Spencer signed up for Sandy City Jr. Jazz mostly because they practice and play less than a mile from our house. Usually my kids are placed with other kids from their same school or schools nearby but this time he was placed on a team all from around Brighton High area and everyone except Spencer were friends and all on the same soccer team but none of them had ever played basketball.
Days before the season started, a plead for a coach was emailed out. Sundance prevents Bart from committing to coaching in January, Luckily someone else took the job. Soon we got a text from a mom saying she signed up because there was no other volunteers but would love some help because she knows zero about basketball. Bart told me to text back he would help coach if she's ok with him being gone a couple of weeks in January. She gladly accepted and said she would do all the communication if he would run the practices and games.
The First practice was a disaster. One boy got hit in the face the first time someone passed him the ball and decided he didn't want to touch the ball again. No one except Spencer had ever dribbled or even passed the ball.
The first game didn't go any better. The final score was 0 to 32. Spencer was so discouraged thinking his team sucks so bad. Bart wasn't discouraged because he saw a lot of hustle and heart. Things he said you can't teach someone. I was nice to watch Bart coach with constant encouragement for each boy.
Throughout the season the team improved a little each game but they were still losing. Around the middle of January the weather was so mild that Spencer started playing driveway basketball everyday afterschool with a couple other boys a little older than him. Many nights they would play for hours. One night well after dark I told Spencer it was time to come in and he said "I can't until the tournament is over." He was smiling and gloating all over the place when he finally came in all sweaty and out of breath saying he finally won!!!
That next game a very confident Spencer stepped on the court. Any chance he got he would steal the ball and make a fast break down for an easy lay up. The kid who would shy away from shooting if someone was up in his space guarding him had no problems driving the ball past them and putting up a shot.
Spencer led his team to their first victory scoring 25 of the 29 points for his team. It's amazing what a whole lot of driveway basketball can do! The next few games Spencer killed it in his games but also started looking around and seeing how to help his teammates improve. During one game in particular he had an open shot but noticed Ben under the basket and told me he thought "I could make this but I bet Ben would really love to make a point in the game." He passed him the ball and Ben made his first game basket. Spencer said "it was great to make all those points but I think I liked it better seeing en be able to make his first basket.
I loved watching him take a leadership role with his team. Bart and he would talk game a lot about what to work on in practice and made sure the others had opportunities to improve.
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