Thinkin' of Tryin' Out for a Scholaah-shee-ip

I thought I'd post a couple more pictures of Kiernan's first day of basketball practice, as a sort of supplement to today's picture of the day. Just to flesh the event out for you, a bit. Kiernan had his first basketball practice today. He's on a rec team with a couple of other kids around his age. He had "try outs" for the basketball team/class about a week and a half ago. And by "try outs" I mean he dribbled the ball off of his foot a couple of times then played "You Can't Catch Me!" with me all over the basketball court for about half an hour.

The above picture, together with the picture of the day of January 2, pretty much sums up how practice went. Practice is taking place in the Winnetka Recreation Center. As with many community rec centers, this one is a large basketball court with a stage at one end. The picture above shows both the basketball court and the stage. In the foreground you see Kiernan's teammates preparing for practice as the coach was late. In the background you see the blur that is Kiernan, on the stage, running about and intermittently posing with utter abandon.

The posing and dancing would continue throughout practice. I mean, he was pretty good about following instructions when the coach addressed him directly. As much as he could follow the directions, meaning that I have not yet taught him how to dribble or shoot or anything. Shame on me, I know, since basketball is far and away my favorite sport both to play and to watch (college only, thank you). Regardless of ability level, though, Kiernan was willing to try everything his coach asked him to try. But after shooting a shot and returning to the back of the line of his teammates he would immediately return to dancing and posing. That is to say, enjoying himself immensely. And that, at this point, is really all that matters.

Two moments, in particular, made me especially happy at this, Kiernan's first basketball practice. There were other things I loved, like just watching him have fun with other kids, watching the way he expresses joy, watching him giggle with delight at the kid who was supposed to be defending him as he approached the basket to take a shot, but these two things stood out for me. They are important to me.

1. Kiernan cannot dribble. He cannot shoot. He's not strong enough to get the ball within three feet of the basket, and we're talking about a basket that has been lowered to the point where I could dunk on it. No joke. Forty-year-old me could easily do a reverse on one of these. None of this matters, of course, since Kiernan is only four and there's a ton of other stuff he loves to do and does well. So no biggie. But, at one point one of the kids on his team threw Kiernan the basketball, and Kiernan snatched it out of the air, easily catching it. He prepared to shoot a basket.

His mom yelled, across the loud echoing gym, "Nice catch, Kiernan!"

Kiernan paused before shooting the basket and said, "Thank you, Mommy!"

He then proceeded to try to shoot the ball.

I'm just nuts about that little pause.

2. The next "drill" they did was dribbling up to a line and shooting the ball. A slightly older boy stood behind the line as a sort of token defender, just holding up his hands. Kiernan dribbled up to the line (sort of), stopped, prepared to shoot, paused...and said to the defender...

"Excuse me."

Then he shot the ball.

Again, I cannot describe how much I love that. He wasn't being timid or afraid. He wasn't wilting or anything. He was just applying the lessons of politeness that we've taught him to this totally new arena. Which is exactly what we want him to do. Apply the lessons he is learning at home and at school to the world at large. They won't always fit, clearly, but the ability to do that just knocks me out.

"Excuse me."



I love it.