These Girls Got Game

I had the pleasure of attending my mentee's high school basketball game last night, and I must say that I was impressed. These girls weren't very tall, and this was a Class D game, but they greatly exceeded my expectations. My mentee's team (who won the game) had about 60 points at the end of the third quarter. 14 points in the first quarter, 23 points in the second, and at least another 23 in the third. These are 8 minute quarters. One girl had to have about 30 points just from draining 3's. I must say when I first got there, I was not expecting too much based on the physical maturity of the girls and what I believed to be their skill-set, but they blew all that out of the water after I watched my mentee take another girl off the dribble and slash to the hole about two minutes after I sat down. And the three point shots were raining from all over the court.

I have to say one of my favorite parts of the game was near the end, when the team was up by 30+ points, and the coach cleared the bench. One girl who is an obvious team favorite and probably doesn't get to play or shoot much. Well, this night, the ball landed in her arms and she instinctively threw it back up - and into the basket. Her entire team - on the bench and on the floor - was jumping up and screaming. That's why we love sports.

It was encouraging to see this level of basketball coming from an every day program, not some high school powerhouse. They have their district finals on Friday night and I will certainly be in attendance.

I will add that I was a little disheartened that the losing team, in contrast to the team that won, had not one friend or family member in attendance, and can't help but wonder if that contributed to their play during the evening. I can't imagine having played sports without my parents there, but I know everyone does not have that support. But they can . . . mentor a kid, folks. It really makes a world of difference even if you don't think that it will.

Congrats to the Lady Vikings!