A while back we were talking to Hallie about sports. We were lamenting the fact that we never had her play a team sport. She plays tennis and loves it – but she’s on her own and hasn’t ever experienced a team. We even suggested she look into the sports the school offers and perhaps try one of those.
Just before spring break she came home with a flyer for basketball tryouts. Basketball wasn’t the sport I was thinking she could easily pick up with little experience – but it’s the last sport of the school year and she wanted to tryout.
Her basketball experience has been limited. She has a decent shot because she plays pig and speed but she didn’t know anything else about the sport. We spent two whole weeks teaching her the basics. She was out there every single day practicing. Shooting. Dribbling. You name it – she was working on it.
After three days of tryouts, she knew they would be cutting four girls and she thought she was in the bottom group. But she was happy she tried out and she had a good time. After waiting through the longest weekend ever, we drove her to school Monday morning so she could go and see if her name was on the roster. She came walking back to the car and I was trying to read her body language. Then a huge smiled formed across her face and she mouthed the words, “I made it.”
I have not seen that girl work so hard at anything and I was so happy her hard work paid off. There are a lot of girls more experienced than her and she’s working on being aggressive (which isn’t in her nature), but she is loving being on a team. The first game, the first time she got the ball, she looked back at us over her shoulder with pure panic in her face. As if to say, “What am I supposed to do with this ball!?” Luckily, we haven’t had any further incidents like that!
So proud of this girl!
