Basketball buddies

Our favourite thing about living on our street is watching our kids play with the other neighbourhood kids. Two of JJ's good buddies are a stones throw away. Actually JJ has really great friends.....Benny, Lani and Sisi think they are their friends too :) One night during family home evening, Sisi was naming each family member and saying "I love mummy.........and daddy.............and JJ........etc etc. She named everyone except for Teancum (who at the time was a couple of days off being born) We tried prompting her, telling her there was one more person. She thought for a second and said "...and I love Louis!"
Louis lives a couple of doors down and is in JJ's class at school. The boys started playing basketball outside Louis's house. They would play for ages, sometimes going into the evening and I would have to call them in after dark to get ready for bed. My boys enjoyed it so much that JJ asked for a basketball ring and stand for his birthday. Now the kids have two places to play ball. Often some of the other boys from school visit and join in.
I love listening to my kids play outside. The neighbourhood kids have now moved from our tree in the front yard, to the basketball ring in the driveway. The only downside for me is when Benny is out there at 6.30am shooting hoops. Its not so bad that he's out there possibly waking up the neighbours, its that everytime he misses the backboard, it hits our bedroom wall (right above where my head is) with a loud 'thud!'
So anyway, Job came up with the idea of the boys forming a team and maybe playing in a junior competition for fun. We dropped in to our local ymca, and were told the boys could play in the under 10's on Fridays after school. They also have training afternoons on Mondays. JJ and Benny started training on Mondays and a couple of weeks later the team was formed. They played their first game last Friday. Here's a snippet of all the boys:

They wanted to wear hot pink t shirts for their uniform but unfortunately Job couldn't find any. All the parents agreed they looked pretty spunky in the grey :)
Jared and Benny are two years younger than the other four boys. Benny was cute to watch. I saw him executing what Job and him have been practicing in the driveway. Eachtime he received the ball, he stopped, pivited and looked for somewhere to throw it. Sometimes he looked for too long and the ref had to call jump ball :)

 JJ spent the first half getting a feel for the game. He played really well, doing his best to get to the ball. I was mostly impressed with how well he played defence.

                                                     All the boys played really well.

               They played fair. The ball was shared evenly among all of them - as was the bench :)

                                       I found myself yelling out "great pass!" many times

     Sometimes my boys hold back a little when they try something new, but JJ didn't hold back at all 

                                        ....and Benny thorougly enjoyed himself :)

    Louis played a great game, bringing the ball down the court many times. I like his 'Jordan' tongue
    impressions ;)

  The coach watched in anticipation from the sidelines, sub-ing the boys on and off. The boys always
  knew where to find him, they just looked for the flurescent shoes ;)

                                                                Halftime game stategies!

                                                   Good to see Benny is listening!

                                                                The cheersquad

             I think it was in the second half where the boys scored the most points. It was in this half
             that JJ really picked up his game. I enjoyed watching him as his confidence grew.

So our boys ended up wining their first game. Benny was stoked and kept saying "I can't believe we won, I thought we were going to loose!" He was shocked for a good hour or so after the game had ended.  I think I can speak not only for my sons, but for all the boys when I say that they enjoyed the sensation of playing together as a team for the first time over the satisfaction of winning. Watching them playing together so well got me all fired up and wanting to jump on the court with them. I was so proud of all of them. I definitely agree with Cindy, we should get a mums team together sometime. Maybe in a year or so when I'm fit enough! ;)
After the game, the ref got the teams together to give eachother - and the ref, three cheers each.

 .
                                                        Then it was high fives all round

                                                            A very cute little spectator

 
                                       Some even cuter spectators...................and the kids :)

Good on you JJ for playing with a bung eye, and sorry I thought you were faking it. I got distracted by daddys shoes but I can see now that you did get a knock to your face. I'm such a supportive mum!