A Scholarship Offer Has to Be Coming

Well, Ashley played another really good game yesterday, scoring 2 baskets, grabbing 2 rebounds, 2 steals, and committing 2 fouls. A full day's work. She's a little Tasmanian devil out there and other parents even starting commenting to us about how hard she plays.

I can promise you, she is nothing like this off the basketball court. Sweetest child on the planet. On the court, the ball belongs to her. This is more Mary genes, I think. This is exactly how her mom played ball in high school and into college before she blew out he knees (yes, knees)-- tough, scrappy, and physical. Seeing Ashley NOT shy away from contact is new stuff. In soccer she was not like this at ALL. But in basketball she will get on the floor for a loose ball in a heartbeat.

The genes she got from me?

She likes to shoot.

A lot.

Watching the games can be frustrating because the coaches really have no idea what they are doing. It's all good - these guys are giving up their time to these kids so I would never, ever say a word about their lack of basketball knowledge. But when you tell the kids that during a free throw that you can't go into the paint to box out for a rebound until the ball hits the rim...well...

Suffice to say we're going to coach next season.

So in the first half they had Ashley running point and calling one of their two plays. Plays that never work because it just confuses the kids and they have kids setting picks all in a mass in the lane. It's this massive logjam. The result? We had 4 points at halftime.

In the 2nd half the coaches told Ashley to just "go" and stop with the playcalling.

The result was Ashley scored 4 points, took about 10 shots, and no one else on the team saw much of the ball unless it was off a missed shot. I think the final score was 18-12.

After the 7th shot Mary looks at me and says, "She gets that ball hogging from you."

"Yeah, but mine go in."

Zing!

Clearly scoring her first basket last week and two more this week has sparked something in her. So we have to work on the whole "pass when 3 guys are on you" thing. She'll get there.