Today was, if I may borrow one of the slang words of our students, dog water (apparently that is negative).

#heeheeyousaiddogwater

Hush.

We go on an A/B day cycle and one day has a decidedly different feel than the other. Back when I first started here, my grade partner and I would comment on how one class just had a different feel than the other. That’s what this cycle feels like right now.

Today was supposed to be my better day.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Kids who’d never been mouthy were suddenly so. Kids who’d never been disrespectful suddenly were. Technology issues were had. I had a walk-through where I didn’t have some information posted. I’ve not been very up on myself anyway for a number of reasons, but I was ready to print off my resignation and be done.

#seriously

Well, ok, not that serious, but it was a sucky day all around.

Until practice.

Now, I’ve got a team this year that I have no idea how they’ll turn out. We’ve got two shooters. We’ve got girls who are straight-up great athletes. We’ve got a couple of girls who could be enforcers on the floor. And I watched today as some girls cut up their teammates with different passes. Several times, I had to turn away because we could be okay this year. Very ok. But having these girls as sixth graders, then for a semester as 7th graders, and now as 8th graders, they are not good with adversity. If things go wrong, they turn on each other pretty quickly. So I’m cautiously optimistic after what I’ve seen after two days of practice.

Anyway, today, was a good day for them. Girls talked. Girls shot. Girls communicated with each other. Girls didn’t argue. Girls didn’t mouth out. Girls were coachable (and for me. this is the one that is a big deal in the end). Honestly, without this practice today, I’m not sure where my head would be tonight, writing. Heck, I know I wouldn’t be writing this blog that is for sure!

So, two weeks from today we have our first game. And my hope, we are competitive in front of the home crowd. Granted, there’s not much chatter about middle school basketball, but we all want to see an entertaining game.

It’s a two-month season, so I’m hoping that we are able to keep our cool, keep our composure, keep our sanity (seriously), and keep digging me from the depths of despair because right now, this is what’s keeping me sane and happy. I don’t like the teacher that I saw today and basketball (for me) won’t be in season forever.

However, I’ll take it. I’ll take the joy I saw when a girl, who’s not in the “in crowd” made a heck of a steal and got a bunch of high fives. I’ll take the work they put in. I’ll take the team that I saw today.

Because that team could have some fun with other groups. We may not always win, but I just don’t see us getting destroyed.

And that’s all I can ask for. Great effort. Great smiles. Great results.