Basketball

Ethan is playing on an Upward Basketball team this season. For those of you that are not familiar with the Upward program it is a sports ministry run out of local churches. They have devotionals with each game and practice and the program really works to make the game fun and rewarding for all the children no matter what their skill level is. Today was Ethan's first game - he was very excited! Of course, we didn't really know what to expect since Ethan's never really played basketball before, they have only had two practices, and most of the dribbling 5-year-olds are hilarious to watch. But, the coaches did a great job training the kids and the program is very organized (each pair of kids have different colored arm sweat bands to wear so they can identify who they should be guarding which is determined by height).

All the kids did great! There were a few free-for- alls as the children tried to catch runaway balls and several times when kids stole the ball right out of the hands of another child, but considering the fact that it was the first game I was impressed with how much it looked like a real game. In fact, Ethan made a basket!!! Of course, HG and I were sitting on the bleachers watching it all with the camera and video camera in our lap so I don't have any pictures of it. And after the game we realized our camera was on the wrong setting so most of our pictures came out fuzzy, but here are two that came out ok. You can double-click on the photos to enlarge them and see them better.




























At the end of each game the coach gives out iron-on stars for the kids shirts and a word of praise, for example, they did the best job encouraging their team, they had the best defense, they showed the most Christ-like character. Ethan got the best offense award for this game, which is amazing since only a couple of weeks ago he did nothing but granny shots.