The amount of time and energy I spend getting my daughters to and from their athletic practices and events is immense. It definitely takes an emotional and financial drain on a parent. But that is why it is important the savor the priceless little moments of satisfaction that occur from time to time. I wanted to share three of them that I have experienced with my youngest daughter.
1. The Mistake in the Newspaper
During my youngest daughter’s freshman year, she had an outstanding game. She scored over 20 points scoring from beyond the arc and on the inside with some sweet post moves. Many of the post moves were finished with her left hand. In the stands during that game was a reporter for the Waukesha Freeman. The next afternoon he wrote a nice story about the team’s win and my daughter’s performance. He described her as the “Left-Handed Grace Grocholski.” This provided me with a big laugh and a lot of secret satisfaction. My daughter is right-handed. She had finished so well with her left hand that she fooled the reporter. My daughter has spent countless hours working on developing the ability to score with either hand. This was a definite validation that her efforts have paid off and made me feel outstanding.
2. Take her, Take her!!
My daughter does not have tremendous speed or jumping ability, but she is a big strong kid with a high basketball IQ. Since her high school team does not have much height, she is forced to play the post position for the good of the team. During the club season, however, she has always played shooting guard. While at a tournament two weekends ago in Saint Louis, a parent of the other team saw that my daughter, with her big strong frame, was guarding her daughter, who was shorter and much quicker. Every time down the court, she would yell, “Take Her, Take Her,” when her daughter had the ball. She, of course, meant that she wanted her daughter to drive to the basket right by my daughter. Well, her daughter tried on numerous occasions, but she got stopped or forced into a challenging shot. This made me smile on the inside. I love the fact that my daughter plays good head’s up defense. I wanted to yell back, “Not Today,” but I kept my composure.
3. Sure, I can do that, Coach
While my youngest daughter’s natural position is shooting guard, I have always felt it was important to play every position on the court. We invested hours into developing her ball-handling and passing skills so that she could run the point. We worked hard on her ability to drive and finish at the rim. Since my wife and I were former post players, you can bet that we worked on her ability to guard posts on the inside and develop a good offensive post-game. In the last game of the tournament we played in Saint Louis a couple of weekends ago, my daughter started the game as the shooting guard. Later in the game, she was asked to run the point guard position. About five minutes later, the bigs rotated out, and she found herself playing post position. I must say that this was quite satisfying to see her versatility in playing different positions on the court. I am hopeful that her ability to play different positions will make her more attractive to the colleges recruiting her.
I hope you enjoyed this account of the secret pleasures of a basketball dad. There is more content to come in the near future. Please subscribe at www.youthbasketballparent.com to get notified when each post is released.