Starting Early

So D.J. came to his first Thunder practice yesterday. He looks pretty much like Tani probably did when he was 7. Athletic. Competitive. Always wanting to jump in with the older guys. But you hear D.J.'s voice and you remember, he's only in 2nd grade.

He did some drills with our guys (12, 13, 14, 15, 16 years old) and did pretty good. Tani showed him the ropes, too, running alongside him on our 3-man weave drill. D.J. has a lot of potential.

After practice, on the way home, he asked, "Is there gonna be a team?"

This is not an easy solution, of course. We had a 17U and 15U going on when 12-year-old Kyle Moraga showed up at Makiki Park with his dad, Roy, one afternoon about 3 years ago. I hadn't seen Kyle since two years before that when his brothers Karl and Kerl were on our first team at KAC.
But Kyle and Roy kept coming to all the practices, and one by one, we suddenly started getting more kids who were 12 or 11. Micah came to practice since his brother Isaiah was already one of our veterans. He brought Ryan, his friend from school and Manoa League. We had some girls on the team who were very good, like Kodee, McKenzie, Jenna. But when the girls didn't show up for a tournament, we were down to just 4 players and had to get on the freeway to the game.

That's when we saw Chris shooting baskets on the other court at Makiki Park. One of the kids told me he doesn't play for anybody. I thought that was weird that a high school kid with that height and skill wasn't playing. Then they told me he goes to Kaahumanu. Elementary. He was around 5-foot-10, almost my height, and entering 6th grade that fall.

I asked Chris is if he wanted to play with us and he said, 'Yeah, but I gotta ask my mom." So he asked his mom and she said OK. Then he said, "Can my brother Tani play? He's like Kobe."

That sounded preposterous. Then Tani Mosi showed up at the park. Not as tall, a little older, but still only 12. (Chris was 11.) Tani had to ask mom, too. Just before we got into the car and left, Tani said he could play the next day. For now, he had to babysit. That was little DJ he was babysitting at the park, so they stayed and shot baskets. I guess DJ was 3 or 4 then.

So yes... it's good to start young, the younger, the better. But some things cannot be taught. Liking to practice and loving to practice are very different things sometimes. It looks to me like DJ loves to practice, anything to do with basketball (and football, especially). He can shoot it a long ways, but he's going to need practice like any other young baller to become great. I can see it.

So, hopefully, he keeps wanting to practice and who knows? Maybe some other young players will show up at Thunder practice. Before long, we might have an 8U or 9U team. (Colin and Jayden's sister Lorelai is 9 and she's got skills.) Or 7U. I have no real idea which leagues have age divisions that young, but I'm going to check around a little bit.

We've never had a team that young, but we never had a 12U and 13U team at one point, and that addition has meant the world to our H1 Thunder family. HOPE IS ALIVE haha...
WE LOVE THIS GAME!!
Lela Afe-passion Ray-Marlyn Ramos