Basketball

(writing added JULY 25th... I know I know)
What a fun year...

Kaiya played basketball in West Point again, with much better results than last year.  Her coach was actually trying to teach the girls about basketball, can you imagine?? She loves defense and is starting to better understand using the backboard (still hit or miss some games).

This year whenever she'd get a rebound she did know to take off to the other end of the court dribbling and that she didn't have to wait for anyone, and she was learning how to "post up" as well as a team of 1st/2nd graders could (se picture below)

The best thing about this year is that I was able to help by coaching a game at the end of the season and I was always out there with the girls getting them warmed up until the coach got there, in spite of me being as pregnant as I was. Lots still to learn, but this girl is having fun doing it.

Kotah played basketball again this year, and thankfully he was able to play with his best friend Jaxton Wilberg.  Jaxton's dad, Devin, was their coach.  I was at the draft night with Devin and we were able to get a really great group of boys.

We knew they'd do well, but just how well was another story.  It is fun to see your child go out and put in all the extra effort he can before, during (and even after) the season.  He's only played in 6th grade (now 7th) and he knew there was a lot for him to continue learning as a player, but he was always there putting in his 100%.

There were several games where (thanks to some good assists and is growing confidence shooting) Kotah had the first (however many) points in the whole game.  One game he had the first 12!!

By the second to last game there were 2 undefeated teams in the league.  Funny enough the OTHER undefeated team was our bishop's son's/grandson's team from West Haven.  The teams faced off and it was a great game... it literally came down to made foul shots f(or our team) and a last second shot (from the other team) that was missed.  Giving our boys the 1-point victory. After that they had just one more game to win to make it an undefeated season and that was against a team that they'd already beaten earlier in the season, which they did again.

Kotah amazes me.  He always seems to play with a smile.  If/when he made a mistake or a terrible shot he was the fist one laughing at it and then the rest of the game just lost its seriousness (except for the one mentioned above).  During one game there was a moment toward the end that Kotah actually did a rebound and hold forcing the other team to foul him and he game himself a little fist pump.  Anyone that knows him or has seen him play sports knows he really is one of the most humble players you could ever meet.  Seeing him react in an excited way and being pleased with himself was a moment I hope to never forget.  Sometime we focus so much on "good sportsmanship" we forget that it is still okay to get excited for accomplishing things we've never done before (or thought couldn't happen).  Kotah and Jaxton are two of the cuties guys I know their age.  And really this group of players (minus one) were all about the same when it came to recognizing the amount of TEAM WORK that goes into scoring/defending...etc. What a fun FUN season it was for Kotah.

Kenia got to play with the coaches, and a few of the same boys, that he played with 2 years ago.  HE was so excited.  He hadn't got to the draft day because he had decided to go with my parents to Denver and see Stryder instead.  So what they do with those players is they put their names on a piece of paper and randomly draw out and place them on teams. It really was a luck of the draw.

Because Kenai is taller than a lot of the other players his age he was center/forward all season.  He did a good job, but he'd be so friendly with his friends on the other teams that parents were often confused as to which team he was playing for (haha, not really, but he was WAY SOCIAL).

Kenai certainly was more confident with his dribbling skills than he's been in the past and boy could that kid steal the ball. Yes, he'd get fouls now and then, but we always told him until he fouled out it wasn't a problem, and he NEVER did that.

He was all over the floor EVERY GAME and always gave it his all.  His team finished with a winning record. The league did away with post season because of a conflict that occurred after a game last year... a parent punch and attacked an official after their team lost the championships "because of a bad ref".

(side note... pictured above is Garrett Farr with Kenai.  His dad was one of the coaches for the team.  In June, the day after Father's Day, Jared was found dead.  He'd suffered from PTSD for a long time and just gave up.  Kenai and I (and Tatanka) went to the viewing and said our good byes and good memories with the family.  It was a sad, SAD moment to deal with the kids.)

Like always, our kids are always sad with a season ends, but happy to move on to the next one and that's just what they did here.  Basketball ended the end of February/beginning of March and LACROSSE WAS FINALLY BACK IN MARCH for the boys and Soccer wasn't much behind for Kaiya.