Coaching Girls 4th Grade Travel Basketball - A Spleen Dynasty

[spleen1015]

Last Wednesday and Thursday, my daughter had travel basketball tryouts. Late Thursday night, we found out that she had made the 4th grade B team. There are 7 girls on the A and B teams. One of the things mentioned in the email was that they needed someone to volunteer to be the head coach. I thought about it, but didn't really feel like doing it so I didn't volunteer.

On Friday morning, the commissioner asks one of the other dads if he can do it and he declines because he feels he doesn't have the time. The commish asks this dad if he knew any of the other dads and did he think any of them would be capable of coaching. I know this dad from softball. I coached his daughter this past Spring, so he mentioned me to the commish.

The commish gives me a call and asks me if I am interested. I'd say he basically guilts me into it. He tells me that there hasn't been any one else to step up. When I tell him that I have no basketball coaching experience he asks me how much softball coaching experience I have. So, I end up accepting. Now I am a 4th grade travel basketball coach. Coach K started some where, right?

So, Friday afternoon, I'm the coach. We played our first 2 games yesterday. We haven't practiced together. The girls know each other, but I only know 2 of the girls on the team. I know who some of them are, but they don't know me.

Here's the roster:

MW - She is the smallest player on the team, but she is the hardest working. She is likely going to be the PG most of the time. She's just a great little athletic kid that plays aggressively.

EH - You can tell that EH hasn't played a lot of team sports. Talking to her dad yesterday, I learned that she has done a lot of ballet and gymnastics. She's not going to be a starter.

SN - This is the daughter of the dad who recommended me as the coach. She's another aggressive kid and she will likely be the SG. My only problem with her is when she gets the ball, she's going to shoot it. She only passes the ball to 1 person, my daughter.

TL - She might be the best player on the team. She wasn't there yesterday, but if it is who I think it is, then she is going to be a good player to have on the team. She'll be the SF.

AH - This is another girl that hasn't played very much. She's also going to be my biggest headache. She complained a lot yesterday. She's going to be the 2nd person off the bench.

HM - This is my daughter. She'll be the PF. She's always been the biggest kid in every sport she has played. That's not the case on this team! We need to work on her layups, A LOT! She shoots the ball way too hard and she misses a lot of easy shots because of it. She needs to learn 'touch'.

KT - This kid was born 2 days after the birthday deadline for grades. So, she's likely the oldest 4th grader in the district. Her dad is 6'5 and her mom is 6'0. At 10 years old, she is 5'6. She's going to be the biggest player on the floor pretty much every game. I am surprised she didn't get put on the A team. She has been so big her whole life. She's a gentle giant. She's afraid she's going to hurt someone, so she's not very aggressive. She's obviously going to be the C.

I'll get into how yesterday went with my next post.