Stuck in the Middle

It's the middle of high school basketball season.  Region play started last night for the Hunter Wolverines.

Before we talk about that though....

Up to last night, the season, like the two before it, has been rough.  All the family and I sit game after game and watch very talented, smart, and nice boys face an opponent unprepared, under coached, and un-inspired.  Phone calls have been made and e-mails sent to all who might care lamenting the horrible coaching staff - a staff that doesn't know the names of all the kids or how many kids are even on the team.  Coaches who cannot put together a good line-up.  Coaches who don't know how to call a play, make a substitution, or call a time out.

Now, as the type of basketball family we are, we know the game.  We've been watching and playing the game our whole lives and if called to duty in any capacity, could whip together an in bounds play on a seconds notice.  So, to watch these boys lose games they should not lose.  To sit by and have a losing record for the first time in their life as a team (as sophs and juniors they only lost 5 games all season) is so hard.  Granted, we don't sit by.  We yell and scream.  We cheer and chant.  We try to motivate when no one else does.

And, some of us (me!)  yell at assistant coaches and call them morons in parking lots after horrible losses.  But, some of us (me!) feel justified in said yelling because said assistant coach was shoving his face full of free food and had sour cream dripping down both sides of his mouth like some sort of sick, taco eating clown.

But......

I digress!

Last night was the start of region play and...

Our boys won! And they won decidedly.  And, my brother played amazing defense and shut down the opponents star center to the point that every time he touched the ball in the 4th quarter, he just kicked it back out to a guard because there was no way he was getting past the defensive wall that was my brother.

It was a great game.  High scoring and high energy.  I was proud of the boys.  It looks like, in spite of all the dumb-dumb adults they are surround with, they may have pulled it together on their own to be the team they know they can be.