Stella Plays Basketball!

It's no surprise that as soon as the soccer season was over Stella was already inquiring as to when basketball season would start. Last year was Stella's first year playing basketball and no doubt she absolutely loved it! Although she played in the YMCA league last year, this year we opted to sign her up for the Springboro league. The YMCA league was ok; the coaching and ref-ing were very remedial and geared more for 4 year olds and not kids much older than that. Although this would only be Stella's second year to playing basketball she was much more advanced and more competitive than the YMCA would allow (I wonder where she gets that from) so we thought we would try out the Springboro league!

Making Stella's basketball season all the more interesting, Todd opted to volunteer to be the teams assistant coach. Honestly at first I was very surprised and yet kind of worried all at the same time. If you don't already know or if you've ever watched any sporting event with Todd, he is very competitive and easily gets worked up. So of course when he volunteered be the assistant coach all I could think about was the following:

• he does know that he will have to talk to people, right? (Todd suffers from a little social anxiety disorder)
• how many games into the season until Todd gets ejected?
• he does know that he can't drop the f-bomb in front of the kids or scream at them, right?
• and he does know that he can't scream at the ref...

No in all seriousness, Stella loves having her dad on the sideline coaching and I couldn't be more prouder of the two of them.

Taking the ball down the court.

Stella's basketball practice began in early December and her games began in January after the holidays. Their season is comprised of 8 games and a tournament. Her ganes all fall on a Saturday and their practices are every other week on Friday evenings.



Dribbling...

DEFENSE!



What has amazed me thus far is how much Stella's game has improved in a few short weeks. Not only is she becoming more focused but she's picked up additional skills that have helped her improve her dribbling and shooting. Some Sundays after church, Todd will take Stella up to the YMCA during open gym and they shoot around and practice.

Taking it to the basket!

Although this league does not allow for fast breaks or stealing the ball for opposing players, it can be quite competative. So far Stella and her team are 3 games into the season and they are UNDEFEATED!

Game #1- WIN 48-20 (Stella had 16 points)

Game #2- WIN 39-18 (Stella had 4 points)

Game #3- WIN 54-34 (Stella had 6 points)

Stella shoots...

...and she scores!

Jonah and I have had so much fun watching Stella and Todd! Most Saturdays, when Jonah is cooperating of course, we head on over to watch their games and to cheer them on. Here's to hoping for an undefeated season for the Springboro Panthers Girls Team #11 and many more baskets for Stella!