basketball season

This boy was thrilled to play on his very first basketball team!  He practiced a ton while we were in Minnesota, so he was definitely geared up for his game on Saturday morning. The i9 league uses the Mansfield Activities Center for all games and practices, so we arrived early to check things out. Colby was the first kid there and went straight to practicing his shot.

Once the coach arrived, they did a few stretches and then practiced their shooting and passing.  

Colby's friend Jones was also on the team and it was fun to watch the boys together. Colby was a lot more into the whole sport than Jones, but I think they both had a good time. 

Coach Irving and his wife Jamie were patient with the kids and although the first game was a little rough, they changed their coaching style a bit and figured out a way to better coach the kids. There were only two teams in their age division, so they played each other every single week.  It was fine at first, but then the other team's players stopped showing up, which meant that some of our players had to go play with the other team.  This happened every single week, which was just so aggravating!  It really messed with consistency for the kids.  Colby and a boy named Ian played SO well together and both had a really good handle on game strategy, but they rarely got to play on the same team because of the weird player shuffling. 

But overall, Colby loved going to basketball each and every week.  

He was the cutest little number #4 :)  He didn't want to tuck in his jersey, even when I told him it sort of looked like a nightgown, haha. 

The paparazzi (aka Moana, aka Brooke) was even worse then me with the picture taking! She was just excited that she brought her own camera that day, haha.  

Colby was the recipient of the Sportsmanships Award on week two.  The word of the day was "Sharing" and the coaches picked Colby because of his awesome job passing the ball to his teammates.  All the kids received the award at some point, but he was super pumped to head home and place the sign right smack in the front of our walkway. 

Grandma and Papa came to support him almost every week as well!

Colby woke up on week three with a hurt leg and neither one of us knew what could have caused it!  But despite the hurting leg, he played hard.  The other team was pretty aggressive and kept swatting at the ball even with the constant reminders to keep their hands "high and wide", but Colby still loved it. 

More support from Grandma and Papa.  Brooke loves their company during the practice as well because she gets a little bored.

Another week, another Sportsmanship medal!  There were 7 weeks and only 6 players, so somebody got to earn it twice :)  Colby had an amazing game and I seriously took some credit for his improvements from the week before.  We practiced for a solid hour on Friday so he had a better understanding of offense vs defense, and he used all those skills in his game.  Awesome guarding, great passing, and more confidence to dribble right to the basket. 

So proud of you, little buddy!

The Peacocks came to one of the games and Colby was thrilled to see his cousins.

Brooke was excited to hold and play with Emery :)

You could tell that Colby was SO proud to have them there!

We were sad to see the season come to an end, but it was a great experience for Colby and his basketball skills improved a ton during those seven weeks. 

Trophies for everyone!!  

We also celebrated as a team at Peter Piper Pizza...

Colby told me about a hundred times how NICE this trophy was, and I couldn't agree more.  You rocked your first basketball season, Colby!  I have a feeling there will be many more in our future.