At the first practice, I realized I could not be a coach. Imagine 10 girls who have the attention span of a gnat. They're talking to each other, dancing, looking at each others shoes and hair, bouncing the ball and since they can't handle it, running around the gym recovering the ball. If you're lucky, two girls hear what you say. To try to get these girls to listen, understand what you say and, OMG, memorize plays seemed like an enormous and futile undertaking. I finally understood the expression my mother said to me: that I would lose my head if it wasn't attached to my body. I'm sure now I began to hear this expression at age eleven.
The first game was a slaughter. I think they lost by over 35 points and maybe just broke double digits. It was kind of like pee-wee soccer where everyone followed the ball around in a big clump. The girls were all too polite to grab the ball and didn't want to get anyone upset by sticking their hands up in front of another player to block the basket. Physical contact was to be avoided and they were appalled when the other team did so. They panicked when they actually got the ball and passed by throwing the ball up in the general area of their teammates, not noticing that the entire opposing team was between them and the other player. I know practically nothing about basketball so shouted all kinds of suggestions that didn't make sense from the stands. But, Erika and Sasha both made 2 baskets and said they were having fun so it was all good.
The second game for the Shooting Pandas (yes, a name meant to drive fear into the opposing teams) was much better. We still lost by a huge margin but the girls were actually playing better and starting to run plays. This meant the girls blindly ran to their spots without watching what was going on with the ball or forgot what what position they were supposed to be and then ran around in a panic banging into each other to get to their spot but it was progress.
By the third game, the parents had bonded together for support and were beginning to share comments in the stands. Mainly about how unfair the things were: #1) every girls who had never played basketball before was on our team (6 of 10 players), #2) we had the shortest players #3) the other teams cheated. They double and triple teamed our one good player, they played the ball or zone instead of man to man defense, they camped in the key, they pushed and elbowed and fouled our players. The other teams pressed when they were over 10 points ahead (they weren't supposed to) and the other coaches were just concerned about winning and kept putting their best players in when there was obviously no way our team could win. The referees didn't call fouls. This was supposed to be a "just for fun" league!
While the parents and coached complained to referees, other coaches and league organizers, the girls played. Every game those girls got better and better and every game they played their hearts out. They never gave up. They didn't resort to cheating. They kept playing and trying to win. They were awesome and we were so proud.
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