Day 911 | 3,2,1…. DUNKERS!
Day 911 | 3,2,1…. DUNKERS!
When I was a kid I absolutely lived for soccer. I played from a really early age and loved it. So when the opportunity came for Hudson to play soccer in Kinder a few years ago, we jumped at the chance.
I showed him skills that I had, did training in the backyard and taught him how to ‘zone back’ and defend his goal. Come the first game he was more prepared than any other kid out there. In the 1st half he went out and wouldn’t go near the ball. For the 2nd half he mixed it up and did a combo of flirting with the cute girl on his team, hanging off the goals trying to do flips and avoiding the ball at all costs.
After that season was done he said that soccer wasn’t his thing. And for me, selfishly it hurt a little. I had thoughts of him being a little soccer star for years to come. But that was my vision, not his.
Last year we gave sport a miss. But this year he desperately wanted to play basketball. We remembered the soccer days so resigned to the fact that it might be the same but backed him in anyway.
Basketball season begins and we as a team haven’t trained at all, most have never played and we rock out on the court with a coach that has never even played a game in his life (me).
This game and the next one to follow were hard to watch. We were soundly beaten both games and while they had a massive go, it was obvious we were struggling to keep up as a team. But something strange was happening. Our guys were having the time of their lives. It showed me very quickly that it was kids basketball (not the olympics) and they needed to just enjoy it.
From that point we trained once a week, laughed at everything, made up nicknames for each other, had half time oranges along with full time mixed lollies and tried to make it as fun as it could possibly be.
We ended up winning some games and having a genuine blast along the way. Hudson grew across the season, mostly through his teammates giving him loads of confidence and belief in himself.
He was certainly no Michael Jordan but that kid bloody loves basketball and can’t wait until next season comes around. Truth be told, neither can the coach.
#coachdad #dunkers #hudson365