The Point Guard

Somehow, N. continuously excels at every sport he tries. He is so funny about things. His learning style is very similar to mine, in that we DO NOT enjoy not knowing what we are doing. We like to be good at it--immediately. He is smarter about it than I am, though. I mostly just give up if there is something that I don't catch on to right away. He tends to sit back and observe for a while, and then--just do it. (Another reason I am so glad that we chose to wait on starting kindergarten until 6 years old!)

He suddenly is a great skateboarder. That happened sometime last spring. I'm not sure how he learned--or who taught him (other than himself.) It wasn't S. It CERTAINLY wasn't me. I tried to "skate" on his board one day and as soon as I put my second foot on the thing, I realized I had never even STOOD on a skateboard before and that 33 years old was WAY TO LATE to get started. I was frozen and it took me a few seconds to even get off! (But I digress. . .)

Anyway--now he gets on, flies around, goes off a ramp, hangs out at the skatepark--he's not scared. Where does he get that? I have no idea.

In soccer, he reminded me of S and myself. We are basically defensive players when we play sports. S is better than me, and most of my "experience" is remembering WAY back to school days. But, whatever. We are comfortable on defense. N. is too--in soccer.

Then we get to basketball and this kid suddenly is Mr. Attack. He is the point guard for his team. WHAT?!?! HE is "running the offense." Whatever that means. When I played basketball--offense pretty much meant "Please God don't let her throw the ball to me," or "Stand still and draw a charging foul."

N. is LITERALLY dribbling behind his back and between his legs to get around the other team. I'm not joking. He can spin the ball on his finger, bounce it on his knee, and spin it on his finger again. WHO TAUGHT HIM THAT? I don't know. All I can figure is that he is secretly skipping school and hanging out with Michael Jordan (or whoever is today's major basketball star. Shaq?)

They had their first game this weekend. It did not go as well as the beginning of this story might have led you to expect. They lost 9 to 18. But, considering they rallied in the last 2 minutes from a 3 to 18 score--they did pretty well. I think at the end, they suddenly remembered that they knew what they were doing. And they started having fun and quit freaking out. Next week will be better, I'm sure. N. had a really good shot. It was, actually, a "swish." I did not get a shot of it. That seems to be the way things work. I'm so busy cheering and screaming for him, that I forget to take his picture. I will concentrate better next week!

I hope that next week will be better for picture taking. It is taking a little adjusting from the way I took soccer photos, so these aren't great. Just an idea of what he looked like.

OH--and, again, we have been blessed with GREAT coaches. One of them is the older brother of a player on the team. The other coach is this guy's friend. They also have a little brother that is the team mascot. His name is Joey and they call him "Chicken Joe" (like on Surf's Up). The team is the Celtics and Joey has a leprechaun hat that he wore to the game.

The kids love the coaches because they are young (not somebody's dad) and cool and they give everyone nicknames. (N's is "swish"--by N's request. Is that REALLY a nickname?) They are constantly telling the boys how great they are and how cool they are, etc. It is the GREATEST compliment an 8 year old ever received--a high school kid called them cool (I think they actually just graduated, but whatever.)

At each practice, at the end, the coaches pick a player that had the "best practice." It is definitely a big honor to be singled out--but guess what the prize is? The coaches say that you were the best at practice that day--then you get to tell each of your teammates what they did that day that was outstanding. Nice, huh? The kids who are being honored are also made to stop and think about how good the rest of the team is. What a great teambuilding concept. I love it.

I have always believed that sports can teach almost any life lesson--and then I watch my kid's coaches come up with another one that I haven't thought of! I love it!