If you've followed this feature for any length of time, you've likely noticed that I post regular, somewhat tongue-in-cheek updates on my son's (and my daughter's) various teams. If you've read these breathless dispatches, you've also noticed that, in the main, my son has played on teams that haven't been especially, ahem, successful. But right now things are very different. And it's making me a little queasy.
Big Blue, my son's in-house Irondale basketball team, is off to a 3-0 start in the 7-8 in-house league. All three games have been routs, including the last one, a 72-29 thrashing of another Irondale team. As has been the case with most of these teams, I've been serving as an assistant coach, mostly because my voice carries pretty well. While my son really has enjoyed the experience of playing with a group of very talented kids, especially at an in-house level, winning by 43 points is problematic. It's no fun for the kids on the other team. I know, because 2 years ago Ben was on a basketball team that lost a game 70-6.
As it happens, a couple of the kids on Ben's team this year were on the team that did the thrashing 2 years ago. Both of these kids are fine young men and are good sportsmen -- they do not play unfairly, but they and their teammates have significantly more talent than some of the kids on other teams. And as a result, they are dominating. We've seen some of the other teams that our lads will face later on and there's no reason to believe that these teams will fare much better than the teams we've played thus far against our talented squad. It's good for Ben, because he'll have a lot of fun playing on a winning team. The key is to keep games from turning into this (initial part of this link not safe for work). That is my job this year, because it's no fun to get your butt kicked when you're a 13-year old kid. Teaching basketball is only part of the process. Teaching good sportsmanship is much more important.
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