Sometimes we have big plans for our kids. Or sometimes we don’t. Like how we never thought our kids would do sports really. Neil and I had forays into the world of sportsing but nothing that really stuck. Garyn appeared to be heading down the same hallowed path of geeky engineer, trod by many fine (if slightly uncoordinated) cerebral sorts before him. I happily classified horseback riding lessons as a sport and mentally checked that box on my “Well Balanced OffSpring” list that I have in my head for each of the monkeys.
Then he said he really wanted to play basketball. Wait. What? He has a friend at church who is an all around athlete and they started playing basketball at church activities. After a while Garyn wanted more. Well, long story short the internet told me our next closest town had a league starting and we made the cut off for registration by two days. His first game was tonight, and to hear him gush about how much fun he had…it makes my mom heart happy.

He’s not the best, but he’s not the worst on the team either. And for never having played…we’re ok with that. His coach is a good guy who knows what he’s doing and is super engaged. Couldn’t ask for a better introductory experience.

As a late Christmas present we sourced a hoop that needed a new home and he and Neil have been working hard.

The first game arrived and our boy is getting some lessons in nervous. We’ve figured out how to make his snazzy new basketball shoes much less slick and the warm up helped him settle his nerves a little. I also love that he randomly ended up as #5. That’s my favorite number and was always my soccer number when I played as a kid.

He had quite the cheering section. [The selfie of me and Layna didn’t turn out well, so my shoes prove I was there!] Watching him play, we think he just needs to spend time dribbling and dribbling while running everyday and he’ll be much more confident in actual games. But he hustled and did well.

It does feel good to make a free throw in your first game and he did just that. Totally nailed it.

There are a lot of valuable lessons to be learned from losing. But it’s really fun to be on a good team and win your first game. Best part was proably having grandma there to see it all. There are games once a week through February so here’s to a fun and exciting rest of the season!