Sports Camp

Team Flash

While healing up from knee surgery, sitting around and staring at my knee was not an option. Last week I hooked up with the Willis Moore Youth Center and began volunteering at their summer sports camp. Armed with a coaches whistle and a set of crutches, I went Patches O'Houlihan on the 30 middle school kids, coaching them in my disabled state from the sidelines.

Each week the camp focusses on a new sport. Last week was basketball, next is football, and then we move to 4 other sports before moving back to football and basketball. It's clear that we started off with the group's most popular sport. On Friday I found myself way over my head talking with a thirteen year-old about the NBA draft the night before, specifically why Jared Sullinger may or may not be a good fit for the Celtics next year, and how far the Pistons are going to go with their new influx of talent.

Game Time!

Simon, an on-duty local police officer on a community engagement assignment, and I were paired together to coach one of the three teams. We are in charge of running practices and scrimmages against the other two teams each day, with everything building up to championship game on Fridays. This week we had a great group of 10 quick but undersized (save for about 3 kids, just about anyone can be considered undersized) kids who were excited to take home the title. Named Team Flash, we had moments of brilliance throughout the week but came in ranked the 3rd seed (out of 3 teams) for Championship Friday. This meant we had to win the play-in game versus Black Magic in order to play the super favorites The Rejects. After being down only two points at halftime, we let the game get away from us and Black Magic proved too much for Team Flash. In some form of consolation, Black Magic was able to upset The Rejects in the title game, proving that their black magic was too much for anyone that day. The Rejects were also missing their "big" man due to a family road trip....ah, the drama of middle school competition.

Simon and I blame ourselves for not advancing Team Flash further in the title bracket. While the loss was tough to stomach for everyone (some kids got a little emotional after the games) next week brings new promise with a different pairing of coaches and a shuffled set of kids. If you have any ideas feel free to send them in!

Instituting the triangle office

We need you to be BIG inside the paint!

Refusing to cry, even in defeat