Upward Bball 2019 - Week 6

** Guest Blogger **

Eric Hendrickson

Silas Game #6 vs. Storm - February 16th

Silas played well and made 8 baskets.

Look at him jumping for this shot and doing layups.

Grandma Sharon was the superfan this week.  She came up on Wednesday to spend some time with us and to watch their games.  She got to see the best games for each of them so far this Upward season.

Phoebe Game #8 vs. Rockets - February 16th

Another rematch with the team that has beat us twice in a row (if you recall one week they didn't play their line-ups properly and the last week we played them they played an illegal defense, not that I am keeping track).  Our girls were pumped up and ready to go.

I nicknamed Phoebe, Shutdown, after this game because she shutdown this black-haired girl who is the best girl on the other team.

The girls did a good job of setting screens and making easy shots.

To keep the other team from playing their illegal defense (they are to be within an arm's length of the player they are guarding), I spread the girls out away from the basket, which forced the other team to come out and play on their person.  We then set screens and drove to the basket.

Phoebe made 1 of 2 free throws and 7 baskets ending up with 15 points.  5 of our 7 girls scored.  We ended up winning 37-28.

I was disappointed after last week's games, but thrilled after this week's game.  I very much enjoyed handing out stars this week for some much deserving girls.

Sarah Game #6 vs. Celtics - February 16th

We kept the momentum of Phoebe's game rolling into Sarah's game.

Much like last week, I told the girls that Sarah and Amiyah would be doing much of the ball handling for this game.

We played shutdown defense and offense.  The other team likes to do the Charles Barkley backdown where they basically just put their butt into your midsection and keep pushing backwards as they dribble.  I told the girls to fall back and they would call a charge.  Sarah did this and even exaggerated the flop.  It was great and they called the girl for a charge. 

After the first period, I told our girls the goal was to score 40 points.  We came up just short 38-6.  Sarah had 18 points (the only negative was she missed all 4 of her free throws).  4 of our 5 girls scored.  One had 8 and two others had 6.  Our girl who didn't score had several shots.  It was good to see everyone scoring and getting an opportunity to score.

Grandma Sharon got to see the kids play some great games.

Upward Bball 2019 - Week 5

**Guest Blogger**

Eric Hendrickson

Silas Game #5 vs. Clippers - February 9th

Silas got to play against Coach Dustin's team this week.  He was his coach last year (he is also my chiropractor).

Silas played well and made a long range shot, which was too far out for him to be shooting.  He had 8 baskets.

Super Fans - Silas had two of his teachers come watch.

Phoebe Game #7 vs. Sun - February 9th

We played Haylee and Shawna's team this week.  Although they were winless, I watched the first half of their first game and they were leading the other team by half.  I could see that they were much improved and ready to play.

It was a 10-9 game at halftime.

We played well enough to win, but missed too many open shots.  We ended up losing 25-21.  Congratulations to the other team for their first win of the year.

Sarah Game #5 vs. Celtics - February 9th
For our last game, I intentionally kept the ball out of Sarah and another girl's hands to give some other girls opportunities to handle the ball and score.  For this game I planned on having those two girls get more opportunities.

I figured we would win in blow away fashion, but the other team was motivated to keep it close.

We were missing a lot of shots and playing flat.

We ended up winning the game, but only 20-8.  Sarah had 10 points.

Both teams I coached lacked motivation today.  I will take the blame for that.  I will do a better job of getting them motivated next week.  Super fans this week, Popee and Nanee cheered on the Hendrickson kids at all three games.

Upward Bball 2019 - Week 4

** Guest Blogger **

Eric Hendrickson

Silas Game #4 vs. Nuggets - February 2nd

Silas's team was playing against his friend Gavin's team.

Silas always irritates the person he is guarding because he sticks on them like glue.

Silas has been working on layups and doing a pretty good job.

Phoebe Game #5 vs. Sun - February 2nd
Phoebe's team, the Supersonics, got to play back to back games today.

All the girls were there and ready to go.

We practiced doing screens this week, and the girls did a good job of utilizing them in the game.  Phoebe does an excellent job of moving off the screen.

Phoebe shot some free throws and had a nice form.  We won 34-24 and Phoebe had 24 points.

Phoebe Game #6 vs. Rockets - February 2nd
We played another game immediately after the first one.

Phoebe started off the day not feeling well.  She had a much harder time the second half but she pushed through with all her might.

Phoebe played good defense against a girl who is very good, fast, and aggressive.

In this league, the teams are to play man-to-man defense.  The other team's coach decided to run a zone with all his players in the lane.  It made it difficult to score and he would not get out of the zone even after he was told to do so by the referees and me.  Very frustrating.  We couldn't run our normal offense against the zone and we ran out of gas.  We lost the game 30-20.  Phoebe had a lot of shots that didn't fall and ended up with 1 point.

Sarah Game #4 vs. Celtics - February 2nd

Sarah's team, the Nets, were geared up to play.  For this game, I wanted to put the ball in the hands of our girls that haven't scored often this year.

The other team played better and used an offense that set some screens.

Sarah shot (4) free throws, making (2).

We won 20-10.  Sarah had (4) points and passed the ball extremely well.

Good job playing basketball this weekend.