Saturday, January 31, 2009

Breathe. Must. Breathe.

I never imagined I'd be one of those parents.

The one that cheers a little too loud from the sidelines.

The one that coaches from the sidelines.

But here I am.

I just returned from my oldest's basketball game completely astounded.

Right now she's sitting on the couch, an icepack on each knee.

Why? Very nearly every time she took a shot, the defender knocked her down.

Flat.

To the floor.

Arms straight up only until she took the shot, then the hammer came down.

Venture a guess how many fouls were called?

Zero.

None.

Zippo.

With seven minutes to go, the whistle was blown to switch the girls out.

Rather than run to the bench, she ran to me crying.

After witnessing the other team's play, I couldn't blame her.

I walked her back over to her bench and sat down with her.

Asked her coach if the referees were allowed to call fouls loud enough everyone could hear me.

The other coach came over and asked if she was ok.

I just stared at him. She couldn't just 'sit out' - they were playing three on three and her team only had three girls show up. The other coach asked if they wanted to call the game.

I asked my daughter if she wanted to keep playing or quit.

She kept playing.

Right now, I'm trying to remember that this is supposed to be fun, and not call the director and bitch him out.

Just keep breathing.

...

4 comments:

MPPs Mom said...

oh man, her poor little knees!!

Unknown said...

someone needs to discuss the referee who DID NOT call the fouls.

Anonymous said...

I'm ready to bring the hammer down! Yeesh - that SUCKS. Give Big Girl a squeeze for me!
-Aunt Danielle

Anonymous said...

3 on 3's are frequently like this. It's worse when they are street tournaments. When my daughter played they were required to call the fouls themselves. It's always a tough balance to call some but not others so it doesn't turn into a foul match. I'd say if it happens once, let it go. If it happens again have her call the foul and learn to shoot really nice free throws!