World Basketball Championship

Last Saturday was Scooter’s last basketball game of this season.
He has been playing on a city league.
We’ve struggled with consistency this season.
He missed several games due to the fact we were traveling to Flatlandia to visit Flynn.
And his team only practiced once a week.
Sometimes, we’d forget about practice, so he’d miss that too.

He’s not the most aggressive player, but he loves running up and down the court.

He loves jumping up and down.
And waving his arms.
And grimacing when someone on his team throws the ball out of bounds.



Sometimes he panics when someone actually passes the ball to him.
More often than not, he’ll pass it right back.
I think the hordes of boys running at him while he has the ball, freaks him out a bit.
Just a bit.
And when he shoots the ball at the hoop, he misses.
He feels good about taking that chance.
And we cheer and root for him no matter what.

But he has a blast.
That’s all I care about.

Saturday’s game was special.
A HUGE group of kids from the University came to cheer both teams.
The coaches and most parents knew they were coming,
but it was a surprise to the players.
The game had already started when 60-80 college kids came running, yelling and cheering into the gym.
The player’s eyes got wide with confusion and then wider with excitement
when they saw that the students were carrying signs that said things like,
“GO RED!” or “GO BLUE!”
The most exciting part was that several of the signs had the player’s names on them.
I could see the boys scanning the crowd, looking for their name
and then a big smile crossing their face as they saw their personal cheerleader yelling for them.

Speaking of cheerleaders, yes, there were cheerleaders there too.
Pompoms and everything.
And – at half time – they performed a little dance.
Just like you’d see at a high school basketball game.
A little over the top for a 4-5 grade boy’s game.

This final game was a massacre.
Scooter’s team was outmatched and outscored.
The opposing team was older,
MUCH more aggressive,
and taller.
Okay, I’ll say it – they were better players!
Thankfully, the boys were having fun in spite of the bad score.

At the end of the game,
the boys met the students who were cheering for them and they got to keep their signs.

They also got little medals.
I’m not sure why.
It was the student’s idea to hand them out.
(Shhhhh….. I think it’s silly.)

What’s amazing, is that this is the only game these students did this for.
The poor teams that were scheduled to play after our game were feeling confused.
It was anti-climatic for them to walk in, see all the screaming and cheering,
then watch all the excitement walk out the door.
I ran into some friends whose son was playing and they said,
“Geez! I guess you guys were playing for the World Title?”

It sure seemed that way.

Yes, my son who was on the losing team, even had a gaggle of girls
surround him asking for his autograph!

He’s 10 years old and had his own set of groupies?
Sheesh!

Watch out world, Scooter’s ready to make his mark!