Our little Ball-er

This was McKinley's first year playing basketball, and she had SO MUCH FUN!  At her age, they concentrate on teaching the kids the concepts and rules in basketball as a team for 30 minutes, and then they get to play another team for the last 30 minutes (without keeping score!)  I thought it was great that it kept it from getting too competitive, and they lowered the net a bit to make it easier to actually score points, which was nice.  Of course, it was a tad odd to see some of the girls forget to dribble the ball when they were running up the court carrying the basketball (odd=slightly painful), but they learned a lot and we learned to be very easygoing about letting the kids learn at their own pace.   

So McKinley enjoyed every moment of every game, and we are so glad that she found a talent that she comes by honestly, since she probably isn't going to be the fastest runner, the most coordinated dancer, or the best singer (thanks in large part to her mother).  But Baskteball?  She get's that from both Milt and I, so we think that just might be her golden ticket if she works hard at it.  Let's just hope she keeps getting taller!

Here are some pictures taken from a few of McKinleys games.  This first collage is pics taken during the game where McKinley's team just happened to play the team of one of her good friends from school.  And lucky enough, they even got to GUARD each other, which resulted in both of them hugging DURING the game -- they were just so excited they got to "stand" by each other.  Those killer competitive instincts were definitely not kicking in!  I happened to catch a couple pics of them smiling at each other and comparing their cute shoes instead of playing (I never caught a picture of them hugging out there, probably because I was yelling something at the time like "McKinley...no hugging!  You're supossed to be playing baskteball right now!)  I'm sure she'll grow out of it, right?  Because if she hugs her opponents when she gets older, she's going to foul out of every game, and she'll never get a basketball scholarship for college.

This picture below is of McKinley playing point, and I love it because it totally looks like she is getting ready to shoot a three.  (She obviously didn't, but she DID probably double dribble after picking up the ball, cause they did a lot of  that in these games.)

And as for how Maddox and Kennedy handled coming to cheer their big sister on?  Well Maddox would scream because he wanted to play, and these pictures show what Kennedy did DURING the game (she was obviously very into watching it).  Yes, she seriously was sprawled out trying to take a nap on the sidelines RIGHT next to where the girls were playing because she was so bored watching.  It was pretty funny.

But the little kids DID like playing with Daddy in the other gym! (and Milt felt very tall with the hoops down lower).

And what was McKinley's favorite part?  The TROPHY that she got.  We kept telling her that there wouldn't be a trophy since there was no keeping score, but little did we know they actually had trophies for ALL the girls in the league.  BRILLIANT!  Here is McKinley with her friend Hannah at the awards day.

Here is the whole team, The Tigers (thank you orange t-shirts), with their very patient coach.  It was a great year, and just long enough!