Silas - Basketball Season

**Guest Blogger**

Eric Hendrickson

Game 1 - 12/5/20

I am helping coach Silas's 1st and 2nd grade team again this year with Coach Dustin and Coach Jeremy.  Dustin is a fantastic coach and I use much of what I learn from him with this younger group and implement it with my older girls team.  Stacee and I are both thankful that Silas gets to have Dustin for a coach again this year.

This league plays both boys and girls, coed for 1st and 2nd grade teams.  We have 10 players with three of them being girls.  We break up our 10 players into (2) 5 person groups and each group plays (2) quarters each game.

Silas played well forcing several turnovers and making a few baskets.

Silas had a full court layup.  No one could keep up with Silas on the court, even when he was dribbling.

The other team was unable to score so Silas was not asked to score much this game.

We won the game 20-0.

Both groups had a good first game and I believe we will be hard to beat this year.

Game 2 - 12/12/20

We played another great game this Saturday morning.  Stacee wasn't at the game because she was at Sarah's game so I had to sneak in a few pictures while coaching.

Silas had several steals.  No one on the court was as fast as he was, even when he was dribbling full court for a layup.

We have to hold Silas back from scoring and ask him to work on his passing so others on the team can score.

Silas scored 16 of the 32 points as we won 34-7.  

Game 3 - 1/9/21

Silas had to miss this game due to Covid.  We did win 16-2.  I was told the kids played well, especially on defense.

Game 4 - 1/16/21

Silas came off of Covid quarantine and was able to play this game.  It was a rematch against the first team we played this year.

We started off strong but didn't end that well.  We were a little hesitant on defense.

Silas played well.  He had 12 of the 26 points.  He had many steals and played hard.  I could tell he was a little out of game shape from missing the past few weeks with Covid.  Ending score was 26-12.

Game 5 - 1/23/21

We didn't have our best defensive game last week so we focused on defense at practice this week and it really paid off.

The kids were focused and played hard.

Silas had 16 points and some good assists.  He is the fastest kid on the court, even when he is dribbling.  He did a good job at making his fast break layups but struggled on short shots and the few jumpers that he shot.

We won the game 34-6.

Game 6 - 1/30/21

Last game of the year.

Pretty good form, Silas.

He got fouled on this layup (above) and still made it.

It wasn't our best game but we still won easily for an undefeated season.  This is our second year in a row of being undefeated.  Final score was around 18-2.  Silas had 12 points.

Silas is very good and fast with the ball in his hands.  He is good at layups and has a pretty good shot.  He will need to work on making left handed layups and his jumpshot.  He looks like he will be a good basketball player when he gets to play in school.

I really enjoy coaching this age of kids and really enjoyed coaching with Dustin.  I learned a lot from him and have implemented much of what I have learned with my older girl teams.  Next year I will be coaching Silas in 3rd-4th grade boys.  I hope to have the kids that move up from this team on next years team.

Back Row (left to right): Me, Landon, Blake, Silas, Fisher, Emmitt, Coach Dustin

Fron Row (left to right): Estell, Braelynn, Carlo, Bryden (missing Korah)

Phoebe - Basketball Season

**Guest Blogger**

Eric Hendrickson

Game 1 - 12/5/20

We had our first 5th-6th grade girls (in our case we have (2) 4th graders also) basketball game.  Coach Kris, Coach Steve, and I have spent the past month preparing the girls for today.

We have 10 girls on the team and all are to get equal playing time so I equally split our girls into (2) 5 person teams and play each for alternating 4 minute time blocks.

During the pre-game, the girls expressed some timidity because the other team was mostly sixth graders and were significantly taller than us.  I told them to out hustle them and that would equalize the height.

Phoebe played post so she was on the tallest girl.  We started out the game with a full court layup and held the lead the entire game.  Phoebe played great and I called her the Dominator after the game.

She did a great job of rebounding and forced (7) jump balls, got on the ground to get loose balls, showed a lot of hustle, and played excellent defense.  She also made a few baskets.

We have a lot to improve upon, but it was a good first game.  We won 16-12.

Game 2 - 12/12/20

Stacee wasn't at this game and my phone was used to live stream the game, so no pictures.  We played a good team and we played them pretty well.  Unfortunately, we lost 10-2.  It was a 2 point game until the last quarter.  Unfortunately, we couldn't make any baskets.  Nothing to hang our heads; we played a good game.

Phoebe scored our only basket.

Game 3 - 1/9/21

Phoebe and I were out with Covid so we missed this game.  We won against this Mulvane team.

Game 4 - 1/23/21

We played against another Haysville team today.

We started with a man defense but stopped running it after the first period.  I prefer to run a man defense but it has been unsuccessful this year.

Coach Kris and I were talking to the girls about playing with some energy as they were flat.

It wasn't the teams best effort today but we did win 12-4.  Phoebe didn't score but had some good rebounds and played aggressively.

Game 5 - 1/30/21

We got to finish out the season with a double header.  The first game was against the best team in the league.

The opposing team had a girl who was very good.  I knew this prior to the game, so we implemented a new defense.  The defense is a box and one.  Four girls play a zone and one plays a man on man against there best player.  When Phoebe was in, she was playing the man to man position because she is our best defender.  

As you can see, the other team was much taller than us.  We probably gave up 20 points from them getting easy put backs from offensive rebounds.

We scored the first basket of the game but were down 20-2 after the first period.  Coach Kris and I made it clear that we had to out hustle the other team.  For the most part, we did out hustle them the rest of the game.  The ending score was 31-8.  Lack of rebounding and the ability to make easy shots is what hurt us the most.  Overall, I thought they played well.

Above, Phoebe, Shawna, Haylee, and Abigail

Game 6 - 1/30/21

The girls had to play right after the next game.  They were a little tired and it showed.

It was a disappointing game.  This was a team we could have beat but ended up losing 12-6.

We ended up the season 3-3.  We were a young team.  There are three girls (Payton, Abigail, and Illysia) that are moving on to 7th grade, so the rest of the girls should be back next year.  Thanks for a fun year girls and coaches.

Back Row (left to right): Me, Hayden, Phoebe, Haylee, Payton, Abigail, Coach Kris

Front Row (left to right): Chloe, Grace, Shawna, Shae, Illysia, and Coach Steve