Champions!

The the past couple of months, Emma Jo has been playing on the WCA 7th Grade Girls Basketball Team. This is her 2nd year playing on the team (and she is ONLY a 6th grader). Emma has learned a lot about the game thanks to great coaches and her skills have improved dramatically. She is an excellent rebounder and a pretty good shot as well. She is a post so her main responsibilities are preventing shots and getting rebounds. Her efforts were part of what helped her team capture the pennant last Friday evening!

Basketball

Emma Jo played basketball for the first time this year. Windsor Christian Academy participates in a private school Middle School sports league for 6th, 7th and 8th graders. The main basketball season has 7th Grade and 8th Grade teams. Since we are such a small school, we do not have enough 7th and 8th graders to fill two teams. In fact, this year there were only enough players to fill one team. We ended up fielding a 7th Grade Girls team which was made up of one 7th grader, a handful of 6th Graders and several 5th Graders. Emma Jo was one of those girls.

I was shocked when she told me she was going out for the team. Earlier in the year she had said she wanted to play basketball but she was afraid she wouldn't be any good since she had never played before. I was so proud of her when she decided it was worth the risk and you never know until you try.

Emma had a great coach! He was always encouraging the girls to do the best they could. He loves Emma's height and how she listens and tries to implement what he teaches. He just kept trying to get her to be more aggressive on the court. He sounded just like her soccer coaches!

Emma wasn't afraid to take shots or go for defensive rebounds. She even scored a few points and took a few free throws.

The WCA Mighty Warriors ended the regular season after losing in the semi-finals. They had a great season which was amazing when you consider they were mostly 5th & 6th graders playing against 7th Graders.

Just this week she has started playing in a 6th Grade practice league. I'm so happy that she has found something that she enjoys so much and has an opportunity to really have some success.

Madness

I've done it, finally. I've gone ahead and descended into March Madness with the rest of the masses. Now you are probably asking yourself "how did this happen?" since just about anyone who knows me knows that I don't like watching basketball on tv. Sure I played basketball in school and I definitely understand the game. I like watching it live, but I can't sit and watch a televised game. There are so many better things to watch on tv (like Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, NCIS and Lie to Me). I'll tell you how it happened, a friendly little bet. In years past, some of the guys at work have participated in Fantasy Football and NCAA brackets. They've shared some good natured ribbing about wins and losses. This year Linda and I insisted that we wanted to play too.
Since I don't follow college basketball I did a lot of research into how to fill out my bracket for the Tournament. My main strategy was in regards to mascots. For each match-up I evaluated which mascot was tougher. Bear vs. Bird - clearly a bear could eat a bird. Warrior v. Animal - Warriors have spears. Everyone I've shared my strategy with has laughed, but so far it seems to be working out. I haven't actually watched any games yet, but I've checked my results on-line and as of Friday morning I'm 12 for 16 with a possibility of 186 points. Sure, I'm in last place, but only by a point. Jason says it really only matters if I have the Final Four correct anyway.

Maybe I'm starting to like college and professional basketball. I sure did enjoy the Warrior's game that Mom and Dad took us to a couple of weeks ago. It was especially fun that we beat the Mavericks.