Baller, shot caller...

Emersyn has been asking me since this summer to coach her basketball team. I'm not sure when or why or how she got it in her head to play basketball but she did, and while I was excited that she was so excited to play a game that I LOVE (because let's be honest, it's the best sport ever) I had zero desire or skill to be her coach. 

I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm clearly a baller, but that doesn't mean that I have the patience skill set to be a coach. Specifically a coach to tiny humans... I work with college students for a reason two of which are sarcasm and cuss words. Apparently you can't really use those with 6-7 year olds. 

And here I am, months later with that five letter word emblazoned on the back of my shirt. I channeled all of my coaches through the years, googled all the practice drills I could, coerced talked a friend into coaching with me... and we went to work. 

And by work, I mean we practiced layups, passing, and counted less than 5 steps without dribbling as a win. Oh... and we clearly went over defense.  

#handsup

Things we say during games:

"If we score three times, we'll call it a victory..."

"It doesn't matter what color wristband you are wearing... we can't all have red."

"REBOUND!"

Y'all - coaching is HARD! We get way more into this game than I thought we would... the ref may have to repeatedly tell us to get off the court but in our defense, it's hard to teach them anything when we are STUCK ON THE SIDELINES AS IF WE AREN'T PART OF THIS TEAM! 

This is U6/7 ball and these kids literally run half the court without dribbling. You'd think we'd be more chill. But no.. there is zero chill about us.

The kids, however, have ALL the chill. 

I'm so glad Emmy wanted to play this game. I'm so glad she was persistent and kept asking me to coach.  

And I'm so glad I said yes. Because I wouldn't want to miss any moment of her loving this game. I want a front row seat as long as she invites me in. I want to be the one that teaches her about attitude and effort. I want her to hear from me that sportsmanship outranks skill. I want her to know that she has every ounce of me behind every bit of her. 

No matter what's on the back of my shirt. 

We all show up for each other... in whatever way we can. Coach, parent, sibling, friend... win or lose... these front row seats are the best in the house!