things, God has a plan. Stay attentive, be aware, God is always working. Don't be discouraged in the "lose some" times, they are temporary and fleeting. The "win some" might be the very next day.
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