First Basketball Game

Carter had his very first basketball game last Saturday.  His team is the Tigers and their uniforms are orange.  Brian got to choose any name and color he wanted (there were no limits).  That made it hard for him to choose so he let Carter come up with something.

All of Carter's games are at an elementary school gym about 10 minutes from our house (Trinity Elementary).  The school is a lot older and really makes us appreciate our elementary school!

Carter's first game experience was a little rough.  The kids play 3 v 3 and all 6 of the kids on his team have never played before.  The team he was playing against had 2 or 3 boys that have played together on their team for 3 years (according to one the parents on that team).  And they were really, really, really good.  They understood the game and could not miss a shot.  Luckily there is a cap to how many points an individual can score (14 points) so their baskets eventually stopped being counted.  Even though our team has improved tremendously in practice and scrimmaged the last practice so they could understand the game better, they seemed very lost on Saturday.  They were a bit overwhelmed and seemed to forget what they were supposed to do and they were not aggressive at all with defense and rebounds.  But they did get a little better as the game went on and I think tomorrow will be a little better.  Basketball actually has a lot of rules and is pretty complicated for 5 and 6 year olds to understand after just a few practices.

The final score of the game was 42 to 2.  Fisher made one basket and I so wish I got it on video.  He was so excited!  He ran around the court with the biggest goofy smile.  He gave Brian a high five and smiled so big at the parents watching.  I think everyone in the gym was cheering for him!

I tried to take some pictures on Saturday but only got in a few before Grayson got fussy and needed a lot of attention (a screaming baby is super loud in a gym!).

Joey passing the ball in to Carter ...

Brian started having Carter pass the ball in because Carter is a little scared of the ball hitting him in the face and often gets out of the way of a hard pass ...

Carter about to pass the ball ...

Carter dribbling up the court ...

Carter and Fisher (the one that scored our only basket).

A short video of Carter dribbling up the court (we need to teach our team that the refs don't call double dribbling right now - we kept picking up our dribble and trying to pass the ball which would get stolen almost every time).

Carter has another game tomorrow.  I'm excited to see the kids play again!