Great effort today from 15U. I was just glad we didn't forfeit. Our older 15U guys - no shows. No Felix, no Yong. Brent was at Roosevelt's game at Ikaika League. Wilson? The rest are in football season. So we had Tanielu, Kyle, Chris, Sierra, Kodee and Sifo. That's most of our 13U team, not counting Sifo, who turns 14 next week.
We trailed Crush 9-2, then came back to lead at halftime 23-17. Then we ran out of gas and fell behind 33-28 at the end of the third quarter. The lead went back and forth in the fourth quarter, but fatigue, lack of rebounding — Crush has two 6-3 guys —and some turnovers on the fastbreak hurt us.
We could list a bunch of excuses about being so young or lacking enough subs. But really, we could've won this game. We'll learn to play smarter, learn from our experiences and beat bigger teams. I just hope that happens starting now.
Pizza time at the park. I'm in the parking lot at Makiki Pizza Hut. Four pizzas on the way. 17U will join us (I hope) at 6:00 for pizza and practice.
Fun Sunday, even with the loss. We're getting better and the younger Thunder are working hard every day.
Update 9:00 pm: Just back from post-game practice and pizza. The kids had a lot of energy after pizza, but boy, were they pooped after that 8-minute scrimmage. That's one thing I love about our guys (and girls): they can't get enough basketball!
Things never seem to get completely calm when there are three teams. Now it's our 13U that is having trouble with numbers (same since the fall league started). Tanielu and Chris are going to miss Sunday games (and practices) from now on, parents' orders. So that will leave us with four or five players for Sunday games.
There's not much I can do except ask the CAL League for more help, but they've already accommodated us. We asked for no Saturday morning or early afternoon games (to help Kyle, who has church). We asked for no Friday or Saturday night games since a bunch of our guys, including Sifo, have football games. (And I work those nights, too.) Add to that our missing girls (they have their 808 teams to play for), missing guys (Jared in Pop Warner football, Little Paul banned from basketball by his dad for bad grades last quarter, Bill pulled out).
Am I forgetting anybody? Jerson is back, and he brought two friends to practice, but they didn't return.
So the problems continue. It isn't hopeless though. Loto and Dean helped out with practice this afternoon. We got some kinks worked out with boxing out, low-post position — things that hurt us in the loss to the Crush today — and we worked on some new, very simple high-post offensive sets. It's the old '1-4' offense we used for our first Thunder team in KAC. Plays '45' and '42'. Any team with two good offensive scorers can put the plays to great use from the elbows.
And better yet, we have a new player, Kamakani. She's 11, learning the system quickly. She plays for 808 and also plays club volleyball. So if she makes it to practice and games, and Pilly and JJ (Jerson's pals) make it, we'll have a decent number of 13U players. Then I'll only have to worry about the 15U and 17U numbers. (17U plays Lakeside on Wednesday.)
But, all in all, I'm not going worry. It's not in my hands. All I can do is ask for help, and however things work out, I have to live with it and move forward. Some kids love to work on their game every day. Most don't. That's what I've learned in 31 years since I started coaching. I can't stop someone from becoming as great as he or she can be on the basketball court. I also can't stop anyone from being lazy and being mediocre.
That's one of the beautiful things about basketball. What you put in is what you get out of it. I create a system that can result in 80 points per game if we have the skilled players and depth. If everyone works each day at it. I still believe we'll get there one day. When? I don't know.
Update, Monday 11:00 am: CAL League said they'd try to help with our schedule and have more of our games on Saturdays, but there are never guarantees. But it's great that they want to help accommodate us. Again.
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