Atticus's Basketball Season

Atticus had a great basketball season this year! He was on the 3rd grade team called The Bulls at Central Church again and even had one kid on his team that was on it last year. His coach was Bill Thompson and his FIL, Frank. The coaches were great and really got the kids learning more about basketball and that was the goal! Atticus made 10 points this season and really got better and better at playing. This year, they played 6 periods that were 6 minutes each. The league tells you which players play in which periods so that everyone gets equal playing time all season. And, they only had 8 kids on their team, so when someone was out, that meant Atticus got even more playing time.

My favorite thing about watching Atticus was how his confidence grew this year. All he wanted last year and this year was to "get the ball". Every kid wants to get the ball to try to dribble and shoot. The season started out with him getting it and then dribbling backwards towards the goal until he got stuck. But, as it went on, he got better and better at dribbling, shooting, and moving the ball down the court. He was always really hard on himself if he thought he wasn't doing good or if he didn't get the ball, but that just comes with growing up and figure things out. But, the VERY best part of Atticus playing basketball? He jumps up with this little jump where this feet hook slightly underneath him when he makes a basket. He is SO proud and I always am so excited. And it's even more precious to me when he looked for me in the crowd to see my reaction. He had some great shots and did such a great job at defense this year. I was so proud of him and so was Vic! Because it's more work to bring all 6 of us, many times, only I would go with Atticus to his games. It was always special to have some one-on-one Atticus time.

After the last game, the coaches made it so special. The league gives out pizza and drinks to the team and while they eat, the coaches announced who won awards for things like defense, offense, hustle, etc. Well, those awards are given out by the league. But, our coaches also gave awards for character traits as well as chose game balls for each kids based on a game they really played well at. The coaches took each kid up to the front and said such nice things about them and gave them their awards. Atticus was being so goofy because he refused to smile as they talked about him and he seemed so embarrassed but then when we got away from the group, he was really proud! He got the award for Defense, Character Award for Teachable, and game ball against the hornets. It was a great year!