PYC Basketball: Warriors and Knicks

Basketball season came and went so quick and it is a bummer because it is the best! It was Thatcher's second year playing at the PYC and Sam's fourth!

Evaluations. 

I'm guessing he said, "you are really tall!" 

Sam 4th Grade PYC Evals from ronda fallon on Vimeo.

Sports with evaluations are tricky. It becomes a draft so there is a chance you don't get the coach you want or the teammates or parents for that matter. You can't help but think that if your kid scores low in evals that they get a better chance of getting a coach that knows how they really play and a coach that wants your kid. Each time Sam made a basket in the evaluations I was like, gulp, we aren't going to get Coach Jules! 

Thatcher was drafted to a mostly Peabody team with his buddy Maddox's dad as the coach. 

And we somehow got lucky enough to have Sam get on Coach Jules' team for the FIFTH year in a row since she has played basketball with Jules since kindergarten starting at the YMCA. 

Ready for his first game of the season which was delayed by over a month due to the Thomas Fire. Everything shut down in December with air quality so bad you couldn't play any sports. 

Sam ready for her first game. 

These two were on separate teams this year. 

And these two have yet to be on the same basketball team. 

Todd did a lot of coaching this year because Coach Jules was also coaching All Star soccer at the same time. Todd's had to go up against Coach Sam who is also an amazing coach. 

Sam and Rio have always played basketball on the same team and they were both nervous to go up against each other. 

Friends on and off the court. And Sam's face would get this red after every single game!

Grandma and Papa Ward came to cheer these two on.

After-game ice cream.

Sam's team won 8 out of their 11 games and took home the championship! 

Samantha scored 89 points this season!!!! Her first game of the season she scored 20 points. Basketball is definitely Sam's sport. 

Thatcher scored 33 points this season and his team won as many as they lost.

Teammates since kindergarten. 

The championship game was played against Sam's soccer teammate Cecilia. Love these two athletes. They play super hard on the court. Sam's soccer skills improve during basketball season because she becomes twice as aggressive. It is so fun to watch! 

There are a handful of coaches our kids have had that have made such a positive impact and Coach Jules is at the top of the list. 

Sam's fan club. I'm digging Stella's fur. 

After championship game dinner at Islands. 

Topping it off with frozen yogurt. 

She carried this trophy around like it was an Oscar. 

It might even make an appearance in the Lovin' Spoonful slide show if they ever update that thing. 

End of the season party for the Warriors. 

Holley and Cam sent us this when they were in town and asked us to join them for breakfast. Instead, we had basketball...

Sam and Thatch PYC 2nd and 4th from ronda fallon on Vimeo.

Here are some action shots from the season. The way Sam moves up and down the court and then her wild shots that sink into the basket are so fun to watch. Somehow I missed getting a single basket on video of Thatcher but I love his confidence when he played point guard and his cheesy smile at all times. 

Page Youth Center Basketball - Grizzlies and Knicks

My favorite sport to watch the kids play is basketball. It's fast (too fast!) and always exciting. 

Evaluations. I think Sam measured 4 foot 7 but can't remember exactly.  

Sam and Rio have been on the same team since first grade. The Page does a draft so it's no guarantee you will get to be with your friends each year. 

First grade Rio and Sam! 

Bailey, Sam, Char and Rio.

Look how little they all were!

Reese was trying out for basketball for the first time which meant these two got to hang.

Thatcher played last year at the YMCA and was excited to play his second season at the PYC. 

We lucked out and got Coach Tom and fun friends on Sam's team AND she was on the Knicks, again! 

Thatcher got put on a team with not a single kid we knew but we had heard of his coach before and what we heard was true, one of the best coaches in SB for youth sports. 

The Knicks consisted of mostly first-time players and a young team. Sometimes it is more fun to have friends on the team than take home a lot of wins. ;) 

Thatcher's team only lost one game in the regular season and even that went into overtime and then sudden death. So much fun! 

More than half of Sam's club soccer team was playing so we had lots of battles against friends including these two zeros, (zero is the hero in our book!), Sam and Bailey. 

Coach Rusty ran a tight ship at practice and all the hard work paid off. There were three really, REALLY, great second graders on our team. It was awesome for Thatcher to be on team that was passing, shooting and making plays. Coach Rusty is known to have very successful teams and I now know why. Even the kids that had never played basketball before are now very confident players. 

Both kids had a lot of fans/friends come and watch them throughout the season. 

We even set up a bake sale to raise money for their school jog-a-thon. $44 bucks split between the kids, not bad. 

Reese and Sam got on a team together but not these two. They haven't been on a team together since YMCA t-ball. One of these days it will happen again. 

For now, we get to see them battle against each other by making silly faces and laughing at each other. I swear I got a video of this but it is no where to be found. Darn it! 

The Knicks ended up in 5th place out of 8 teams and were kicked out of the post-season after the first game. Last year Sam's team came in first and made it to the finals in the post-season. Again, not the same excitement as last year with a winning team BUT Coach Tom and Coach Sam did a great job of making sure the girls are having fun. I know, I know, winning isn't everything but with this many sports we are playing and having been on both sides, we all know which one is more fun. ;) 

Most importantly is that Sam improved in basketball SO much this year. She was really aggressive and has now decided that basketball is her favorite sport out of all the others she plays. She scored 40 points this season (4 more points than last year) including one game where she scored 14! 

We knew that Thatcher's team had a good chance to make it into the championship game in the post-season.

Thatcher sitting so proper on the bench. 

And...... they did it!! They came in 1st place out of 16 teams. 

Here is the email that Coach Rusty sent the night before the championship game:

Good Evening Grizzlies!

Tomorrow is the big day. A lot of hard work has gone into this season and Coach DJ and I couldn't be more proud of this team!! 

This week we have kept the practices light from a pressure stand point, but have worked hard in preparing for a tough team and game. We have preached "play hard and have fun" all year and are continuing that mantra heading into the Championship. 

I imagine we all want to win, how can you not? But can we control the outcome?...No...At practice we talk about the meaning of success....the kids all know it...it's not measured in wins and losses, but in being the best you can be.

That's our goal tomorrow...be the best we can be!!  If we do that, we like our chances a lot!!

We couldn't have asked for a better season for this kid.

Thatcher scored 10 points this season and would have had a lot more if he didn't keep thinking he could make 3-pointers....Coach Rusty would yell, "Thatcher!!! CLOSER to the basket!!!" We are going to work on that for next year. ;) 

We couldn't figure out a time/date for both kids' teams to have an end-of-season party since everyone was heading into spring sports but we did have a chance to get together with Coach Rusty's family and our assistant coaches family for pizza.

Can't wait until next year (and we have been seriously stalking Rusty to somehow have him coach Thatcher on a team again). 

Here's some video from the season:

The last little clip is the moment Thatcher's team let the clock run out to win the Championship. I wish I would have kept my camera rolling to show the team's reaction. Basically my videoing skills during basketball season were not so great. 

We are a month into softball/baseball season already, which we love, BUT we would have loved a little more basketball. Looking forward to next year!