** Guest Blogger **
Eric Hendrickson
Coach Arnez has two sons that were on my intermediate 11u YMCA team. He asked if I would be interested in helping him with starting an advanced 12u/13u YMCA team. We put together four kids from my intermediate 11u team and four of his nephews, to form team Mambas.
Game 1 - April 6th
(no pictures, we were attending a funeral)
What I was told about the game was that we were tentative but competitive. We lost 31-37.
Game 2 and 3 - April 13th
We started our first of two games at 8am in Andover. Silas and I were the first ones in the parking lot at 7:15. We were able to get into the gym about 7:25 for some pregame shooting.
Silas started the game and played alright. He had a few rushed shots that he missed and made a three pointer. We were up in the game by 10 for most of the game. The other team hit a few baskets in the last 15 seconds to make the game closer than it actually was. We won 31-34.
The second game was played right after the first game. This was a rematch against the team that we played Game 1 of the season. This is a 13u team (keep in mind that most of our kids are 11, one is 9, and one is 12. They were tall and outrebounded us. Thankfully they were not making many of their put backs. We won 32-26. Silas didn't have any points (don't recall him shooting) but played some tough defense and rebounded well.
Popee was there to watch.
Game 4 and 5 - April 20th
We had another double header. The first game was at 8am and the next at 9am. We have found that we are noticeably the smaller team in all our games. We have to work harder than the other team for rebounds and to shoot good shots. Today was not our best effort.
Silas did make a three pointer and had a good drive where he got fouled and made the basket. He missed the free throw. We only shot about 25% for free throws. This first game against the Saints was a game we should have won easily. We were down 14 with 7 minutes left.
We came back with a fury and were down 2 with 20 seconds left. Arnez shot a three with 4 seconds left and swished it. We won by one. It was exciting, but again was a game we should have easily won.
The next game was against a team that we knew would be tough. They had a kid that looked like a high school offensive lineman. He shoved Silas once going for a loose ball and Silas was displaced about 3'.
We lacked intensity the whole game and got down as much as 19 points. We ended up losing by 11. Silas did well with rebounding and making hustle plays. He did miss two free throws at the end of the game that could have gotten the loss to less than double digits. We are currently 3-2. Not bad for a group of 11 year olds playing predominantly 12 and 13 year olds.
Game 6 - April 27th
We followed up last week's "not our best" games with our best game of the season. The team we were playing looked like a bunch of middle schoolers.
The guy jumping for the other team has armpit hair.
For the most part, my role on the bench is to get players subbed in and keep them motivated and focused on the game.
Silas has been playing good defense and rebounding well. He only shot one shot, a three pointer, which he made.
Those other guys (behind our bench) are dads of players on our team.
Silas has been the 6th man recently (first off the bench) and is playing 15-20 minutes a game.
Keeping them motivated.
The other team started out making three threes and we were down 7 quickly. We fought back and it was a close game throughout. We were up two and made two free throws with 1 second left to win by four, 34-30. Loved our effort and fighting spirit today.
Game 7 and 8 - May 4th
The last two games of the regular season. Silas missed the 9 am game due to his DUDES 5K race which was at the same time. We beat the team by 17 and played well I was told.
The second game was against an athletic team that thankfully didn't shoot that well.
They were good at driving to the basket for shots.
Silas plays tough defense and is one of the best hustlers on the team.
We were ahead most of the game but it was close the entire game.
We ended up winning 34-30 but we made two free throws with 2 seconds left to ice the game.
Tournament Game - Tuesday, May 7th 7:30 pm
We were supposed to play at 5:30, but that team took a forfeit. We had a good two hour warm up for the 7:30 game against the team that beat us earlier in the year by 10.
The team was really tall and Phoebe said two of the boys on that team are in her class (8th grade)at HW. Most of our boys are 5th graders.
#4 is a big man and athletic (He is one of the boys in Phoebe's class). We had trouble getting rebounds.
Our tall guys got in foul trouble. One fouled out and the other had 4 fouls.
I like that Silas was trying to block out the big guy (below).
There other tall guy, #11, is about my height.
Silas played a lot in the paint today.
I liked his confidence with his shot but when you have three people on you, its best to pass. Silas did swish his first three point shot.
We were playing against the trees, but we definitely out hustled them.
If you can't get your hand to the ball, put it in their face. Its hard to make a shot when your vision is cut off. Good job Silas.
We kept it close but ended up falling short 34-28. For the most part we were an elementary school team playing middle school teams, and we finished with a 6 win and 3 loss record. It was a great season, and we are keeping the team together for the summer session. Our coach is doing a great job with these boys, and I am glad that Silas and I are a part of it.
