Fifth grade basketball.

I watched my daughter play tournament basketball today. My daughter is in fifth grade.

There were only three teams competing at the fifth grade level (twice as many at sixth grade maybe), and one thing was very evident -- my daughter's team doesn't take it nearly as seriously as the other teams. And this is a good thing!

As you might expect, there are some obvious stand-outs on each of the teams -- kids that have some natural talent and ability, and some who need a lot of work. One girl on my daughter's team tends to stand around with her arms folded across her chest. One seems to never know if she's offense or defense from play to play, and one who is generally afraid of handling the ball (my daughter).

But despite all this, all eleven girls on my daughter's team played nearly equal minutes for the entire game. On the two opposing teams, the stand-outs hardly ever sat out. Needless to say, our team got beat pretty badly in each round.

However...! In both games, the score was tied at the half, and it was the second half in which our girls just got worn out. Not surprising ... they only get together once a week, and they either practice, or play a game/tournament. And when they do practice, they only get half the court (sixth grade works the other half), so no surprise that they get worn out in an entire game.

But what I like about the way our coach is handling this is that it gives each of the girls the confidence to play to the best of their ability and to decide if they really like playing. A person who sits on the bench an entire game doesn't know if it's fun playing or not. These girls aren't stupid...they know which girls are the better players and who to get the ball to.

I've seem much improvement in my daughter's playing and confidence since they started. In the past, the few times my daughter ever caught the ball she would simply stand still and look for someone to throw it to. Today I actually saw her dribble a few times, AND dribble through and around coverage...not just taking it down court! I also saw her go after a loose ball and tie up her opponent to force a jump ball. I NEVER would have expected to see her that aggressive at this stage.

For a meek, book-wormish girl, this sporting activity is doing wonders for her esteem and confidence and comraderie. And she's having fun! She talks about it often. Now if the coach were to bench her for all but two minutes or so, she likely wouldn't be interested in continuing. One might think, 'Okay, but would it be so bad if someone who isn't good, quits?' But you really don't know if they might not develop in to someone good, if you don't play them and work with them. Sure, my daughter isn't likely to be the next Lindsay Whalen (UofM star basketball player now in women's pro on the Connecticut Sun WNBA team [and an intentional pun as my wife's maiden name is Whalen]), but she could become a decent support player given the opportunity.

I think about this because I can clearly recall playing basketball as a fifth grader. I was talent-less in sports, but I liked the idea of basketball. But any actual games that we played, I was put in only during the last minute or two of a half, and usually only because the coach had to play everybody. That got only pretty quickly, and I certainly didn't want to continue with it.

Bravo coaches Wade and Benson for encouraging all the girls to play their best!