DAD’S REFLECTIONS - It is sad to see this season come to an end. What a joy it was to watch my son Aaron have the chance to play with the rest of the Pumas. Having never played organized basketball prior to this season, this truly was a great experience.
 Today’s game would have, and probably should have been missed, due to a prior commitment. Aaron is currently in the middle of the play Seussical the Musical at Canyon View Junior High School, and this final game sat right in the middle of the show... I mean the Saturday matinee started at 2 PM and the Puma tip time was 3 PM. So as not to disappoint the team, we devised a plan where Aaron could perform all the way through the intermission at 3 minutes to 3 pm. At that point we headed out the back of the auditorium and off to Mountain View High School for the game.
Watching Aaron changing from a colorful purple and red Dr. Seuss chimney sweep as we drove along, and into his beautiful blue Puma basketball uniform was fun to see. We arrived at the tail end of the first quarter and found our team down by 4 points and short both Aaron and Jake. Jake was late coming from another game in Springville. Jake and Aaron have become vital in rounding out our team into a real powerhouse. We have big guys that can rebound. We have little guys that can dribble. We have guys who can shoot. And we have defensive stoppers. What we notice without Jake and Aaron is that we are massing that dose of cohesiveness that brings all of our players together.
Our game plan was to stay at the game fro the second and third quarters, and then drive like crazy back to Canyon View for the grand finale. Aaron went into the game and the mood turned better. The team was hustling and the other team immediately started scoring less. There was still something missing. Then Jake ran into the gym and our team was running on all 9 cylinders.
I watched a special chemistry take over in the name of Jake and Aaron. Aaron just seems to know when jake is going to get the ball on defense and Aaron immediately takes off down the court to the Puma basket. As soon as Jake comes out of the defensive scrum with the ball he looks up court and you can see his eyes get real big as he sees Aaron sprinting to the offensive bucket. Jake is an incredible passer and he is like a quarterback with his accuracy. It is incredible being the father of the boy who is on the receiving end of Jake’s passes as my son Aaron would catch pass after pass and lay them in for two points.
All of those hours practicing lay-ups and close shots is really paying off for Aaron. Jake makes Aaron look like a superstar. It makes me flash back to those special teams that I have played with over the years where we had talented drive and dish point guards that made me look so good. I knew the joy that my son was feeling. I knew the frustration that I saw him instilling in those that tried to guard him in today’s game.
IN THE OPPONENTS HEADS - I giggled as the white team came back out from their time out and they were making player assignments. This league has a tradition where both teams come out and face each other and each player has the responsibility of covering the player directly across the center court from them. Aaron lined up across from player #10 and player ten jumped back and moved so as not to be paired up with Aaron. Aaron followed the boy down the line and called out, “I’ve got #10.” To which number 10 would move again. After 25 seconds of this the white team’s coach finally told his #13 player that he would be covering Aaron and number 13 visibly balked and you could hear him tell the coach that he didn’t want to cover Aaron either. I giggled because our team definitely had the emotional advantage.
With confidence, our Pumas, were now successfully in the heads of the white team‘s players and the Puma points continued to rack up with only a couple baskets here and there being scored by the competition. From down by four, we went up by as many as 16 before the end of the third quarter when Aaron and I said good-bye and quickly ran back out the door towards Canyon View... Did we make it back on time?.. You bethcha. We walked through the stage doors just as his group walked onto the stage... Whew!!!
What a feeling of glee to watch my son have such a great game. What a way for him to end the season. I watched him grow and progress this season, and tried my hardest to stay out of the way and just enjoy the good moments together with him and the rest of the team. I see a great future for Aaron with basketball as long as he is fortunate enough to be in a positive learning environment like the Pumas.
I can’t say enough to Coach Lambson for his efforts with Aaron and the rest of the boys... Thanks Jeff! It was fun to be his assistant coach and help out with the practices each week. I appreciate the fact that he never yelled or lost his cool with the boys. The only sad part is the shortness of the overall season. It is now that the boys are finally starting to come together as a team. I watched Aaron get to know the other players and enjoy their friendships. It is a shame that they will now not be together each Wednesday for practice and on Saturdays for games. Thanks again to all of those that helped and supported our team this year.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS - Going through the pictures of the game today I was reminded of the joy I felt when I watched Aaron pick up a rebound out about 14 feet from the basket and he immediately drove by his player on the low block and brushed his shoulder so that his defender was screened out and this allowed a beautiful path straight to the basket for an easy two points. This was something that we have been working on both in practice and in private. In the short two quarters we were there today I watched Brandon, Andrew, and Jake all do the same thing as they came by the picks set for them, and this made for easy close shots. This is the fruits of our labors, and although there was probably not one other fan watching that understood and felt my joy, I sat there beaming at our teams skill and efforts. |
Hooray!! We had a great game today... It was sad that it was our last game. I really had a lot of fun.
