Out of Our League and Victory Without Winning.

My daughter plays on the school's Tier 2 basketball team. The team consists of 7 players, 6 of them are in grade six, Kathryn is the only Grade 7 on the team. They struggle, they are new and inexperienced, and little, both in size and numbers. Most teams they play have double the numbers and more experienced grade 7 and 8 players. They haven't won a game yet...never even came close. But they keep at it and for the most part with a good attitude.

This weekend they played in a tournament in Raymond. The other teams participating in the tournament were Stirling and Gilbert Paterson. We knew we were playing teams that were way out of our league. The first game was against Stirling. The final score was something like 57-6. Our girls were exhausted after a lot of running down the court after the other team. Not much game play was really going on. Our girls were really struggling to get their passes through, most of the opposing players were quite a bit taller and could easily snag almost every over head pass. Rebounds were next to impossible. It was a rough game.

The second game was a few hours later against Gilbert Paterson. Once again the faced a team that was bigger, in numbers and size. This team was a pretty skilled team, and at first it started out like any other with our girls running down the court after the other team and no real play happening. But then something changed. The Paterson coach started make his girls work their plays. Even when they easily beat our girls down the court and could have put up an easy basket, they would stop in their tracks, pass the ball back out to the top of the key and set up their play. It even looked as though they may have been told to make a certain number of passes before they took a shot. But it gave our girls a chance to actually play the game. To try and defend against the plays the opposing team was setting up. Our girls were still struggling to get their passes through. I don't know a whole lot about basketball, but one thing I do know is that a bounce pass is more likely to make it to it's intended target than on over the head lob...especially when the opposing team is significantly taller. Late in the game when we did manage to put in a basket, the entire gym erupted with cheers. The boys running the score clock had been cheering for our girls the entire time. With every shot put up there were "OH"'s at the near misses. The final score was something like 47-2. But it really could have easily been double that. I really appreciated what the Paterson coach had done there. And wished that I would have had a chance to tell him so, but didn't see him after the kids came out of the dressing room.

Even with the change in the way the game was played, our girls left feeling completely defeated. Kathryn was in tears on the way home, she was exhausted and sore and discouraged. I asked her about the bounce passes and why they weren't doing that, explained about how I knew that a bounce pass was better than an over the head lob and encouraged her to try to use it more in the game the next day...A game that I was afraid was going to be the worst one yet. But I was wrong.

We were scheduled to play Raymond. A good nights sleep seemed to do the girls good. They were cheerful and ready to play. The first quarter was the same as every other game they have ever played. But then, once again, it changed and Raymond started to play the same sort of game that Paterson had played the night before and our girls were clearly all using the bounce pass instead of the over the head lob, and guess what? Their passes started making it to their intended target. I wondered if all the parents had given their girls a talking to the night before about the advantages of the bounce pass. In the second half the game changed again. I noticed Raymond relax just a little bit under our own net and not fight for rebounds quiet as hard. And our girls started putting baskets up...and making them...after a couple of rebounds. You should have seen our girls faces. They were over the moon. And ever so slowly our score started to creep up. And with every basket the crowd cheered. The boys at the score table cheered. The opposing players sitting on the bench cheered. The Raymond parents cheered. We cheered. It was awesome. With less than 3 minutes left in the game we were at 16, and I said to Tansley, "wouldn't it be great if they could make it to 20, but I don't think they can do it in 2 minutes". The final score, 44-24. It honestly brought me to tears. Then the girls came out of the change room looking like they had just won the tournament. Kathryn told me that the Raymond team had crashed their change room and they all had a little celebration.

Hey Comets! You guys rock! Thank you for giving our little Novas a little taste of victory! That is honestly how they felt. Kathryn said to me as she drank from her Powerade that had been awarded to her as player of the game "This is the taste of Victory!" They left that tournament on top of the world. What a difference from the night before. Thank you for the wonderful show of sportsmanship! That is true class. You made a difference in these girls lives this weekend. Thank you, thank you, thank you!