Club Basketball

Club basketball is offered at our school for students in grades 5-8.  Since Cara is a 5th grader this year, we asked if she wanted to give basketball a try.  Her first response was "NO".  But, then after a few phone calls and a little prodding by a few parents she decided to give basketball a try. Simply put, Cara has never played basketball before.  She attended basketball camp last year, but didn't really seem that interested.  Cara is not really the aggressive or competitive type. 

Cara's grade at school is the smallest grade and the whole 5th grade only has 11 girls.  Therefore, they needed almost every girl to agree to play club basketball for this to work.  They ended up having 9 out of the 11 girls decide to play.  These girls have been practicing three times a week since the beginning of the year.  They have team jerseys and also team t-shirts.  Last Friday they all wore their team t-shirts to school for a jeans day.  They looked very impressive for a group of 5th graders.

Out of the nine girls, six of them are over 5 ft tall, so they have a size advantage over almost all teams.  However, most of the girls have never played basketball before, so, therefore, it is a huge learning experience of all of them.

Last weekend was their first tournament.  They played in the Norfolk YMCA tournament.  The tournament had 88 teams competing in boys and girls divisions in grades 4-8.  The girls played three games on Sunday.  They lost all three games, but gained valuable experience to help them in the future.  We were so proud of them.  Even though they lost, they never gave up or quit trying. 

Cara did score a few points.  Usually she plays low post because of her height.  This is such good exercise for her and this has improved her friendships which each of her teammates.  This weekend we will be at another tournament and the girls will play a minimum of three games again.  We all hope they come home with at least one win, but they know that they are still learning how to play the game.

Cara did play a team from Wayne.  These two little cheerleaders would lead the Wayne fans in cheers during timeouts and during halftime.  They were so cute that I just had to take their photo.  They had older siblings playing on the team and it was a way for them to stay interested after being in the gym for a whole afternoon sitting through many games.

Take care,

Michelle