Thursday, April 8, 2010

Running With The Boys

For the first time in twenty years, I participated in a high school open gym on the basketball court.

Coaches play along with the program players in order to fill out the teams with enough to run. In today's case, my showing up brought the number to 16, enough to play two full court 4-on-4 games.

These guys had been playing for an hour by that time. I had been sitting on my kiester at a desk for 8 hours by that time. They were loose, I was stiff. They're LESS THAN half my age. When I was their age, I was playing at a small private school. NCHS is in the largest size high school class in the state.

That might explain why the head varsity coach put me on a very talented team. And why my lungs died a thousand deaths in the first half hour. By the end of the hour, I had about two highlight-reel worthy plays, an assortment of hustle plays and grunt work contributions (picks, rebounds, assists). My shooting was diverse - a smart mixture of air balls from several spots around the court, including one under the basket, and one blocked. Bottom line - I suffered no injuries and won eight games. Hopefully the first of many good days!

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