DF Game; Catching up to Today

Another long break between updates, though that has been a function of schedule as much as anything.

We had a very disappointing loss to DF on Dec 7th, 31-18. They jumped out to an early lead and were up after the first quarter by 5. We then closed to with-in 3 at half and 1 at the start of the 4th quarter. Unfortunately we fell apart in the 4th quarter as they scored 14 points, nearly as much as they scored the rest of the game. The real problem came after they made the first of thee 3s, which put them up by 5. The team just fell apart and while I called a TO fairly quickly, the run continued after the time out. Some of this was lucky shooting as our opponents shot 5 of 6 from 3 point distance. Some of this was the fact that our team struggled mightily against the zone and didn’t create turnovers, as the 18 points was by far the fewest points we had scored.
The bad news was compounded by the fact that the tournament we were supposed to play in the following weekend was cancelled. This meant, with winter break thrown-in, we will have gone 5 weeks when we play another game tomorrow.
The good news is that I was able to schedule a scrimmage yesterday against the 4th grade boys, which have a really fantastic team. The bad news is that if we’d have been keeping score, I think we’d have lost. They basically have forgotten several aspects of the offense. The good news is that the one weakness that I had noticed at DF, and had subsequently focused on, cutting to the basket and passing to those cutters, is hugely improved and was happening several times during the scrimmage. The bad news is that more fundamental aspects, such as rotation and spacing, was weak/forgotten. Hopefully there will be time before the game tomorrow to run through our basic offense.

And honestly if our basic offense were all that was struggling I’d be OK. But our defense has been weak, and continues to be weak. They seem to get the idea of needing to help on defense, but they seem to think they can do this by walking there, so the help gets there too late so a shot can be had.

Even this, while unacceptable, could be countered somewhat if the team could press well. However, the team seems unable to trap. At Monday’s practice we even ran a 3 on 5 drill, and the 5 defensive players were nearly hopeless in stopping the 3 offensive players. It basically means that if we get behind in a game we’re going to have to rely on our porous defense to make stops, rather than in creating turnovers. I have installed a trapping zone, which works fairly well, but I refuse to use that just to create wins. Not to mention it would lose its effectiveness if we played it for too long. It will be a 4th quarter change of pace defense. So basically let’s hope we don’t down by more than say 6 points cause between the lack of defense, lack of press, and lack of mental toughness, we’re in trouble.
Which brings us to tomorrow. It’s frustrating since I still don’t have a good grasp of how hard our opponents will be yet since, our opponent, WK, has played to and beaten DF, who just stomped us, and lost to KW, who we beat, though not decisively. So perhaps they’re of about equal talent to us. I do know that if we played the way we played yesterday we won’t stand a chance. Hopefully we’ll be able to kick it into a different gear. We’ve kind of stalled in our progress since about the 3rd game. I’m hoping that as we review and refine we’ll be able to take our play into a new gear for the last two months of the season.

Game vs WM

Well the long and the short of it is that we lost. And contrary to what I felt like at the time, we lost because we couldn’t make close shots, something revealed when I watched the tape. In particular Alex couldn’t make a close shot to save his life, going 1-16 on the night, none taken more than 10 feet away from the basket. Others faced similar difficulties in making a shot.

The good news is that we did a serviceable job with our offense. We were getting good looks. There were some basic concepts, like cutting after a pass, which we failed on, but otherwise were doing well. I wasn’t terribly impressed with how we moved the ball around, but the officials were.

Our defensive rebounding was abysmal, we actually had more offensive than defensive rebounds (they out rebounded us on both ends of the court). In general our defense wasn’t so great. I thought it better at the game than on tape, but our lack of practice showed. That’s going to be a major focus for us tomorrow.

Overall, I can’t say I’m unhappy with how they played. I don’t feel like they played all out for 28 minutes, especially at the end, but overall it was a good performance. If Alex makes half his shots instead of losing 26-19, we win 33-26. Hell if Alex makes a 1/3 of the shots, it’s still a 27-26 victory.

Oh well. Some time tomorrow to try and improve for our game on Sunday.

GL Update

It’s been a while since I’ve written an update on GL except for my short update. Basically Brian had gotten out of control at practice this had a negative effect overall on the team and their concentration. I had not been terribly happy with the team’s performance since winter break except for the MP2 game. We beat LV the following day 34-32, in a game we almost blew. That Tuesday we played our arch-rival JCC, and they basically were in control the whole game earning a 5 point victory. Last weekend we played HP. We took an easy 25-18 victory, brought only that close thanks to a late 3.

The common theme to all of these games is the lack of a killer instinct that defined us so well last season. It seems as though we were merely going through the motions, coasting more on talent than anything else. And frankly I’ve got to think that’s my coaching in some way. In some way I’ve either failed to find the right motivational buttons to push, or even worse, my coaching has made them worse. However, considering that HP has only got more aggressive as the season has gone on, I don’t think it’s that my coaching has made them worse.

So here I’ve been generally unhappy with the team. And it hasn’t meant much because we’ve been winning. Actually in some ways it’s worse because I’ve been unhappy with the team, and the team has been winning, meaning there’s a disconnect between how the team sees itself and how I’m seeing it. I resolved after HP game that something I needed to do was have more fun coaching the team. I was not having fun, and part of that was because of the attitude problems. But if I started having fun that would, I hoped, break the cycle and help mitigate the attitude issues I was having. Also of help with the attitude? Brian did not play against HP after I sent Dad a long email outlining his unacceptable behavior at just one practice. I was quite hopeful going into last Wednesday’s practice that we’d have a good practice before the HP tourney (we had no gym space on Monday). But Wednesday’s practice was canceled due to a snow storm, so we went the week before the HP tourney with-out a practice.

And so this weekend we had the HP tourney. And all of the things I’ve feared finally came to pass. We lost our first tourney game to an inferior team composed mainly of players from MP and MP2. We got down by 10. We attempted a comeback, with 2 three’s by Andrew being a big help, but came up 2 points short. We then got annihilated by LS. You would never know that we’d beaten them twice. Of course the next day they went on to beat AH, so clearly they’re a team which has improved considerably. The LS game was an example of a game where we were just outclassed. Those games don’t bother me. However, because of the tournament structure after we lost to LS we basically were eliminated from advancing. And so it goes back to the first game where we lost to a team that we beat. The good news, or at least I think it’s good news, is that we beat the final team in our pool. This team had beaten both of the other two teams and had the #1 seed out of our pool so it’s not like they were a bad team. I’m glad that we didn’t finish 0-3, but at the same time I can’t help but wonder if that won’t interfere with the wake-up call.

This weekend should be interesting. We play three teams all in the bottom half of the standings. Will we once again go out and play just good enough to win or will we play up to the talent level that we have?

I don’t know. I do know that coaching has, as of late, brought me very little joy. I have to write-up a few HP games, but basically the story is the same one that it’s been all season: they play their hearts out, even if they’re not always playing well, but that frequently just isn’t good enough and they lose. And worse than that is the fact that the games Brian has been at, HP has played particularly poorly. I keep feeling like we’re on the edge of getting over the hump, but we just can’t do it ever and that is incredibly frustrating.

So I have a talented team which is underperforming and another team which isn't underperforming but neither are they making progress. It's just a maddening combo. If it weren't for the fun I'm having with HP at practices and even during games, despite the losses, I shudder to think how I'd be feeling at the moment.

So it's not all bad, but there's a lot of bad accompanied by the feeling that as coach that the problems are in areas where I could be making a difference. Motivation is I feel one of the few areas that a coach can make an impact. And while a good coach can only make a slight difference in the winning or losing of a team, that's all HP would need: a slight positive difference. And so in the end the poor play of both teams falls on my shoulders and I just hate doing a poor job at something at which I try so hard and care so much about.

AH Tourney Writeup

GL had a couple games last weekend that I have not gotten around to writing up. I hope to find time this week to do that.

This weekend HP participated in a tournament sponsored by AH. The fourth grade bracket was the largest of the tournament with 12 teams participating. It was structured such that we would play 3 games in pool, with the winner of each pool plus a wild card advancing.

Our pool consisted of a team who I wasn’t familiar with, SC, JCC”s 4th grade team, and PL, which I thought was the one we played, but in the end I think was the PL in the B league (there was no A and B bracket for 4th grade). The games would consist of 2 twenty minute halves. The clock would only stop on timeouts, and in the last minute of the first half, and the last two minutes of the second half.

Our first game was against SC. If you could call it a game. They pressed right from the start, despite tournament rules having suggested this wasn’t the case with 4th grade. Basically the game was over in the first five minutes. I had decided to go with hockey subs, aka subbing out all of the players every 2-3 minutes. The game was never close, but we played extremely hard the whole time. We made particularly good use of the bounce pass to beat their zone on several occasions. We were outclassed by this team. In fact I would be bold enough to say GL would have trouble against this team. After the game the coach spoke very complementarily about our team. I felt the same. The game was a blow-out, but we never stopped trying. It was good to see, despite the 46-22 final score.

Our next game was against JCC’s 4th grade team. And we played just horrendously. I started us off with a press, which was meaningless and led to some uncontested layups. We were finding decent, but not great, shots on offense that we then missed. We were down by 6 at half. I had decided not to do hockey subs in the second half in hopes that we could get back into it. We came out in the second half and played even worse. With 8 minutes left we were down by 12, after having been down by as much as 15. Remember that in a normal league game if we score 12 points in a 7 minute quarter, with the clock stopping the whole time, we’d have done fairly well. Starting at about 10 minutes I had become a broken record of “Get the ball”. Finally at the 8 minute mark, after my having said it probably 20 times by that point, we started going for the ball. And we just started on a completely improbable comeback. Basically we just out play JCC, with them missing the few shots that they do get off. With just under 35 seconds left we get to with-in two. However, we get two good shots at the end, one of which was basically a wide open Jack A shot inches from the basket, that we can’t get to fall. We lose.

After the game I have to decide on what version to give the post game speech. I decide to end it on a negative note, the opposite of what I normally do. I complement team on the amazing effort they showed during the last 8 minutes of the game, and everyone had gotten playing time in that stretch even if I did rely more on a core of Josh, Zach, Jack A, and Danny to get it done for us. But I then really point out that the only reason we needed to make an improbable comeback was because of our weak play in the first 32 minutes. That we should never have put ourselves in that position to begin with. I tell them to all get a good night’s sleep so that we can come out playing better during Sunday’s games.

This morning we play PL’s B team. And just as it was a mismatch between us and SC, it was a mismatch between us and PL. We were up by 10 after 5 minutes, and that was as close as they ever got, despite the fact that I had us start to play defense inside the three point arc and in the second half told them to only take shots in the key (which they only semi-listened to). We win 40-19 and I’m proud of the type of game I saw.

That leaves us with our “cross-over” game to finish out the tourney. We end up playing SC’s B team. The game is a nail biter the whole way, with no team ever having a lead of more than 4 points. SC is taken aback by our frantic pace at first, but their coach ends up employing his own “hockey subs” to compensate in the second half, to great effect. Unfortunately, SC is a fast team and so they minimize the number of layups we’re able to convert off of our steals. Further, they do a good job of getting the ball up the court at the end of the game for some easy points. But the real story of the game was the foul trouble we got ourselves into. They were in double bonus for a substantial part of the second half. Jon got 4 fouls in the first half, meaning he basically sat most of the second half. Danny and Jack A managed to foul out. It wasn’t good. In the end we just couldn’t pull through and lose by 5, thanks to some late free throws they made.

SC was, most likely, a better talented team than we were. The fact that we were able to make it a competitive game, despite only having 9 players, and less effectively during the second half due to foul trouble, speaks well. Overall I’m happy with how we played. However, we need to win more of these close games. The team wonders about itself. I am hopeful that the HP tourney, which is only going to have 5 or 6 teams, could be a chance for us to get a surprise 1st or 2nd.

Taking a look at our players individually for the weekend:

Adam: He’s really growing. He continues to be clueless what to do when we’re not on the fast break. However, his defense has improved dramatically EXCEPT that he can’t guard a cutter to save his life. He must have given up 10 points on give and gos in the SC game. Just utterly clueless. That said he does a good job of pressuring and stealing the ball while committing almost no fouls.

Ben & Jon: They struggle more with our more upbeat play and are good at intercepting passes and helping on defense, but struggle with guarding a player with the ball. On offense they aren’t quite as fast as others and do better with the chance to cut and move, which is something we need to do more of. They have an nontraditional shot which is quite ugly, if effective for the moment, and one that I’m working with them on changing.

Danny: He’s done a much much better job of not being reckless with the ball. This is good because he’s able to dribble with the ball at about 95% of his sprinting speed, and his sprinting speed is fairly fast. He’s particularly adept at intercepting in bounds passes, but struggles, as in this game, at getting in front of the ball and stealing without fouling. He was not much of a factor at all on offense this weekend. His dad and I talked today at breakfast (which we went to in-between games) about the need for him to look to pass rather than just drive.

Gavin: Once again was out of town due to hockey. Basically I’ve just decided that he’s not around enough to treat as an equal member of the team. While we will continue to do hockey subs, he will sit out more frequently than others. I will be letting him know this next Saturday when he is at practice. It’s a shame because he’s definitely one of the best players on the team. But he’s not made the commitment others have, his play has suffered for it, and it’s simply not fair to the kids who have made the commitment.

Henry: Henry is a bit of a ball hog. He takes ever shot he thinks he can get away with, with many that he’d have been better off not taking. The frustrating thing is that he can’t make his layups on the fast break. He was open NUMEROUS times during the JCC, PL, and SC B games for layups and he made only a couple of the shots. It’s a frustrating thing all around. I also had to give it to him on the bench during the JCC game for being negative. He got the message and improved there the rest of the weekend.

Jacob: He’s finding shots in his range, and making them. More than any other player on the team, he’s taken my preaching of using your legs along with a high arc to heart, and so I feel fairly good about the improvement I’ve helped to contribute to in his game. Of course, he’s still a defensive liability, unable to really shut down kids who are even slightly bigger than he is, though he’s doing a better job of rebounding against those bigger kids.

Jack A: He’s raw, but he plays ferociously. Right now his defense is better than his offense, but his offense is making progress. His blown shot at the end of the JCC game was just heart breaking, absolutely heart breaking. He missed Saturday’s practice because he mistakenly thought we had a game. It’s a shame since we worked on driving and kicking it out, a skill that he could sorely use help on improving. He’s got a weird gait, such that it constantly seems like he’s injured when he’s jogging up the court, and he tends to display the all too typical 9 y/o behavior of over exaggerating his injuries. That said he’s a big reason why our all out going for the ball works, since he’s single minded in that effort. Sometimes this is a problem on defense, but happily teams didn’t exploit that this weekend.

Jack B: He’s benefited from our upbeat pace, which has opened up the court and allowed him to do the little things, particularly on defense, that he does so well. He’s got the best court vision on the team, but doesn’t quite have the ball handling skills to execute on that court vision, which is why he has found himself usurped by others at point. Still it was good to see him pull down numerous rebounds this weekend, and generally be a defensive menace. I hadn’t liked his play lately and this was a real positive turn.

Josh: His dad thinks he’s lazy. I can’t really disagree. Part of this means his conditioning isn’t what it should be. He is probably the best outside shooter we have on the team, but since I so actively discourage outside shots, that’s not the greatest skill to have on our team. That said he does much better in our aggressive “get the ball” defense than when we play a more regular man to man. He doesn’t commit the effort required there. Hopefully at some point he’ll mature in this respect.

Zach: He was feeling ill on Saturday and missed our games today. He would have been the difference in the SC B game. He remains our most complete player, and does an excellent job of shutting down kids much bigger than he on defense. His play was a big reason we got back into the game against the JCC. It was a real shame not to have him today.

HP’s schedule remains brutal. Next weekend we face undefeated NF, and then have the HP tourney. We could beat NF, I feel, with a good game, and a respectable showing in the HP tourney is possible given the small size. Hopefully we can make all that happen.

HP vs WG

After the very satisfying win against MP2, I was excited for HP’s game against WG. I know that they, based on their record, weren’t a great team. We would only have 7 players for the game, with Jack A at a soccer tournament, and family obligations for the twins and Gavin.

The good news was that WG wasn’t a big team, except for one player who was just an absolute monster. I knew he’d be a problem for us. The first quarter was a back and forth affair, ending up with us down 7-5.

Then in the second we took off scoring numerous baskets in transition and having the good fortune of having Adam, who has surprisingly emerged as our best free throw shooter, getting fouled on a couple of shots allowing him to go 3/4 from the line. Even better our defense was ferocious. We got their dominant player into foul trouble and the team just didn’t play well with out him. We took a 13-7 lead going into half. That’s correct: we didn’t allow a point the entire second quarter.

Unfortunately that’s all we had. Josh had sat out most of the first half after rolling his ankle in the first quarter, so he was fresh for the second half. Unfortunately their center, #50, took over the game. By the 4th quarter we were just sluggish. Our defense wasn’t as strong as we needed it to be. We were down by 5 with less than 30 seconds to go. We managed to get a lay-up. We then came VERY close to get a 5 second violation which would have set us up for a 3 point attempt, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. We then almost did get another 3 point chance at the end of the game, but Josh couldn’t make it happen and so we lost a disappointing game.

After feeling so good about the coaching I’d done with GL it was a particularly depressing game against WG. We committed a ridiculous amount of turnovers. Worse, I wasn’t on my coaching A game and Brian was there watching and commenting. In other words I didn’t look good in front of my boss. It was particularly frustrating. I went home upset at their lack of conditioning and upset with myself for not being a better tactical coach.

HP vs AH1

Sorry for the lateness of this update. I’ve been very busy lately and just haven’t had time to write this up. However, with an unexpected stomach bug keeping home from work today I’ve finally got the time.

After the behemoths of last night I was a little worried about what we’d face today. Fortunately looking at the team they weren’t nearly as intimidating as their 5th grade counterparts. HP was holding a 6th grade tournament and so we were playing after one of those games.

I decided to start the five players who were at both practices (only seemed fair) so it was Adam, Jacob, Ben, Jon, and Jack B getting the nod at the start of the game. I was not excited about this group of 5, but they did really well. Of particular note was Adam whose defense was noteworthy. In fact it was the first time he played like I’d seen him play in house league. Perhaps he’s adjusting to the size and speed of the game, at last.

The game is close in the first half actually ending tied at half time. The bad news is that we got into extreme foul trouble. The refs called a weird game with all too many jump balls, but that doesn’t excuse our fouls. I give one of my better half time speeches. I go over to the book to look at how things are and I discover that their #3 is basically their whole offense. I tell my team to focus on him, with his having scored 8 of their 14 points. The third quarter does not go our way and we’re down 25-22 heading into the 4th. The 4th quarter is just insane. Our offense clicks with tons of different kids scoring. We keep getting to with-in 1 but never manage to close the gap all together. In the end it’s our fouls that od us in with their team going 7-8 in the 4th. In particular we fould #3 all too often and he made us pay for it.

It was a disappointing loss because it was a close game and we just couldn’t pull it out. The refs didn’t help with several seemingly obvious fouls against AH not being called in the second half. Oh well.

Quick run down of our players:

Jacob – Continues to get good wide open shots and continues to fail to make them. Was a little better in the post than normal

Job – Made 4 foul shots for us and a 4th quarter basket. One of his better games

Zach – After a poor first half I had him concentrate on running the baseline and this proved more successful for him. In fact on the first play after I told him to do this he got a wide open shot (which he missed) and Jack B was like “Good coaching, Coach”. I told him after the game to expect me to use him more in this way in the future.

Jack A – Fouled out and really didn’t play that well. Got very upset about fouling out.

Josh – Played well in the 4th but had looked lack luster until then.

Ben – Probably our MVP having scored 6 points in the second to keep us in the game.

Henry – A non factor on offense and defense

Gavin – Sat a lot, but played fairly well in the 4th, despite letting his temper get the best of him. In fact he cost us a realistic shot at a 3 by slamming the ball down after they made a shot with 8 seconds left. I was NOT pleased.

Danny – Didn’t turn the ball over a ridiculous amount so that’s improvement right there, and added 4 points to boot.

Adam – Played some terrific defense in the 1st and grabbed some crucial 4th quarter rebounds, quite impressive considering his size.

Jack B – Not one of his best games, not really having done anything on offense or defense for us.

We have two games this weekend, tomorrow against WG, and Sunday against MP. I hope to get the mid season review up before the game tomorrow, but we’ll see.

GL Post-Winter Break Report

Well it’s been too long since I’ve last updated. I talked in my last post about the need for a break. I made the very consciencous decision to basically ignore basketball for my 3 weeks off. It was wonderful and exactly what I needed.

Today I’m going to focus on GL. I hope to get an HP update (which will have less to cover) later this week. We reached about the midway point in terms of league games with both teams so I will also be doing a mid-season overview soon.

On to GL’s update. We’ve had 3 games since Winter Break ended and have met with varying levels of success.

GL vs EV
EV is a major city. When I played middle school basketball they were always a team that would just run over us. Anytime my middle school beat any of the EV middle schools every student in the building would know about it since it was a major upset. They are big. They play basketball well.

However, for whatever reason, their 5th grade team is unremarkable. But a problem arises. We are scheduled to play them on the Sunday before winter break ends for GL. And I will be missing the triplets and Justin. In other words four out of my five best players, with only Jack P being there. I attempted to reschedule, with out success, as they claimed they had no open gym time. It was, to say the least, more than a little frustrating.

Still I like the team I have. Jack M and Lucas both played much larger roles for us last season than they have had the chance to play this year. I go into the game cautiously optimistic. My confidence diminishes somewhat when Andrew doesn’t show. That leaves us with 6.

The first quarter we look good. We also have a bizarre sequence where early on the EV coach, for no good reason, rubs the ref the wrong way and gets a technical. It was a completely unjustified call. At the end of the first quarter we’re down 8-6 but that’s because they destroyed us for a bit with their zone trap. We seem to have gotten the hang of how to beat it and I become hopeful that we can contend this game.

Unfortunately the second quarter blows a big hole in that plan. Their trap becomes even more effective and we can’t get a shot to fall. I don’t have the stats in front of me but Jack P reverted back to his old low shooting percentage ways. As we needed more from him I can’t be too surprised about this, especially as most of his shots came from the side, a place that is far more difficult to make it from.

During the 2nd quarter, Andrew’s mother arrived and told me that he was at tennis. Father had been told to pull him from tennis to get to basketball, but had not done so. He was now very upset both about losing at tennis and about being late to the game. She said it sounded like he wasn’t going to show and if that was alright. I pointed out that we had 6 kids and could really use him. He showed up during the 3rd quarter.

And in the 3rd quarter we were playing a 2-3 zone. With the exception of some quick time at a practice on how to beat a zone, I’ve never really taught zone defense. Half time was a crash course in such play. I did it simply because we were now down by 14 and all six of our players were spent. If we were to mount a come back I figured it would have to be in the 4th. I basically hoped it would give our players a chance to rest a little while keeping us, somewhat, in the game. And it did exactly that. We actually ended the 3rd down by 2. A reminder about how dominant zone can be at this age, when a group that is basically unfamiliar with it can learn it well enough to hold a team’s scoring down.

In the 4th I unleashed the dogs. Unfortunately we couldn’t make a shot. We were ALL over them with our press. Lucas played like an absolute demon, stealing the ball any time he got close to it. We played hard and scrappy to the end, losing 40-28, but I couldn’t be upset with how they played. They played their absolute hearts out. Bad shooting, and fatigue did us in. I’m quite confident that with our top 4 there that the game wouldn’t have been close. In fact if we even had 8, I think we’d have won since fatigue wouldn’t have been nearly the issue that it was with 6.

GL vs GV
Due to some other commitments of mine we were forced to only have our 1 hour Monday practice the week back from break. Fortunately we play one of the bottom dwellers, GV, for our first game on Saturday. GV comes out in a bad 1-3-1 which we struggle to beat. Most of our points came off transitions. We were patient with the ball but it was basically just a “pass the ball around the perimeter” fest. Fortunately we just far out striped them in raw ability. Our rust showed pretty clearly as we weren’t intense and we weren’t scrappy. We phoned in a 27-16 victory. I am proud of the fact that we only allowed 16 points. I knew from talking to LS’s coach that GV was a poor shooting team. I told our team that we’d let them take the outside shots and focus on getting rebounds and they did this well. It ought to have been a rout, but our offense just never got started. We won because of superior talent, not because of how we played and I told the team as much. I knew that this sort of lackluster play wouldn’t cut it against AH, who we played that night.

GL vs AH
It’s been interesting that this year in several of our games we’ve come out very strong in the first few minutes before fading a little. This is the exact opposite of what we did last year when we’d start off slow, often very slow, before finding our footing. So for the first few minutes against AH it looked like we might have a shot. But then AH’s superior talent came through as they went on an 11-0 run to end the quarter. We once again played hard for four quarters but were outclassed and lost 40-28. That’s alright as there’s not a lot you can do about that. What I’m more upset about is the fact that we continued to take outside shots against AH’s man to man. We have become afraid to drive and pass inside. Normally the other team is bigger than us, but I refuse to concede the paint, a place we can get to with cuts, screens, and some aggression.

Practice
So it was with that philosophy that I planned yesterday’s practice. As I was sitting at home, I got charged up about basketball for the first time since break. I was upset with how the team played in both games and I became determined to do something about it. This determination showed, I feel, as we had a really good practice.

We had a quick discussion of what we did well in both games, and we could have done better against GV. No one brought up what I consider the most amazing thing we did during the weekend: David, Lucas, and Brian all drew charges against GV. I hadn’t really ever talked about doing this, as I think 5th grade is a little young, but it fit in the general idea of playing tough that is my goal for the week. In recognition of this feat all three players started off even on their permissions/suicides (the motivational/discipline tool I use).

I decided, for the first time I think in my two seasons of coaching, to skip continuous motion at the start of practice. Instead we went right into Animal Rebounding, the drill I use more than any others to promote aggression, and inside play. Next we did a new drill. In this drill players were on two teams and each had a number. One team was on one side of the half court circle, the other on the opposite side. I would then roll a basketball towards one side and call a number and then roll the basketball to the other side and call a different number. The players whose numbers I called played 1 on 1 for 15 seconds. If they scored their team got a point. No score equaled no point for their team. They really enjoyed this drill. Brian and Scott both moaned that their opponents were fouling. In Brian’s case he was slightly justified as Andrew plays rough, but mostly legal; part of it just is that Brian doesn’t like contact. On the other hand, Lucas, bringing his hockey skills to bear, knows how to be dirty without getting caught. I warned him his team would lose substantial points if I saw him playing dirty. Scott issued no more complaints after that. It was noticed how Tom didn’t score frequently but neither did he let his opponent score much either.

We then did another drill, which I don’t recall what it was. Finally we ended with some 3 on 2, 2 on 3. We hadn’t done this for a while, but it proved to be quite successful. They played hard on defense, and did the sort of things on offense that are required for success. I was quite pleased.

We end our practice with those needing to run, running, and went home. Wednesday will, with the exception of some work on our half court trap, be more physical drills, but fun ones. Hopefully they’ll be tough and excited for the games this weekend. More on these games, and a midseason review of the players, to come tonight.

GL vs WK

Yesterday was GL’s big match up against the defending league champions, WK. We played a valiant game, but in the end came up short. The problem with the game has less to do with any players playing and more to do with my coaching.

I had written down my planned subs for the first 3 quarters in advance. With my having placed a lot of self pressure to be more competitive than we were when we scrimmaged them last year (and got killed), I wanted to make sure that I got every player the quality playing time they deserved. I then would ad-lib the 4th quarter depending on where we were at.

The first half goes remarkably well. We are up by2 at half, 19-17, in large part thanks to good free throw shooting. This has been a real emphasis with the team this year, since most of them are strong enough to shoot a set free throw without having to jump, so it’s nice to see that practice and instruction paying off.

Bad coaching part 1 comes at the start of the 3rd. The way I did subs was sub at 7:00, 4:00, and 1:00 minutes each quarter. With the exception of a couple of odd 1 minute shifts players were basically playing 3 or 4 minutes at a stretch. Well to start off the 3rd quarter I put in a group of Jack M, Andrew, and Cameron at the same time and WK just ate them alive. I knew I was potentially asking for trouble with that grouping, and sure enough there just wasn’t enough talent on the court. I thought about calling a time out, but frankly didn’t know what I could say to stop the momentum. When their shift was up we were down by 9.

However, going into the 4th we had managed to narrow the lead to 2. Bad coaching part 2 now comes into effect. I send out my best 5, which that day was David, Justin, Scott, Lucas, and Brian to start the quarter. Except, and knowing that they’re going to press, I don’t really define what role each player would play. After two quick baskets, I call a time-out and explain their roles.

Basically the 4th quarter is a see saw. However, with Jack P not at the game, I don’t make any subs for too long (bad coaching part 3). I do get Dante in there for Lucas, who just had nothing left (he’d already played a house league game). Problem is that based on how long he’d played I knew I’d have to sub for Justin at some point. Did I? Nope. And so basically I have four kids who sit on the bench for most of the 4th quarter. Tom and Cameron don’t care and start some spirited chants while we’re on defense. Andrew and Jack M? They are both clearly unhappy after the game and my guess it’s about not having played in the 4th, and since they’ve both been on the bench a lot during 4th quarters I guess I don’t blame them too much.

We ended up losing by 6, but it was really closer than that as with about a minute left we were down by only 2. WK scored a basket, using their considerable height advantage to full effect, something they’d done all day.
So I coached to win, something I don’t regret too much. However, I did a poor job of doing even that while also not spreading around the playing time, and when giving playing time not giving the players a chance to be successful.

Next week we have a HP practice Saturday morning followed by a game that afternoon. Sunday GL has a noon and 2:30 double header, so fatigue will likely be an issue once again. Hopefully I will do a better job of coaching though.

HP vs WM

Yesterday saw a rematch against WM. Saturday at practice we worked on our man defense, both positioning, and avoiding fouling (we did the whole drill with them holding shirts behind their backs so they had to move their feet and couldn’t reach in) via the shell drill and a 1 on 1 dribbling drill. We also worked on our press break. We did that and our passing continuous motion (which we won’t repeat in the larger of the gyms we practice in since it’s just too far for them to make the passes). It was an OK practice.

Anyhow the game does not start off well for us as we quickly find ourselves down 3-0 after a foul, made shot, and made free throw. We don’t score a basket at all in the first 4 minutes and trail at the end of the first quarter 11-2. The thing is we were actually playing really good defense. We were moving our feet. We were forcing them to take shots with hands in their faces. We were helping out. It was good stuff. Unfortunately WM shot about 75% in the first half (and I’m not exaggerating by much). We also got hurt by our lack of rebounding. That lack of rebounding isn’t too surprising as I hadn’t really focused on it in a while. One of those things we just haven’t had time to do.

We play a little better in the second quarter and are down 15-8 at half. We do even better in the 3rd and we enter the 4th quarter down 23-19. We’re in this game. And this is where my vow of giving all players real playing time costs us the game. For about the first 3 minutes of the quarter I have Jon, Henry, Danny, Gavin (who I was planning to play the whole quarter), and Jacob. My hope was they’d keep the game close and I could then put in a better group late on. Except that this grouping got destroyed by their star guard. By the time those 3 minutes were up we were down by 13. Good news is that I then had a group of Gavin, Danny, Zach, Jack A, and Josh finish the game. We only lost by 7. While I’m not sure I whether Danny belongs in that group or not, the other 4 are super solid and just wreaked havoc on the other team, to the point where WM was forced to sub back in their starters.

Overall it was a good game. We did the best job yet of playing man to man, really moving around like we need to. On the minus side we shot very few layups as they just shut us down inside both offensively and on the boards. And it didn’t help that WM made just about every shot they took in the first quarter. Oh well. Taking a look at our players:

Jacob – He got lots of playing time in this one. He didn’t lose the ball nearly as much, but then again he didn’t have the ball in his hands nearly as much. He’s still just a tad below the talent of the others, and his lack of speed really hurt us on defense as they had their post players out on the perimeter a lot.

Henry – Henry did not have a good game. He, at point, was too insistent on driving in rather than setting up others. This after the fact that he played 13 seconds in the first quarter because he lofted a 3 as point.

Jon & Ben – I honestly had a real hard time telling them apart this game. I tried them both at PG. Not the answer, as the decision making isn’t there and neither is the talent. I need them to be tough enforcers defensively and they didn’t give me that this game. Oh and Ben’s shooting was just atrocious both before and during the game.

Zach – He told me didn’t want to play point, and since WM was coming out in a zone, I didn’t have him as point much. Still one of our top candidates for that position. I wonder how good my coaching has been for him though. His ability to take over a game, shown so clearly in house league and our first game, has been nonexistent lately. I wonder if I’ve coached that out of him or if he’s just facing superior competition.

Jack A – When I need a dose of aggressiveness I can unleash Jack A. That is the kid will go for the ball, relentlessly. I’m working with him on how to still guard his own player.

Jack B – The smartest player on the court. He’s always in the right space at the right time. He also blocked out. He’s trying out for a small fry team, where there is a height cap and the basket is only 8 feet. He could be a superstar.

Josh – He continues to be a gamer, stealing the both several times during the 4th to really help us get back into it.

Gavin – By the end of the 4th quarter he was rebounding. He’s new to the whole post game, and is making improvements, but it’s not where his heart is at, so the instruction I’m giving him is only being absorbed slowly.

Danny – Played probably his best game of the season, though he continues to play just barely out of control. But it’s getting better.

Adam – Scored no points, took no shots, had no rebounds, no turnovers, and I could go on. A big 0. He’s the weakest player on the team. Kevin was around at the start of the practice and asked “Has Adam been struggling?” I said yes and he said that Adam was the 11th player put on the team.

Overall I can’t be too upset at the game. They’re getting better in a lot ways. But WM was a better team last time we played them, and we got lucky. They were a better team this game as well and we got unlucky. We have flashes of real excellence, but have a lot of holes. As I feel like I say every time I post about HP, I’m going to be a lot happier when we start practicing twice a week.

HP is 3-2 on the season.

HP vs NF

After a brief respite at home, just long enough to enter the stats for the GL/LS game, it was time to head off to NF. I get to the game a good 45 minutes before the game and find Henry already there. He had thought he could see the B team play, not realizing that we don’t have parallel schedules. By the time the previous game ends the whole team is there. We have time for an abbreviated warm-up. And then the game’s off and running.

Or would be were the first half not painfully slow. We don’t do a good of finding good shots. The shots we did take didn’t go in. Fortunately our defense was excellent and we go into half up 9-7. The game changes pace in the second half, with us scoring 8 points in the second quarter, though 3 of those points came on a last second 3 pointer by Henry that was more luck than anything else. That gives us a 2 point lead going into the fourth. And the 4th is a battle. Unfortunately we just can’t stop their number 10, fouling him repeatedly, and he scores 9 points, 7 on free throws, and we end up losing by 2.

Where I felt bad about the GL victory, I feel very good about the HP loss. At this point, I think it’s somewhat clear that we don’t have the stamina to play 4 quarters. I subbed extensively, giving nearly equal playing time, but even that didn’t help. However, I figured that the one practice a week, and the day before our game at that, would hurt our ability to play 4 quarters. Also not helping was that I didn’t rotate our defends to put our best defenders on 10. This is because they had another player, 40, who was gigantic, and just killed us on the boards. The problems I saw at this game were far less than I had seen last week and certainly less than what I saw with GL. I was real pleased with the game despite the two point loss.

Taking a look at the team:

Adam – Looked slightly less lost out there than normal.

Ben – Did a pretty good job of guarding some taller players.

Danny – Was 0-5 from the floor along with a team high 4 turnovers. He’s a fast kid but he doesn’t play in control of himself, leading to shots which are just a little off and the ball to get away from him.

Gavin – Got banged up inside. He got into first half foul trouble leading him to sit a lot more than he would have otherwise. While he did a good job of guarding their #40, he went 0-3 from the floor, with close shots, and 0-6 from the FT line. But overall a good game

Henry – Scored that lucky 3 pointer. The only one of his 10 shots to be made. However, most of the shots he took were smart shots and his defense was strong. I also think he has the potential to be a good point guard, so I’m going to see if that can’t be nurtured.

Jacob – Once again a virtual non-entity out there, which was a problem because he got so much playing time due to Gavin’s foul troubles.

Jack A – Played pretty well, but not in control. He didn’t get nearly as much playing time this week as last as his dribble penetrating was killing us, as it was unsuccessful and he’d force a shot anyway. It was perhaps a mistake not to have him in there at crunch, but he freelances so much on defense, and is uneven with his shooting, and so despite his athleticism there just wasn’t a spot on the floor for him.

Jack B – Took 4 good shots, but missed them all. He played perhaps the best game defensively, really shutting down his man.

Jon – Was pretty much a non factor during his time on the court, though part of that was due to the good deny defense he played.

Josh – The kid is a gamer. He scored 4 clutch 4th quarter points for us. While his skills aren’t pretty, he does, I feel, deserve more credit for his ability to get things done. However, he was also constantly walking up the court on offense and a little on defense. Seems like a player who I will, perhaps, have to play in short stretches.

Zach – Their star shut him down completely in the second half. His inability to score a basket during the last 90 seconds of the game, was why we lost the close game. Still a good effort for him. Just reaffirms my thought that he doesn’t quite have the skills to take over a game.

Overall it was a good team effort. I am upbeat about our chances going forward, especially when we start to get two practices a week in January.

Game versus White Sox

Well it seems fitting that after one of our best games of the season we come out and have trouble. The pitching was about what I expected. Well Nick in the first let up more than I’d have expected but that was due to Matt S catching him more than anything. Alec actually did better than I was expected and settled down after the first few batters. He was also helped out when Noff made a great play on a ball hit to him at second, tagging a runner going to second before throwing to first for the double play. Speaking of Noff he pitched his normal way, which is he gets the ball over the plate though he will be hit (he averages less than a walk an inning but about 3 hits an inning). Jeremy Me also had a nice inning in the fifth striking out two and basically looking in command the whole time, though he did allow a walk and a hit. Matt S, however, did not pitch well and had to be relieved in favor of Jared.

It looked like Jared was going to pitch two, however, Jeremy Me got the nod in the 5th after Alec through a hissy fit after striking out and his father removed him from the game meaning we needed Jared to catch. It was Alec’s second hissy fit of the game. After the game Steve and I talked to both twins as Austin had his own fit after he tried to stretch a double into a triple, against Steve’s orders, and got tagged out when he overran the base. It was very disappointing and we let them know it.

Also disappointing were our bats. Now granted we were missing Jeremy Ma and Cameron, two of our better hitters, but we just couldn’t get much going. Particularly frustrating was the third inning when the were not throwing a good pitcher and we just utterly failed to take advantage of the situation.

And, as there often is in a game of this sort, we had some bad luck without any countervailing good luck.

The play-offs start for us next Saturday. We used today as a last chance for people to get some innings in at various positions we won’t use them at again. We’ll get a little more serious on Tuesday, our last game, before our playoff debut. Despite yesterday’s debacle, I still feel very good about our chances. But I’ll do more of a playoff preview and end of the regular season wrap-up on Wednesday or Thursday.

Game versus A's

Well Wednesday was another disappointment. We had to call the game after only 4 innings because we were blown out. The problem is that we scored only 1 run compared to the many we scored the last time we played the A's. Sure there were fielding miscues and mishaps. Sure our pitching could have been sharper, but that doesn’t get around the fact that we scored 1 run. Our bats have just died. I don’t know why it is and it’s incredibly frustrating. Steve also cost us a run by attempting to steal home with Noff’s little brother, who was playing for us. This kid was ill prepared for that demand and was tagged out easily, but would have scored when the batter hit a single. This isn’t the first time that this has happened and I did say something to him about how that wasn’t the right situation. However, what does 1 run matter in this context? Not a whole lot. The mystery of why our bats have just stopped is puzzling and frustrating to me and I wish I had the answer. My inadequacies as a baseball coach are showing through again which is a good deal of my frustration. Hopefully we’ll turn it around soon, as the season is rapidly drawing to a close and I’d like to have a successful playoff.

Game vs Cardinals

Yesterday’s game was another disappointment. We had 3 hits in four innings of play. Now granted we had several more walks and did score some runs, and we had a double play on a flyball to the outfield with the bases loaded that ended the inning. However, we simply did not produce the kind of offense we needed to. Matt S did not look well in his pitching and had to be pulled in favor of Noff who did look good. Nick struggled yet again in his second inning though he pulled through in the end. Jeremy Me caught an inning for us and looked good. So a loss, and one where we didn’t have any energy, but hardly catastrophe. We go at them again tonight

It seems like today would be a good time to do an overview of the team, going by our original batting order.

Jeremy Ma – Our best pitcher and likely our second best catcher. He has the second biggest difference between his OBP and his batting average with the biggest difference going to the kid with the worst BA. This suggests to me that while he has a very discerning eye, he should perhaps be putting the ball into play a bit more. Of course I’d rather have him walk than strike out, so I’m not sure if this merits a conversation with him. Thoughts would be welcome.

Cameron – Unexpectedly did not show up for our game yesterday. Hopefully he’ll be at today’s game as we’re only expecting exactly 9. I’d call to confirm except our contact sheet is missing his phone number for some reason. Anyhow, Cameron is our best hitter with a stratospheric 1.67 OPS. Of course since OBP is so much higher in Little League than in the majors it’s hard to say just how great this is, but either way it’s pretty terrific. I feel like we’ve done a bit of a disservice to him as we haven’t worked much with him on his pitching as he could likely be good with some work. However, with the wealth of pitching we have this year our time, oh so limited, has been spent elsewhere.

Justin – Hard to say too much about him since he was out for so long. He does play very smart baseball. Hopefully he’ll be a reliable pitcher for us, and I think we’re going to really push this to the extreme today possibly pitching him two innings. He has a beautiful swing so I would expect his rather pedestrian batting average to rise as he gets some more at bats.

Nick – Nick might be our best all around player at the moment. His pitching has been nearly as good as Jeremy Ma despite having nowhere near as much experience. He has an extremely respectable 1.47 OPS. He runs well, loves baseball, is eager to learn. Not a whole lot you can say which isn’t positive. We saw a bit of mental weakness yesterday. His being a dominant pitcher, as he has been for us, was more of a metamorphosis than an evolution and so the mental part is something he doesn’t have a lot of practice with. Additionally, his pitching of two innings is still a hit or miss prospect. He’s lights out for an inning nearly every time but the second inning is something he needs to master a little bit better. But I think he’ll get there.

Jared – Much to my surprise you could make an argument for his being the third best pitcher on the team after Nick and Jeremy Ma. He’s definitely our best catcher. Hopefully he’ll continue to grow in these areas. His hitting is alright though nowhere nearly as good as I’d thought at the start of the season.

Matt S – He’s perhaps the nicest kid on our team. He’s so big it is easy to forget that he’s only in 5th grade. He’s very rough around a lot of edges part of it is likely because his body hasn’t caught up to his size yet so the coordination isn’t all there. However, if that happens he could be a real good player. His hitting isn’t what I would like especially as he has a tendency to strike out. But I think that’s clearly because of his coordination difficulties. We need to find him a couple more chances at catcher before the season ends.

Austin – He’s pretty good at making contact with the ball. However, the ball doesn’t tend to go anywhere when he does make contact. He hasn’t grown nearly as much as I would have liked. We did some work with him on his pitching but that just didn’t turn out. I think the lack of practices hurt him more than any other player.

Alec – He has quite a bit of potential at catcher though I’m not sure we’re going to be able to realize it all this season. He’s also shown some ability at pitcher which I’m not sure we’re going to fully realize either. However, he’s come a long way in a short time and should be proud of what he’s accomplished this year.

Noff – Quiet kid. He seems like he’s an OKish pitcher. Steve and I have had to work hard to make sure he doesn’t get lost in the shuffle, especially as he’s our worst hitter. Hopefully he’ll continue to find success in the other things he does for us. I just wish he wasn’t so afraid to bunt, a fear I don’t quite understand, as I thin he’d be really good.

Sean – He started off the season hitting so well. And then he dropped off. I think some of this is because he went up there scared after getting hit a couple of times. I don’t really know the cure for that. He’s also wildly inconsistent in terms of his attention. He’s a passable catcher, though I am glad that Jeremy Me seems to be panning out more since it means that we really won’t have to play him come playoff crunch time. I hope we can turn his hitting back around in the time we have left.

Jeremy F – He’s been a pleasant surprise. I actually think if the guy wasn’t afraid of his shadow he’d be a good ball player. He really struggles against top notch pitching but otherwise is great about making contact and getting on base, having the smallest differential between his BA and OBP, which is ok as he gets a “hit” (remembering we count almost all error assisted hits as hits rather than outs for purposes of computing BA and OBP) 55% of the time.

Jeremy Me – We haven’t gotten him an inning lately though part of that is because we haven’t played a whole lot lately. I really wish I could figure out why he can’t start an inning for us without falling apart as when he’s on he’s great. His turning out to be a serviceable catcher is a great bonus. We just have to figure out a way to get him back on the mound.

That segues into one of our biggest problems right now. We have more pitchers who deserve time than innings. I don’t really like to just concede games so we’ll continue to use Nick and Jeremy Ma. After the innings they’ve gotten we have a fairly dense groupings of innings pitched. It’s a nice dilemma to have, but still a balancing act to get everyone some quality time on the mound.

Tonight will be interesting as we’re only going to have 9 players, including having Noff’s little brother. This is due to a band concert, so perhaps the other team will be in the same position as us, however I’d feel a whole lot better if I knew that Cameron was going to be there for sure.

BoSox vs. Marlins

Travel Basketball Convergence
As we’re warming up before the game, who do I see but Dante, from my travel basketball team, there for his soccer team. We didn’t have much time to say more than hello. He did ask me if I was going to coach the team next year and I said “I don’t know” which is pretty much a lie because I absolutely plan on going back.

Then during the game, Eric came up to me and we were chatting a little. And basically he offered me a position coaching for them. While I didn’t accept, I did express interest and explain that I would need to coach either 4th or 6th grade, and would only coach the upper division team (as HP has teams in both the upper and lower divisions) and he was amenable to that. I now just need to decide if I have the time, when I’ll likely be switching teaching positions, to coach two teams, because with the new administration, coaching for my home town is a lot more appealing. However, I couldn’t run out on my team from last year, especially not with their moving up from the lower to upper division, assuming at least two of the triplets return.

The Game

Yesterday was not great. Going into the sixth and final inning we were down by 7, which also happens to be the most you can score in an inning, meaning the best we could do was tie. Anyhow seems like a good time to do a good, bad, and ugly for the game.

Good

Our 6th Inning hitting: We came out and rocked their pitcher who was accurate but slow. We had the absolute heart of our order up and it showed as we had 2 singles followed by 4 doubles, a sac fly, and two more singles which netted us our 7 runs. It showed once again that we were a team who could come from behind.

Justin: It was Justin’s first day back after breaking his thumb. He pitched moderately well, made a stupid play in the 5th inning at 3rd, but it was his hitting that we really missed. He had a good at bat in the 3rd, which ended in a walk. He then proceeded to steal two bases. In the sixth he was the first one to start our extra base hit rally. It’s good to have him back.

Cameron: The kid isn’t fast (not slow, but not fast) and so the fact that he’s hitting .667 is a testament to how well he’s hitting. He once again did well at the plate going 2-2 in clutch places.

Matt S: He pitched fairly well again recording two strike-outs though he did let up a couple of runs. He suffered from some bad bounces on those though. He also had a near homer, over the fence, during the sixth.

Jeremy Me’s fielding: He made an incredible play in the 4th at second diving for a hard hit ball with the bases loaded that saved us two runs when he caught it for the third out.

The Bad

Jeremy Ma’s pitching: He didn’t have the same snap on it that he normally does and just couldn’t close the game for us. He actually look bad enough in the 5th that I considered having Nick, who hadn’t pitched for us, come in and pitch the sixth. And frankly after he walked the a batter in the sixth I should have likely pulled him. I didn’t since I figured Jeremy was better under the pressure, but he just didn’t have it on Saturday, or rather I should say he didn’t have what he normally had. After the kid he walked, which had followed a double and a steal, a guy came in and won the game on an infield single. If they hadn’t won the game after the first run they would still have been going strong and he could have easily allowed 3 or 4 runs during the inning.

Our bats against good pitchers: The last couple of games we’ve faced more good pitchers and we have not been able to hit them. This game we eeked out a run in the second, getting lucky scored a couple in the third, but we were basically shut down for the day. Last game was a similar story for most of the game. We’re only going to see more of the good pitchers and less of the bad pitchers, so this is a problem.

Sean’s head: Kid is wildly inconsistent. Some days he’s definitely our best catcher, but other days he’s just out of it. No real rhyme or reason as to which day it’s going to be either, as far as I can tell.

The Ugly

Jeremy Me’s pitching: Basically he’s a relief pitcher. I think coming in with the pressure causes him to throw hard and thus better. When he starts an inning he just doesn’t look as sharp. He ended up allowing 4 very ugly runs, and we had to pull him after four walks and a hit batter. Between this and Cameron, it’s a good thing Justin’s back because our next best pitcher is Jared, who we need to catch. Jeremy Me will be our good to reliever, but I hesitate to put him in to start an inning again.

Our throwing: We ended up allowing all sorts of trouble as several consecutive throwing errors on a steal at third base allowed two runs to score. It was bad news. We’ve done some work on this at practice and looked pretty good last game, so I hoped we’d moved forward, but it appears one of those two steps forward, one step back things.

The twin’s minds: If you asked them they’re both the reason we lost. We were warned that they would play mental games with themselves and they did. For the most part they played well. The exception being Alec who made the first throw on that awful play, even after both Steve and I said not to throw the ball. But their moping required some extended talks, mostly by Steve, to keep them focused.


All things considered, if we’d tied the game it would have been an incredible victory after our seven run inning. However, the Marlins won, getting their revenge after we beat them pretty decisively, and it was the better team that walked away with the victory. Tuesday’s a new chance and hopefully we’ll put out a better showing.

End of Season Wrap-Up

After our double header our next game is against MP2. We completely dismantle them and based on their poor showing of sportsmanship at the HP tourney, I let the team score 50 for a final score of 50-31. Not sure what got into me, but there you go.

We then have a weekend off, because of President’s Day. That is when a bit of drama arises, though it could have been far more disastrous than it was. Our next game is against NF1. While we are waiting there, I learn that David won’t be at the game due to conflicts with another team from his caregiver. As we’re standing around I learn from Brian who sort of lets it slip that this might not be a one time thing but instead he might have to quit the team. As I have heard nothing along these lines I don’t let it bother me.

The game against NF is unexceptional. We go out do our thing and win. This was the first game where I went with what I called hockey subs. We had only 8 players (Tom had gotten very sick and was basically out for a month) so I divided the team into two groups of four. Every half a quarter I would yank a group and put in a new group with one player from the other shift. This was done as a way to give players equal playing time. Well David showed up from his other game just before the 4th quarter. I call him over to sit on our bench. He asks if he could play and I say of course, since I can understand his need to miss a game because of conflicts. At the end of the game their coach’s weren’t happy about this. My response simply was that I wanted every player on my team to have a chance to play. I had even alerted them ahead of time that I normally wouldn’t play him in the 4th in a game like that, but it was an unusual circumstance. Their moaning was a bit unjustified considering that he scored all of two points.

That game was on a Saturday. However, MP needed us to reschedule our Sunday game and after a lot of emails it got set for the last Sunday of the season as a double header.

We end up having a couple of weeks off then with-out a game as our game against WK has to be canceled as there is no time when we can reschedule the game. As they were the ones unable to play they have to forfeit to us, but I still rather would have played the game. Instead, the WK coach and I setup a scrimmage after the official end of the season between our team and his A team. His A team who is dominating the division. During this time it becomes clear from Scott and Brian that David will not be playing for us again. Does David or Dad ever bother to contact me? Not until March 10th, 3 weeks, essentially after it has been decided that David will quit the team, does their Dad bother to call me to let me know about this decision. I am more upset by this lack of communication than anything.

On March 11th we have our end of season double header after having been out of action for a couple of weeks. Our first game is against LS. I go with hockey subs again. After the first quarter we gain a lead and hold onto it. It is a great game to watch as we can’t quite ever put LS away but do manage to hold on for the win.

We have a few hours off before our next game against MP for the regular season championship. I am pretty exhausted as the night before I had a wedding which I didn’t get home from until after 1 o’clock (and could have stayed later). This combined with Daylight Savings means I am not at the top of my game for the first game and by the second game I am extremely exhausted. At the start of the game we’re missing Brian, Scott, and Lucas who are, I later learn, stuck in traffic due to a horrendous accident.

Anyway, we start off the game very strongly. Gordie, who missed our earlier game due to having his house league championships, comes out on fire and scores a couple of early baskets. MP gets their composure back and evens it up by the end of the first quarter. After that it’s a seesaw game until the third quarter when they build up a lead. This momentum carries into the fourth and the game has slipped away from us. This is where my coaching should have been better. One of our biggest problems though, throughout the game, was picking up our men on defense. This led to MANY easy baskets for them and was really pretty inexcusable at this point in the season.

More seriously is that early in the 4th Brian collapsed in absolute agony with his ankle. Normally when a player gets injured I go and see how they’re doing, give them a couple moments to collect themselves and then help them off the court of have them walk off. Despite my being out of it, it was quite clear that he wasn’t going anywhere. I then proceed to literally carry him off the court. Play resumes while I comfort him on the sideline. His mom is there and it’s quickly decided that he should go to the hospital. I write off Brian for the rest of the season at that point considering his past history with the ankles (having broken both of them in the past year).

The next day we have our scrimmage against WK. As predicted they are bigger, faster, and stronger than we are. We get blown-out. However, the team never gives up. Even down by 20+ we’re still scrapping away. The dismantling we faced exposed quite a few weaknesses of ours, most notably against the zone.

We end the season in second place. Overall we’d had a good season and I’m optimistic about our chances entering the play-offs. While MP will likely be a problem for us, I still believe we can take them. Despite the loss of David the team remains upbeat and confident about our chances.

End of Season Wrap-Up

Ok it’s time to bring this to some closure. My plan is to somewhat rapidly go through the regular season, do some more detailed description of the playoffs, and give some overall season reflections. I am not quite sure why I stopped writing, so I’m going to blame the month of February which is just a nasty month and often seems to sap the energy out of me.

When we last left we were facing a game without the triplets. I actually did a writeup for the game which I never posted. Here it is:

It’s clear from their other games that this could be a real trap game for us. We don’t have three of our best players (remembering that the Triplets are out of town at the Super Bowl) and they’ll be a team which could take advantage of that. We do our pre-game routine. As I’m talking to the team Jack M is being obnoxious, for about the eighth time, about who is starting and so while I had intended to start him he ends up starting the game on the bench.

The first quarter is close. Neither team really gets anything going which is our pretty typical first quarter. The son of the coach is both the tallest player on the team and their ball handler. Dante gets very excited about the fact that he is guarding a guard. It’s pretty funny. In the second quarter, the close game is maintained. I don’t have us do any sort of full court press because I am frankly very concerned about fatigue setting in. At half time the game is tied at 10.

I keep the half time speech short. I really believe at this point that we’ll gut out a win. We’re a team that’s shown a lot of fortitude, and this is where all the confidence that’s made practice hard should pay off. Except the third quarter begins. They sink a couple of threes and we can’t seem to work the ball well on offense. Our normally tight man to man, gives way to sloppy man to man. A tie becomes a two point lead, then a five, and finally a seven point lead by the time the quarter ends. There was likely a point in there where I should have called a time out. Except that momentum just gradually swung in their favor. This gradual swing meant that there was no time where I was like “it’s time to call a time-out” to try and calm it down. This was likely still a mistake on my part.

Going into the fourth I know that the game is going to be an uphill climb. Gordie already has four fouls going into the fourth. He would not be in the five I’d want in there at the end of the game (that group being Jack M, Jack P, Dante, Lucas, and Tom) so I decide that I’ll leave Gordie in there and let him just foul out rather than pull him. I talk about how we’ve scored lots of points in quarters before, so this game could still be ours.

We come out playing hard, but LS realizes that this game is in their grasp. With 3 minutes to go in the game we’re still down by 7. Gordie fouled out with about 4 minutes left, which considering how he’d been playing was better than I expected. When two minutes left comes around we’re down by five. We’ve long been in full court man to man mode, but we just can’t seem to close the gap. And that’s when Lucas goes on a tear. He seems to be everywhere at once. It was probably the most dominating single game performance we’ve had. While there have been times where David’s seemed to be everywhere on offense, or David and Scott being everywhere on defense, we’ve never had a player do it on both ends. In those last two minutes, Lucas easily had four or five steals plus quite a few rebounds. Suddenly there are 34 seconds left in the game and we’re down by a basket and they’ve been forced to call a time-out. A game which I honestly believed to be out of reach suddenly is very close.

34 seconds, however, is an eternity in basketball and I know it’s far too soon to get our hopes up. I tell the team that we have plenty of time to close the gap. I complement them on how well they’re playing. The two teams exchange baskets and there is a stoppage of play with about 15 seconds left, with them having the ball. I call a time-out. I explain that we need a stop and we need to score quickly. I tell them that if we tie this in regulation we’ll win it in overtime so we’re just looking for a good shot for two points, so don’t rush or panic. Our home crowd is pumped up. We do what it takes on defense and get the ball back. Jack M comes driving down the court and drives right by three players for a great looking lay-up and

misses. But wait there is a foul. I call a time-out. I explain that if Jack makes the first shot, great. If he misses the first shot that he should intentionally miss the second shot. If for either reason the second shot is missed we need to rebound and put it right back up as there is now a second and change left on the clock. If they were to get the rebound we need to quickly foul. Jack does indeed miss the first shot. The other team calls a time-out, no doubt telling them the importance of getting the rebound. Jack goes out there. I’ve reminded him that the ball needs to hit the rim. He throws the ball up and it hits the rim, but as soon as he does that he rushes into the lane. It’s an OBVIOUS lane violation. This effectively ends the game.

I am, admittedly, disappointed, in the result. For three quarters we played as well, if not better, than the team. We made an amazing comeback and nearly won. More frustratingly is the fact that I honestly believe part of the reason we lost is we just got tired. You give me one more player, and we win. With the triplets? We win easily. In the post game speech I talk about how we lost for two reasons. One is that we just got tired. The second is that we didn’t play defense 100% of the time and they made us pay in the third. I, do, however, focus on the positives of the fourth quarter. I remind them that we have another game the next day against NF2.

The next day rolls around. I am not concerned at all about our play against NF2. In the first part of the first quarter we don’t show that we’re a much better team and the reffing annoys me. They don’t call clear travel violations, for instance. However, at the end of the first quarter we snap out of stupor and we end up by 8. I let them know that we’ll do some full court press, but that if we score one basket we’ll have to stop. We get the ball at the start of the quarter, score one basket, and just continue our momentum. Shortly after the start of the quarter I restrict our team’s running of fast breaks.

At half we have a good discussion about sportsmanship. I explain that it’s not good sportsmanship to just score a lot of points because we can. I talk about how we’re more athletic than them and we play better as a team than they do so what are we really proving by scoring a lot?

We win the game in a convincing manner. There were more details no doubt but they have long ago been forgotten.

Tourney Report: Game 1 vs. HP (A Team)

The day of the tournament was finally here. I get to the facility nice and early. I have two games to chose from watching, with HP playing in one and MP2 in the other (I had originally thought it would be MP1 in this tourney, but evidentially not). I decided to watch the HP game and while I did so I decided to keep stats myself, just to see how hard/easy it is to do. One of the parents there and I started talking. HP was playing this team called Karzen, which turns out to be their coach’s name. The team I was watching, in the B conference, were really mostly 3rd graders, with their connection being attendance at a tennis facility in a nearby suburb. I later learned that this was their first game, which you would never know. However, while I was watching HP has handling them easily.

Right on time, my team started to arrive. The HP team had already arrived much earlier (why do kids need to be 45 minutes early to a game at their own facility?) and we established that I was to be the home team. This caused some consternation from the HP team, as they figured since they were at home they’d be home, but it was agreed we’d wear our home jerseys as it was scheduled.

As I’m sitting there, who should arrive, but Michael. Michael, for those of you who didn’t read my dynasty, and I had a long meeting at the end of the baseball season. The baseball season had not been particularly well run and I had written a long letter with very constructive suggestions for the future. Michael was the boss, at the time, of the person who ran the baseball league. We talked for a moment, with him being surprised o see me, as he knew I wasn’t an HP coach, but I explained I was coaching Glencoe. Then, in a moment which is VERY unlike me, I said “And we’re going to win your tournament.” Did I really believe this? Not so much, but the words came flowing out of my mouth.

We finally get to game time. It is clear from the start that this will be a good game. We get off to a quick 2-0 lead before falling behind. I somehow messed up my sub sheet and so I end up winging it. The game is fairly low scoring in the first 6-8 minutes, remembering that we’re playing two 20 minute halves with a running clock which only stops in the final two minutes of a half or for a time-out. The game opens up a bit after that and HP pulls ahead, by as many as 4 or 5. However, right before half we narrow the gap and on a late shot we actually pull ahead by a point.

At half time, I remind them that we can be a great second half team. I feel confident that this game is one we can win. They’re a good team, but we do tend to do better in the second half. We go out there and it’s neck and neck for a while. Just as we look to be pulling ahead, we hit a brick wall and HP comes roaring back. Highland Park pulls up by 5. Despite our best efforts we end up losing by 3. It was a disappointing loss to be sure, since this was a team we could have beaten.

We were not the happiest team in the world after this loss. And there was a fair amount of anxiety over the fact that our next opponent was the JCC. It was hard to think that we wouldn’t start of the tourney 0-2.

Luckily we had a little over an hour to kill before our game. I took in a game between HP and MP2. HP, despite having a comfortable lead going into the second half of their first game, ended up losing the game in OT. HP never bounces back and gets destroyed by MP2. It was a bit of awful sportsmanship as the final score was something like 51-19 and unlike some of our lopsided victories, MP2 played all out the whole game, though they did have their reserves in the game for most of the second half. It really made me mad to see them so needlessly run up the score.

The game on the court we were to play on finally ended and we started to warm-up against our foes, JCC.

Sorry for the slowness of this update. I hope to have the JCC update tomorrow. I do promise to be caught up before our next game on Sunday (no practice Friday).

Exhibition Game vs JCC 1

So I started typing this post up on Tuesday December 19th. Then I got sick and never got around to finishing it. Until now. I will make a note where I started writing so far after the fact, just so you know where my memory might be a little hazier.

Last night was our exhibition game against JCC team 1. When I got to the gym I knew we were going to have a much closer game than I had anticipated. Their whole team was already there and they were a big team. Even more worrisome I saw a player on their team who I knew, Luke, and I knew him to be an exceptional athlete. For whatever reason we were slower than normal in arriving. Eventually we get all of the players I was expecting. Or rather we get the 8 players we’re going to have for the night. Noah, it had been decided, would miss the game due to injury. Scott, who I’d decided to give the nod to start to over either David or Jack M, was sick. I really hate going to the game and finding out there that a player will be missing. Someone needs to let me know ahead of time.

Anyway we do our warmup. All the while they are blaring music into the gym. It was pretty annoying, honestly, and a couple of my players moaned about it. It did create a funny situation where I was giving our pregame talk and I was having to scream and then all of a sudden the music went off and so in midsentence I switched to a normal volume. It gave us all a good laugh. With Scott not being there my plans to go with a large lineup were somewhat foiled. I had decided it was a good situation to not start David, and so on a spur of the moment I decided to go with Gordie as our fifth starter, along with Dante, Lucas, Jack P (playing point), and Tom. Gordie was actually playing the three here.

Dante did a nice job with the tip, something he hasn’t shown any particular ability to do before this. We did get off to an early 2-0 lead. However, that was when their star basically took control. After the first possession I had Jack P guard him, though Jack P was clearly outmatched in this case. When the first quarter ends it’s 8-6 and it’s a good ball game.

The second quarter was the difference maker. They came out in a 1-3-1 defense and absolutely destroyed us. They had been playing a 2-3 with a little man in the first quarter. We could get nothing going on offense. It didn’t matter rather we ran our zone breaker or our motion, they were shutting us down and not letting us find good shots. Matters hadn’t been helped in the first quarter that David, seeing that the other team was good, decided to try and be the hero and on his first two possessions down launched two ill advised shots. I gave him a quick pull, but I knew if we were going to compete in this game that we’d need his skills so I had him back in there in the second quarter. However, the combination of the good team, plus having their star player beat him a couple times on offense, threw David out of sorts.

However, the whole first half, really even through the second quarter, about the only foul the refs would call would be on our team doing something to their star. Now I’m not saying that they weren’t fouls, because they were, but at the same time we weren’t getting any where near the calls that they were getting. Talking to the refs in a situation like this is something that is currently beyond my comfort zone. I don’t ever complain, whether it’s baseball or basketball about the officiating. And there were things that they weren’t calling, such as Dante’s repeated 3 second violations, that benefited us. However, the home team advantage with the fouls was a bit much to swallow. Anyhow, the second quarter was a disaster for us and we go down by 8 into half. David guarded 3 for most of the second quarter, and was clearly frustrated on both offense and defense. Things just weren’t happening the way David was used to them happening. It didn’t help that since #3 was such a good ball handler even our full court man-to-man proved ineffective as even David simply couldn’t keep up with him the full length of the court. And let’s not forget David is VERY fast.

At half our team is shell shocked. I start to talk about some things we need to do differently, but it’s clear that our team is somewhat tuned out. I ask for someone to tell a joke to try and loosen the mood and get them to relax. The problem is that David comes up with “the refs”. This gets everyone to smile but isn’t quite as productive as I’d have liked. I do manage to get a couple of actual jokes out of them I then tell the team how this is our first real basketball game. We all know we’re still in this game, but the spark that the team normally has just isn’t there.

The third quarter doesn’t go particularly well for us. We are actually shutout, the first time we’ve failed to score at least one basket in a game all season. Even worse is that a couple minutes into the quarter David goes down hard and gets injured. He landed hard on his elbow. Honestly I think it was as much a frustration injury as anything. The good news is that we finally being to contain #3. #3, like oh so many players, has a tendency to go right every time and so we begin to play some better help defense knowing this.

We enter the 4th quarter down by 10. In the 4th quarter David says he’s ready to go back in. The good news is that we start to play our basketball game. We actually get the lead down to 6 at one point. However, we’re never able to get it closer than that. Our fast break offense had clicked, for the first time all game, and we were finding good shots on offense, partly thanks to some coaching on my part. But the baskets just don’t go in. And in the end we go down 26-16. To be honest while the margin of defeat doesn’t surprise me a whole lot, I am surprised we only managed 16 points. Our transition offense is normally just so good that we can score practically 16 points on that alone.

[Note: This is me typing far after the fact.] Funny thing happened in the 4th as well. Somehow after a time out we got 6 players in the game. I realized this, and not right away I’d add, when I only had two player sitting next to me on the bench. My first reaction was to get mad at the missing player for leaving the bench without my permission. That was when I looked at the court and realized we had six players in the game. I got the refs attention who let us score a basket as he tried to count our players. I kept point it out to him and he finally whistled the game to a stop. A player was pulled out and we got to keep our basket. I’m not quite sure how we got 6 players in the game in the first place but it had to have been my fault somehow.

After the game I pull the team together. We do a longer than normal post-game talk since there will be no practice again until after Winter Break. I really attempt to emphasize the importance of staying in shape over Winter Break and even hand out a log for them to record physical activities that they do. I don’t honestly expect more than 2 or 3, if that, to keep the log in any serious fashion, but it was just another way for me to emphasize the importance of staying in shape.

Taking a look at our players from the game:

Brian: Actually had the second most minutes on the team. He’d have had more until he started with the “you hate me” stuff again during the game and so I put him on the bench for a bad attitude. I really have to have a talk with about it since I don’t hate him, though clearly we need to work on some things between us.

Dante: Dante is just playing bad basketball. Now granted he was up against some really big guys but I don’t quite know what to do with him. He’s clearly trying hard out there and just coming up short. It’s times like this that I wish we had video so I could really take the time to analyze what he’s doing.

David: The other team’s assistant coach and I were talking after the game and one of things we talked about was what a talent David is. It’s hard not to recognize what a gifted player he is and I feel very fortunate to have him on the team. I think we’d still be a pretty good team with-out him, as our dismantling of HP, who appears to be above average, shows. However, I’m VERY happy that we do have him on the team.

Gordie: I let him have some crunch time minutes, as I feel players should get to experience all aspects of the game and will always try to have one of our end of the bench players in at crunch time so they get that kind of development. That said the kid needs to work on his shot selection and turnovers. He was 2 for 8 from the field, not actually a terrible shooting percentage at this age, but the real killer is the 7 turnovers he had. I set-up my stats spreadsheet to shoow stats/28 minutes (meaning if they played a full game) and Gordie has 11 turnovers/28 more twice as many as the next highest person.

Jack M: Jack also sat on the bench more than he might have otherwise due to some negative comments he made (about our ability to come back). As I have mentioned before he has a delicate psyche and so the music before the game really bothered him as did the poor reffing. I would go so far as to suggest it had an impact on his game play. Hopefully when he starts our next game some of the confidence will return.

Jack P: Did a good job of attempting to guard #3 despite being out matched. Gained some valuable experience as a PG. Jack had moved from Massachusetts over the summer and I learned before the game that there he played almost exclusively guard, which is obviously different from the forward/center positions I am asking of him. After giving him some time as guard I like him better in those other spots, which is nice considering that there are more minutes available there as well.

Lucas: He turned in another solid performance. He is clearly more comfortable the more chances he gets in our offense and at playing help defense. The stats that have been kept have really helped tune me into the little things he does much faster than if I just had to go off of observation.

Tom: Tom had a pretty good game. And he didn’t make any self-depreciating comments which was good.

Overall I’m glad we lost. It should hold off our getting too cocky which had been a concern of mine. And like I said after the MP2 game, we were never out of the game and it’s possible we could defeat this team were we to play them again.

My big concern is how in shape we come back from winter break. We have a BRUTAL schedule coming up. Our first practice back is January 8th. We have another practice on Friday. We then play MP, our competition for best in the league, on Saturday and WK, a team which is 1-3 thanks to its victory against one of the NF teams, on Sunday. Then we have no practice due to Martin Luther King Day and then we have at least three games in the tourney that Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. And then it looks like we might not be able to reschedule our Sunday game so we’d have a game then too. I still haven’t received word whether or not we got accepted into the A bracket, but I hope we did. So in some ways, with so much basketball, it’s good to be rested. But if we’re out of shape, oh am I dreading the game against MP. However, all this basketball is very exciting and I’m looking forward to what should be a fun couple of weeks.

Playoffs vs Braves

Unlike the last update I am writing this with the benefit of the scorebook in front of me, so I have more firm and detailed information, besides my own memory.

Steve and I arrived to the field early. We thought the coaches of the Braves were good guys and so we were happy to be playing them. Our team was all reasonably prompt in arriving, except for Brendan. With the rescheduling, we had received confirmation that everyone was going to be there except for Kelvin, so Steve and I made a lineup that had no Kelvin. With Brendan not arriving, it meant some changes, as Brendan could play Centerfield, something Kelvin isn’t as well suited for considering his lack of throwing power. So that is my curveball. Overall, the team is relaxed, which is good.

We win the coin toss and get ready to go out in the field. We send Trey to the mound first, deciding that we don’t want to mess around. The pitching lineup caused a lot of consternation for Steve and I. This was furthered by the fact that Percy has truly come into his own as a catcher. However, we’ve learned that most fifth graders have problems pitching after they’ve caught so we want to avoid that situation. This sort of means that we want Percy to pitch the third. Then the last choice becomes about how to use Everett and Avi. In the end, we decide to use Avi in the sixth, despite his being a complete nutcase, and Everett in the 4th and 5th.

Trey, after throwing a couple of pitches, reports a problem: he’s throwing uphill. With all of the rain from the previous day and a little overnight, the pitching rubber is so far back that it is a problem. The coaches from the other team, who again are very friendly, the ump, and Steve and I, have a discussion about whether to leave it, as it penalizes both teams equally, or move it forward. Steve and I advocate moving it forward so we decide to dig out the rubber and move it forward two feet, as there is no park district employee anywhere in sight to help us. Trey reports this is a lot better.

Things don’t get off to a good start though, when there is an error on the first play by whoever is playing short (I don’t have the fielding chart due to the Brendan situation) leading to a runner on second. Trey is not overpowering this inning. The next batter goes deep in the count before he hits one pack to Trey who, in a move that made me laugh, looks at the runner at second, who has started running immediately, and then throws it to first anyway. It’s good to see that he’s learned the mechanic of looking at the runner, even if he doesn’t then follow through on it. On the next play it is a legitimate sacrifice fly to someone in right, scoring the first run. The next batter walks, a rarity for Trey and showing how off he is, before the next batter strikes out to end the inning.

We have Jim bunt and while he lays down a fairly good bunt, it’s not good enough and he gets thrown out. Bobby walks to give us a base runner. Jesse continues his recent difficulties as he strikes out. These difficulties have coincided with his having private batting instruction. Everett then singles Bobby over to third, but Trey grounds back to the pitcher to end the inning. 1-0 Braves. And right as the first inning is about to end who shows up but Brendan? This completely throws off my whole chart and it takes nearly 2 full innings for me to replan things. How aggravating.

Trey comes out looking a little better, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s facing the bottom of the lineup, and gets the first guy to ground out to him, followed by a strike out. TG allows yet another walk, truly remarkable considering that including the two in this game he only allowed 7 all season. He does strike out their last batter to retire the side allowing only 1 run on a day where he doesn’t have his best stuff.

Their ace, back for another inning, strikes out the first two batters, Percy and Ethan. Fuller then gets hit by a pitch and steals second during Kelvin’s at bat. Kelvin does one of his weakly hit balls for a hit, advancing Fuller to third. Alas, Avi hits one back to the pitcher to end the inning. Still 1-0 Braves

Up comes Percy to face the top of the lineup. And it looks like things might be rough again when after 8 pitches and a full count the first batter gets a single. The next batter gets out, which is good. However, it’s then walk, walk, to load the bases. However, our newly found outfield ace, Ethan, make the catch on a well hit ball to the outfield. With two outs, perhaps things won’t be so bad after all, I allowed myself to think. But no. Next batter doubles, driving in 2. Percy hunkers down, however, and looks good striking out the next batter.

I don’t have much hope, despite the new pitcher, when Brendan comes up. But he hits a single. Jodi then gets hit by a pitch (atta girl!) and things are looking good. Jim hits a ground ball to the first basemen, which advances the runners. Bobby then walks to load the bases. Perfect! With the heart of the order up, Jesse hits a single and drives in one run. Everett then hits a grounder to first, driving in another, and Trey continues his slump grounding out to the pitcher, yet again. However, we score two making it a 3-2 game.

Everett comes to the mound and first pitch allows a single. The next two batters fly out, however, the runner has stolen third. The second fly out presented some consternation as Ethan was in center and Avi in right. It’s hit to right-center and is clearly Avi’s ball, but Ethan is on the ground “backing him up” but nearly causing a collision. Fortunately, Avi comes up with it and collision is averted. The run does score, however. On the next play it is again hit to Avi, but he can’t come up with it this time and the runner gets to second. Everett manages to strike out the next batter, however, before any more damage is done. Once again our hitting can’t get anything going as Ethan represents our only base runner, with yet another hit by pitch. 4-2 Braves

Things don’t start well in the top of the inning when Everett allows a leadoff double to their #3 hitter. On a 1-2 count, just like the rest of the season, the next batter bloops a ball into short left center. The centerfielder makes a great throw into the plate to get the runner from second for the out. Steve and I both didn’t see who made the play and thought that it was Bobby, playing SS, but no it turned out to actually be Jodi, coming through with a good fielding play just like I knew she could. Everett strikes out the next batter for the second out. The inning ends when Ethan makes yet ANOTHER good catch in the outfield for out number 3.

The next inning features the team’s second best pitcher, who pitched the last inning as well, and he shows why he’s good (even though it was Avi, Brendan, and Jodi) when he strikes out the side.

So we’re heading into the sixth down by two with our mental case coming to the mound. Fortunately, it’s towards the bottom of the order. And he pitches what is by far his best inning of the year, allowing just one hit, but having seemingly ever ball be in the strike zone, with pretty good velocity for him. After the game, he was truly proud of how he pitched, and he should be. So, in the clutch, Avi came through for us.

And now we are down by 2. The favor that their pitcher did by striking out the side, means we have the top of our order up. And there is excitement in the air when Jim hits a well hit ball into right for a single. He then steals second. This is followed by Bobby laying down a great bunt down the first base line. It caught everyone by surprise and ended up being a single. I truly hope he was bunting for a single there, as I was coaching third and had most definitely NOT given him the bunt sign of any sort, as we needed two runs. Anyhow, he easily takes second when they do not contest the base, with Jim at third. This brings Jesse up to the plate. And Jesse strikes out, again. But that’s ok. Everett is up. He hits a routine ball to second base, which scores Jim and advances Bobby, but now means there are two outs with Trey up at bat.

With our season on the line, we have our best batter (theoretically) at the plate. In fact things have been like a movie all game: the kid making some incredible plays in the outfield, the kid having his best pitching performance of the season, and now this. As Trey comes out to the plate, knowing the situation, I call him over. I tell him the following: “No matter what happens now, I am so glad that you were on our team and will be proud of you. So go up there and smile.” He gave a simple nod and steps into the batters box. On the second pitch, he connects with a weakly hit ball towards the first base side, Bobby is running for all his worth, and I watch as he slides into home. I then shift my focus over to the play at first. It’s going to be close as the first basemen has mishandled the ball. He finally gains control of it and runs towards first. The play is very close, but Trey clearly beats the first basement to the bag, but did the first basemen tag him? And the ump makes the call “OUT” and just like that the game is over. Several on our side thought that the game is over because we had won, but I know the truth. The other team celebrates for a moment and then we shake hands. I am near tears at this point myself, considering how much I wanted it for the team, and how well they played. Seeing Trey bawling, actually helps me keep it together, and I put my arm around his shoulder and try and comfort him. And like that, our season is over.

Coming tomorrow: team awards, end of year reflection, and the post season drama.