We’ve been talking a lot about skiing, but we’ve reserved our Saturdays for another sport: basketball.
Although I love coaching your soccer team in the fall, basketball has to be the most fun spectator sport. To start, I’m not coaching basketball, so I get to enjoy watching you and the game. Being indoors, we also don’t have to worry about the weather. Most of all, it’s a fast-paced game with a lot of action.
Like with soccer, you’re most energized on defense. You do a great job chasing down the opponent you’ve marked and smothering them when they have the ball. On offense, you seem to care as much about evading your defender with slashing moves and quick tricks. That’s all good, except you seem to forget that you’re trying to get the ball and score. You don’t really follow where the ball is going or care to get it in your hands. The fun seems to be in escaping your opponent in a game of chase.
On the occasion you do get the ball, sometimes because you’re bringing it up the court, you’ve surprised us by dribbling mostly with your left hand. All this time, we’ve known you to be left-footed and right-handed. I think that’s still true, and I won’t deter you from getting better at a sport with your weak hand.
You let me know that basketball is your favorite “ball sport” (skiing takes top prize across all sports) and will be the sport you play the most in the near term:
“I might play basketball for three to five years and then baseball for two years and then soccer the rest of the time.”
Good news: sports have seasons, and you’ll get to play a few each year. I just got the email from the soccer club to confirm the team for fall, so that’s coming up. We missed baseball sign-ups, and your mom regrets that we won’t get to see how you could excel in that sport with your superb eye-hand coordination and strong arm (the right one).
We got to be a fan at a Tacoma Stars game that we attended with Nonno and Julie. Nonno knows everyone in the area soccer community and coaches alongside some of the players on the Stars. You and Eliza loved the atmosphere of the game. Indoor soccer is just as fast as basketball, so there’s a lot of excitement. After the game, you got jerseys signed by the players.
I’m glad you’re enjoying so many sports. We’ll let you get into as many of them as possible. There’s no rush to focus on just one sport yet.
Love, Dad