End of the Storm Season

So SO sad basketball season is over. The season is WAY too short and so are the games. 

The face off for the jump ball. 

Do not scroll up to the photo before because you will see it is a different game but wanted to show an action shot of the jump ball. I can tell you my photo and video skills in basketball frankly suck. By the time you have your phone out and ready to go, the play is over. And when you have your camera out to video your daughter making a basket, she misses. When she makes a basket, your phone will run out of memory. I just didn't have much luck.

Happy girls after a win!

Lining up for picture day.

Our team always wore wacky socks to set them apart from the rest. 

End of season pizza party!

Coach Tyler and Coach Jules (not pictured) were awesome coaches. We had quite a mix on our team of abilities and our coaches did a great job with not only teaching the game but they were fair and made it fun. We grew close to a lot of new sports families and are excited to keep in touch throughout the year and team up again next season. 

There were only four teams in our bracket with ours being the team with all first graders so we feel pretty excited that we were in a 3-way tie for second before play-offs. Unfortunately, they took a point differential to break the tie and while we outplayed both of the teams against the first place team, our point difference between the teams we were tied with put us at the bottom of the bracket for play-offs. Did that make any sense? So basically, we had to play the first place team in the play-offs and they were undefeated, taller, older and yes, better ;) 

And this is why I am going to miss basketball so much. Our games, for the most part, were so close in score with the other teams. My heart was pounding all four quarters because they were always nail biters! This video is my favorite. We were tied four to four and went into a two minute overtime. When that didn't produce a basket from either team (yes, just 4 to 4), the refs announced we were doing Sudden Death. We all thought they were joking. So for another 10 minutes or so, the girls were going up and down the court, stealing balls, taking shots and doing whatever they could do to get a basket and FINALLY our superstar player, Bailey, won the game for us! 

How bad is the blue sheet background?! We think they forgot to photoshop the background in like the individual photos or else it truly is the worst idea for a backdrop. Ever. 

1st Grade Basketball - The Storm

We are a couple weeks into the basketball season and it is so exciting! If you ask Samantha her favorite sport she will emphatically say soccer but basketball is a close second. I just love watching it. She is super confident on the court even though the ball isn't always passed to the right person or if she shoots an air ball. I think because she doesn't care as much about basketball as she does about soccer, she's more relaxed about just going for it. 

Practicing with the team. 

We've got a mix of girls from different schools, some first-timers to the sport and some who played last year at the YMCA. 

We have a little bit of a disadvantage in the height and age department. We have no second graders on our team (the league is 1st/2nd combined) and the other teams have players who are a lot taller and they are a grade older. That is okay though, our team is small and speedy!  

Excited for her first game!

Watching the game before theirs.

We've decided that #0 is our hero ;)

The first game came and went and we lost, BUT, like I said, we are at a disadvantage with the height and age of our team. The team we played was really good and we only lost by 6. And the score didn't break 10 points! ha ha it was 2 to 8.  

Fast forward to our second game and this girl got her first basket of the season AND we got the win! 

We WON 12 to 11! One of the superstars on our team, Bailey, scored 6 of our 12 points and in the last 30 seconds of the game she scored the winning basket. Basketball is SO fun to watch! You would have thought we were at an NBA game by the way we all reacted in the stands when that last basket happened. 

Coach Tyler was so proud and we saw such an improvement in confidence in our team. We now feel like we can match up to these teams even with what we are lacking. 

We are calling these four the Dream Team. Bailey, Samantha, Charlotte and Rio all played last year and did so great their second game. Bailey was our top scorer, Samantha was dribbling the ball down the court super fast, rebounding and taking shots left and right, Charlotte ran out the clock in the end to secure our win and Rio had her parents in shock doing some serious globetrotter moves up and down the court. She's small but mighty! 

Looking forward to the rest of the season!

I haven't been very successful with getting any of the baskets on video but the one game we scored 2 and another 12, so there isn't that many chances in 1st grade basketball. ;)