Jazz It Up

So last night was my first as coach of the Jazz, the 6th through 8th grade squad of ten that I am charged to lead through 4 practices and 8 games of basketball, or at least something marginally resembling it.

I picked basketball coaching because, as regular readers know, I love competition and teaching. I also love my nieces and nephews, and hanging around them gave me the confidence to give coaching a shot.

It's a long season, so I'll save my stories about individual players for a little later. Here's what happened that surprised me, and didn't:

I wasn't surprised to see a bag of YMCA basketballs waiting for me when I arrived. That's part of the reason that I picked the Y -- it's a long-standing program with a partnership with the NBA, so I figured that it would be fairly well organized. Surprise -- 5 of the 6 balls were girls-sized.

I wasn't surprised that they paid attention to me for the whole hour. I scheduled a packed practice filled with jumping, shooting, defensive and dribbling contests that were as much fun to watch as they must have been to do. I was surprised at how knowledgeable they were about the game. In particular, I'd planned to walk through the BEEF shortcut for shooting:

Balance -- feet shoulder width apart, one slightly forward
Eyes -- always watch the rim, not the ball
Elbow -- straight at the basket
Follow-through -- wrist flush forward toward the hoop

Half the team already knew it!

I wasn't surprised that they were reluctant to do some of the cheesy things for learning each other's names -- clapping, chanting, etc. What surprised me was that when we went around the circle to introduce ourselves, my worry about having two kids named Devonte on the team was quickly solved since they both had nicknames.

I wasn't surprised that the gym was new, and just the right size for our needs. I was surprised that three parents stuck around the whole time to watch, and one even pitched in to help hold a tape measure for me when I struggled.

It was a great first night of practice for our team, the Jazz. My goal's simply to teach these guys to be good teammates. I want to win every game, but I'm OK if we don't win any, as long as the kids cheer each other on. We're guaranteed to win in one respect... I'm setting up the year-end pizza party!