So proud

My grandaughter played in her first HS JV basketball game last night. She was so nervous but did great. She had offensive and defensive rebounds and 5 assists. Scoring was only 4 points. We played Pace, their 6th game of the season, and lost by a few points. We had 22 family and close friends, all my grandkids too, cheering for my girl. She is well loved

Her coached came and talked to me after the game. She said most likely my granddaughter will play JV and sit in for the varsity also. We place Niceville tonight.

Congrats... what a cool thing. I sure wish I had another high schooler... I was at every event.

What joy to share family time watching a member of the family explore their talent and grow. Nothing better in my experience. I still have splinters from hours upon hours sitting on bleachers in utter joy watching youth discover the game. I only hope to get to watch my oldest granddaughter play with all girls this year as she is only a third grader, but you begin to see the talent begin to show through as her mother had 11 varsity letters......I am amazed by genetics......you just cannot teach speed, and I just shake my head at how quick all four grandkids are and my only regret is that I will never get to share that joy you are experiencing with high school ball with my grandkids, but heck watching third and fourth grade girls executing a good pivot and shot using the backboard.......priceless.

Some high school kids were sitting behind me during the varsity game....one young man asked which kids are yours....with tears in my eyes I said all of them from the second row to the 6th row.

Your own cheering section.

Yes sir.....

I think I am going to have the granddaughters through Sunday morning and you have given me an idea. I am going to try to find a high school girls game to take them to on Friday night or Saturday. With girls they do not like playing boy games until they see girls are playing and being cool. I will roll over in my grave if either of my granddaughters become a cheerleader. So early role models of strong, fast, and tough females playing a game just as well as the boyz is very good time spent with two granddaughters. We have a good friend whose daughter was a competitive cheerleader, and is now teaching cheering to younger girls, and she gets mad at me for my views on cheerleading, but I find the concept absurd that as a young man I was going to go to a girls basketball game and cheer the girls......and not play sports.........sorry, but I always found girls who cheer to be not so successful in the business world, but girls who competed in sports......they get it. I guess I am a cheerleading bigot.

I coached a girls basketball team one season, private youth league ...  about 4th/5th grade age group as I recall.   One of the more horrible experiences of my life.  

It all started off good, they all looked up to me, I got social credits for being the "good dad", etc etc   .. then they turned on me.  I found out how vicious, selfish, hateful, spiteful, vengeful, etc  etc  little girls can be.   About halfway through I couldn't wait for the season to end.

Girls have to be coached differently than boys. At a young age, they are not sure they want to be participating in athletics as TV fills their heads that femininity is defined by other activities. You cannot bark and get down on young girls. You need to use humor, and intelligence to teach and lead them to all the things which will allow them to enjoy athletics. Strong independent girls start with good coaching. It is not easy, but every parent can become a positive factor in their choices. I remember when I was coaching a girls softball team for eighth and ninth graders. One of the girls was very developed and when we were handing out the new uniforms, none of the uniforms even came close to fitting her properly. My assistant coach was an offensive lineman for Wisconsin and went to the rose bowl and we each had a daughter on the team, but we were not prepared for the hornets nest which not having a large enough jersey for the one girl.......as a group they were incensed and with us even though each parent had ordered the size of the jersey. Fortunately, we were able to do some trading, and one of the girls whose parents had ordered a double xx jersey was able to trade with her, and everything was fine, but you do not want to be insensitive with young girls. Coaching is a skill set which all people are not necessarily equipped to deal with some of the emotions of kids.

2seaoat wrote:Girls have to be coached differently than boys.

Well, no sh*t, sherlock.

2seaoat wrote:
 At a young age, they are not sure they want to be participating in athletics as TV fills their heads that femininity is defined by other activities.  You cannot bark and get down on young girls.  You need to use humor, and intelligence to teach and lead them to all the things which will allow them to enjoy athletics. .

Yeah, tried all that. I'm far from the "barking orders" type. Even had a gentle Grizzly Adams type mormon dude as my assistant coach. They turned on us anyway !!

(There was a lot of drama going on within that group too. It was mostly middle & upper-middle class girls with the exception of one girl from a family of more modest means who was our star btw, by virtue of having grown up with three older basketball playing brothers. She was never a problem btw. I often felt bad for her having to "carry" the team in so many games as she did.)

I remember when my daughter was on her softball team when I arrived late to a softball game. I was lucky as these girls were sixth and seventh graders, and the wife's were coaching. I walk up to the game and all these girls were crying. My daughter's team was up by six runs the bases were loaded and no girl wanted to pitch as they were walking the runs in and they were freaking. My daughter was on the mound, and the coach from the other team comes up to me and says that the game had come to a halt because nobody wanted to pitch and Mrs. Seaoat had told my daughter she had to pitch, and she was not crying, but was about to quit. I simply go out to the mound and call the infield to the pitcher's mound. I say to my daughter, walk the next three batters so the game gets close, and the girls do not feel so bad about getting beat by six runs.

They all look at me like I am a crazy person, my daughter walks the next batter, and from the dugout I yell, two more to go. The next batters hit weak grounders and the girls got them out after giving up three runs. They all come to the dugout all happy, and the coach from the other team comes up to me after the game and says what the hell did you say to those girls.......I told them they should walk in three girls to make the game not so one sided. He goes that was the craziest thing he had seen when an entire team melted down and was leading by six runs, but young girls in athletics do not have their swagger yet......they get it by high school if they have been nurtured to have fun with the games. My daughter still talks about that game, and how three or four girls had freaked out before I arrived and that the entire team had just mentally lost it. My daughter learned something important that day.....sometimes not giving a chit is the best way to compete.

2seaoat wrote:I remember when my daughter was on her softball team when I arrived late to a softball game.  I was lucky as these girls were sixth and seventh graders, and the wife's were coaching.  I walk up to the game and all these girls were crying.  My daughter's team was up by six runs the bases were loaded and no girl wanted to pitch as they were walking the runs in and they were freaking.  My daughter was on the mound, and the coach from the other team comes up to me and says that the game had come to a halt because nobody wanted to pitch and Mrs. Seaoat had told my daughter she had to pitch, and she was not crying, but was about to quit.  I simply go out to the mound and call the infield to the pitcher's mound.   I say to my daughter, walk the next three batters so the game gets close, and the girls do not feel so bad about getting beat by six runs.

They all look at me like I am a crazy person, my daughter walks the next batter, and from the dugout I yell, two more to go.   The next batters hit weak grounders and the girls got them out after giving up three runs.   They all come to the dugout all happy, and the coach from the other team comes up to me after the game and says what the hell did you say to those girls.......I told them they should walk in three girls to make the game not so one sided.  He goes that was the craziest thing he had seen when an entire team melted down and was leading by six runs, but young girls in athletics do not have their swagger yet......they get it by high school if they have been nurtured to have fun with the games.   My daughter still talks about that game, and how three or four girls had freaked out before I arrived and that the entire team had just mentally lost it.  My daughter learned something important that day.....sometimes not giving a chit is the best way to compete.

That obviously didn't happen in Texas.

Lol... that's for damn sure.

I coached girls softball, soccer, basketball and 8 the grade boys basketball. Coaching is about 80% motivation. Once you find what motivates a team it's easy.

Our street is all decked out already, nearly every house but ours. Makes me feel kind of bad about it in a way ... but I'm just not gonna do it this year.   Everybody seems to be lit up to the hilt.  It is kinda nice.  We're in a newer middle-class neighborhood full of young families with kids.   (we're kind of oddballs in this neighborhood being an older retired couple.)

Enjoy the lights in your neighborhood .