We’ve spent the last two months doing something that brings me joy: coaching basketball.

#themostwonderfultimeoftheyear

I’m doing a little bit of cheating tonight. After each game, I post on my Facebook page a recap of what happened. While I don’t have many parents from my current school, people enjoy reading it all the same. Because tonight was our last game (wins by the way!), I thought I’d share that post. We’ve had a very good season, and I will miss coaching these girls. They’ve made me laugh, made me swear, but most of all, made me realize that I really do love doing this crazy thing! 🙂

#andyouwillkeepdoingitright

You bet I will!

My final recap:

Game 11 – Central @ home

These are the final games of our season! It’s hard to imagine that on October 20th, we started out, not knowing what kind of team we’d be coaching. This team has exceeded our expectations in so many ways. While they are teenagers and bring all that teenage nonsense with them, they are girls who have good character, who care about each other, and who want to do their best. For that, we really hit the jackpot. As we talked about yesterday in our circle, today is their final time together, so make it count. And they did just that. 🖤❤

(And we do love beating Central. Our 8th graders last year pulled off the “upset” and we wanted to keep that momentum going.)

7th Grade: 33 – 20 Postville win Final Record: 9 – 2

I’ll preface this by saying these girls just want to play. Central wanted to play four quarters in both games. We presented this to the girls, to let them decide, because 4 quarters is tough to manage with 10 girls. They said, without hesitation, “Let’s go!!” So we did. Our two best players did not play in the fourth quarter, so the score doesn’t reflect the game flow, but our 5 players who looked for those two to bail them out got a great taste of “you are on your own, find a way”. While they struggled, they also did not give up. They were dog tired by the end of the game, but all in all, the game was well in hand. Overall, a very satisfying win over a team we love to beat!

8th Grade: 33 – 32 Postville win Final Record: 6 – 5

I reminded our three 8th graders that Central did not let up on them last year, beating them 30 – 4. I talked with them about how if they didn’t play next year, it would be their last time wearing the Postville jersey. All three took that to heart as they played possibly the best game of their career. One played just terrific defense and was all over the floor. She was sad she was on the bench at the end of the game, because she really wanted to foul out (🙄). One scored 6 points, more then she’d ever scored, and one just played like she wanted to be there. We couldn’t have asked for anything more from the three. Our problem, junior high girls can only play 6 quarters in a day. Not a problem for teams who agreed to play 3 quarter games. Of course, we get into the flow of the game, and I start subbing how I normally would. Bad move. I had a chart filled out, ready to go, and suddenly, it was a mess. There was a lot a cursing under my breath and split second decision to keep our girls “legal”. Our good post got two quick fouls, and didn’t score in the first half, and we were only down by 5 points. We came out in the second half and showed some grit. While we didn’t have the whole team to draw from, we had just enough to win. Again, it’s never a bad day when you beat Central.

I need to give a few thank yous as we wrap this season up. I cannot imagine how I coached 7th and 8th graders so long at NFV without Melissa by my side. She’s that calming presence on our team, the mom to my pop in this organization as we are coaching. It’s been a fun three years doing this, and I think we’ll keep going. Thank you to Mary, Meca, and Denise Imoehl for covering our classrooms when we’d have to go on away games. We’d always know our classrooms were in good hands when we walked out to either ride or drive to different gyms. Thank you to Brad for organizing this whole mess. He has a thankless job, and we appreciate the work that he does as our AD. A big thank you to each and every parent who trusts us with their daughters over the course of two months. Your trust means the world to us! Please convince your daughters that going out for basketball next year is a good thing! Thank you to Tonya for the amazing Christmas cookies! She’s become a fan through these posts, and asked us last weekend if she could treat our girls at their last game. Who were we to say no?!?! The girls squealed with delight as we opened up the container for them at the end of the game. They enjoyed the treat for sure! And finally, thanks to everyone who read this nonsense. This is so cathartic to me to just put to words how everything goes: good, bad, or otherwise. It’s humbling to know that people find this so interesting!

Until next year, Go Pirates! 🖤❤