High School Basketball, Seaoat.

My granddaughter will be entering high school this year. She is doing summer games with the high school. Because of softball Allstars she missed a couple of weeks aND o ly went to a couple oF practices.. She played with the varsity on Saturday and did great. Tuesday she played with the JV 's at UWF. OMG....she blew me away,  driving and pushing to the basket, shooting to draw the foul, offensive and defensive rebounds, and 3 blocked shots. Also numerous blocked passes.

I was astounded. For the last couple of years her game as been active but more cerebral....always asking me questions on plays and moves and questioning and re-evaluating her game. She was a very  good player but now....she moves with purpose. Her ball and court sense,  along with aggressiveness and  determination.... she has exploded.

I met her coach and asked her what she did to my granddaughter....she laughed and said, nothing, she is her ace in the hole.

I love girls basketball. I love to watch a kid develop skills and then begin to dominate. It sounds like she is having fun. My daughter had 11 varsity letters and in basketball she was the best basketball player in the district when she was a freshman. The problem with a freshman girl playing with senior girls is that they begin to socialize. Let's just say as my daughter is an adult now she told me about some parties that if we had any idea when she was a freshman in high school we would have gone ballistic. You also will see some resistance by other players who resent freshman playing. We heard the grumblings from other parents and we saw the resistance until the first game.........then there was absolute silence as it became apparent that she would lead in blocks, rebounds, scoring and assists. Now instead of resistance from the older players, she began to socialize with them. She comes home as a freshman and ask Mrs. Seaoat and myself if she could date this senior. I told her no car dates until she is a sophomore. She did not talk to me a solid two weeks. It was the hardest two weeks of my life because she would stare with daggers and not say a word, until the guy she was going to date got too aggressive with a younger girl and the whole school lit up what an Ahole this kid was, and suddenly she was talking to me again.....father knows best.

2seaoat wrote:I love girls basketball.  I love to watch a kid develop skills and then begin to dominate.  It sounds like she is having fun.  My daughter had 11 varsity letters and in basketball she was the best basketball player in the district when she was a freshman.  The problem with a freshman girl playing with senior girls is that they begin to socialize.   Let's just say as my daughter is an adult now she told me about some parties that if we had any idea when she was a freshman in high school we would have gone ballistic.   You also will see some resistance by other players who resent freshman playing.  We heard the grumblings from other parents and we saw the resistance until the first game.........then there was absolute silence as it became apparent that she would lead in blocks, rebounds, scoring and assists.   Now instead of resistance from the older players, she began to socialize with them.   She comes home as a freshman and ask Mrs. Seaoat and myself if she could date this senior.  I told her no car dates until she is a sophomore.   She did not talk to me a solid two weeks.  It was the hardest two weeks of my life because she would stare with daggers and not say a word, until the guy she was going to date got too aggressive with a younger girl and the whole school lit up what an Ahole this kid was, and suddenly she was talking to me again.....father knows best.

Saw the jealousy when granddaughter played with the varsity...some girls would not throw her the ball. Her game was good but timid. With the JV's she controlled the game.

When my daughter played she and 4 of my other AAU players all made varisty. My daughter and 2 others were starters. The coach never played all 5 of my girls together except for once. We were playing Washington with a score of 50 something to 10.  He put my girls in for 2.5 -3 minutes in the 4th....they went on a 10-0 run. They ceated turnovers, had mutiple steals and great shots. He took them all out and they sat the rest of the game.  Final score 65-20 He was a total jackass.

My girls while losing to Catholic,  a huge GB rival, checked themselves into the game in the last of the 4th quarter. The coach was dumbfounded,  but quiet,  because he was a former star Catholic player and coach for the Catholic boys JV team ( but never won a JV game) and all eyes were on him. His face was beet red....the girls turned the game around and beat Catholic by 3-4 points.

As far as dating...the girls were just not boy crazy. They all had boyfriends, I explained to my daughter's boyfriend what he could expect....my daughter's priority was not dating and that he needed to be aware it would be group dating, the girls and  their boyfriends.  At college, the girls were all together, after graduation...still together. Served as bridesmaids for each other...and are still best friends. My daughter and her best friend....coached a Gulf Breeze select team....so many of the older referees remembered them as players. Still best friends.

I find Girl's athletics create a very good self image which does not depend on a male giving them attention. They know how to win, and they learn how to lose. I can tell immediately in the business world which females played team sports and which ones did not as there is a confidence which beams with former athletes.

My daughter's team mates from her basketball, track, and volleyball are lifetime friends. She has a get together at her home when her backyard backs up to the local grade school where they hold a community corn boil for a weekend and they bring in a carnival and rides for kids. All her teams of girls from high school are there and just about all the cops in the county show up because they love my daughter and her friends who are mostly married and have kids, but again self confident driven women who are successful largely because they learned from team sports.

With my daughter, without team sports and her energy levels could have been a formula for disaster in high school and college having males define her. She was captain of a division 1 track team, and played two sports at the university level as she was on the volleyball team which had the best volleyball player from the state of Michigan, and the state of Illinois and she had to learn that a big fish in one pond is a smaller fish in another pond. This is an important life lesson, and she learned things which today make her a successful trial attorney who is being slated to become a judge in the next five years.

So when I see my grandchildren playing sports I know the benefit, and encourage them to allow me to share this time with them because I will not get to watch them in high school. Strong self confident women make this nation more productive and stronger.

2seaoat wrote:I find Girl's athletics create a very good self image which does not depend on a male giving them attention.   They know how to win, and they learn how to lose.  I can tell immediately in the business world which females played team sports and which ones did not as there is a confidence which beams with former athletes.

My daughter's team mates from her basketball, track, and volleyball are lifetime friends.  She has a get together at her home when her backyard backs up to the local grade school where they hold a community corn boil for a weekend and they bring in a carnival and rides for kids.   All her teams of girls from high school are there and just about all the cops in the county show up because they love my daughter and her friends who are mostly married and have kids, but again self confident driven women who are successful largely because they learned from team sports.

With my daughter, without team sports and her energy levels could have been a formula for disaster in high school and college having males define her.   She was captain of a division 1 track team, and played two sports at the university level as she was on the volleyball team which had the best volleyball player from the state of Michigan, and the state of Illinois and she had to learn that a big fish in one pond is a smaller fish in another pond.   This is an important life lesson, and she learned things which today make her a successful trial attorney who is being slated to become a judge in the next five years.  

So when I see my grandchildren playing sports I know the benefit, and encourage them to allow me to share this time with them because I will not get to watch them in high school.   Strong self confident women make this nation more productive and stronger.

Could not agree more!

My daughter while playing basketball year round for me and then 4 years varsity high school also played softball and volleyball. While doing those sports she was still in Karate. She started karate at age 5. Now a 4th degree black belt instructor/kick boxer/mixed martial arts instructor/retired.... to be a mommy.
At age 16 she started kickboxing and held a ranking of 3rd in the world
for women. Short lived because you have to keep going to the international tournaments to maintain the rank. ( one or two a month) She has a silver and bronze metal for her kick boxing.

Wow... that's awesome Joanie. I can't wait until the next gen grows up. I really miss watching the sports... any sport lol.

PkrBum wrote: Wow... that's awesome Joanie. I can't wait until the next gen grows up. I really miss watching the sports... any sport lol.

Thanks PkrBum. I strive for her to be competitive and coached to succeed. After her first year in softball, being coached by an idiot, when I bitched aboutthe coach she said, "if you can do better why don't you coach." So I did....softball, soccer, boys basketball, girls basketball; rec, Junior Pro, and AAU.

I wanted her on the golf team...but no time. My son was on the golf team and my oldest daughter, but she quit because the uniforms and bags did not match. She was a stickler...her college degree was in Fashion Merchandising. Oh well the kids all play golf together now.

Joanimaroni wrote:

PkrBum wrote: Wow... that's awesome Joanie. I can't wait until the next gen grows up. I really miss watching the sports... any sport lol.

Thanks PkrBum. I strive for her to be competitive and coached to succeed. After her first year in softball, being coached by an idiot, when I bitched aboutthe coach she said, "if you can do better why don't you coach."  So I did....softball, soccer, boys basketball, girls basketball; rec, Junior Pro, and AAU.

I wanted her on the golf team...but no time. My son was on the golf team and my oldest daughter, but she quit because the uniforms and bags did not match.  She was a stickler...her college degree was in Fashion Merchandising. Oh well the kids all play golf together now.

That's great. I played golf with my oldest and nephew last week. I'm really not able to hit the driver or long irons as it hurts my neck and arms. But i enjoyed being out there and hitting my 7 to the green and putting. I learned to play as a kid... and always thght I'd take it up later... but it just took too long. I would play once or twice s year and always shot around 90. Fun game... but just not a good fit for me.

PkrBum wrote:

Joanimaroni wrote:

PkrBum wrote: Wow... that's awesome Joanie. I can't wait until the next gen grows up. I really miss watching the sports... any sport lol.

Thanks PkrBum. I strive for her to be competitive and coached to succeed. After her first year in softball, being coached by an idiot, when I bitched aboutthe coach she said, "if you can do better why don't you coach."  So I did....softball, soccer, boys basketball, girls basketball; rec, Junior Pro, and AAU.

I wanted her on the golf team...but no time. My son was on the golf team and my oldest daughter, but she quit because the uniforms and bags did not match.  She was a stickler...her college degree was in Fashion Merchandising. Oh well the kids all play golf together now.

That's great. I played golf with my oldest and nephew last week. I'm really not able to hit the driver or long irons as it hurts my neck and arms. But i enjoyed being out there and hitting my 7 to the green and putting. I learned to play as a kid... and always thght I'd take it up later... but it just took too long. I would play once or twice s year and always shot around 90. Fun game... but just not a good fit for me.

Not now...with your back and neck. I don't play anymore...I was never good but I enjoyed the outings.

I used to play in 125 rounds of golf, two softball teams, and one basketball team, and I am so happy I did these thing while I was still healthy. You think youth and athletics will last forever, and it is hard to stop something. I so want to play golf again, but I am afraid my health would suffer, and I have no more margin. With the Grandkids and kids, we taught them to simply have fun. I was not a real big push kids to win before high school. I believe the joy of play is important for kids and I did not want to become a father like Ball. I think that kids can pick up tennis, golf, softball, and adult basketball and play some of those sports into their seventies, but sadly you need to celebrate the moment, and not worry about playing too much......I know how to work hard......and to this day, I love to play.

2seaoat wrote:I used to play in 125 rounds of golf, two softball teams, and one basketball team, and I am so happy I did these thing while I was still healthy.   You think youth and athletics will last forever, and it is hard to stop something.  I so want to play golf again, but I am afraid my health would suffer, and I have no more margin.   With the Grandkids and kids, we taught them to simply have fun.   I was not a real big push kids to win before high school.  I believe the joy of play is important for kids and I did not want to become a father like Ball.  I think that kids can pick up tennis, golf, softball, and adult basketball and play some of those sports into their seventies, but sadly you need to celebrate the moment, and not worry about playing too much......I know how to work hard......and to this day, I love to play.

Work and play is a good balance... a reward for hard work.

Three Basketball games for my granddaughter in Mobile tomorrow. I can make 2 for sure.

I am so envious.

Joanimaroni wrote:Three Basketball games for my granddaughter in Mobile tomorrow. I can make 2 for sure.

Is this going to be tougher competition? Can't wait to hear how they do.

They did great....so proud of my granddaughter's summer work out.

So glad. Tell them that they've got fans from across the country... lol.