This Pee Wee Basketball season at Washington School was a tale of two zeroes and two teams. One team had a zero as the second number of its record and the other team had a zero as the first number of its record.
The Washington School Pee Wee B-Team won all eight of its regular-season games this year and the A-Team lost all of its regular-season games. I coached them both.
There were close games for both teams, but the B-Team somehow always found a way to pull out the win. They got progressively better as the season wore on putting up big numbers in the last couple of games they played.
For the A-Team, the wins just didn’t happen. Each of the schools we played seemed to have one or two players whose voices had probably already started to change and were about a foot taller than my tallest player.
The most difficult task for a coach at this level is simply keeping the boys’ attention. Their minds drift at the most inopportune times.
During a tournament this past weekend in Cleveland, where we won 7 of the 10 games we played, I called time out with about a minute left on the clock. We had a small lead and needed to burn time.
I was explaining this in detail to the five boys on the court and I looked to my left to find one of them with his back turned to huddle dancing or as the kids say, “hitting the griddy.”
It didn’t seem to matter as that player went out on the court, did his job perfectly and we won the game.
There were at least 24 players and sometimes 26 spread across two teams and they all wanted playing time.
The boys figured out my rotation schedule after the first game. The starters played the first five minutes. The second team played the next five minutes. Any remaining boys played the next five minutes and then the five who played the best ended the 20-minute half.
We’d go with the same rotation for the second half according to the score.
That didn’t stop the continued pestering from the bench. When I’d send the kids to check in, I tell them to, “Go get Aiden,” or, “Go get Ham.”
As the season wore on, the boys began to ask to specifically get another player off the court. I tried to ignore them as best as I could, but they are persistent little buggers.
Perhaps I’m going to sound like old-man Alverson here, but I can’t ever remember asking my coaches from the bench to be sent into a game or ever hearing another kid do it.
I also know my parents never sent a text during a game pushing for more playing time for their kids. Luckily, I didn’t get one of those, but I’ve heard it happens.
The difficulty of finding playing time for each of the boys, but also trying to win a basketball game is a fine line to walk.
It’s why I hate close games on either side of the scoreboard. With a blowout win or loss, you can empty the bench.
Of course, it’s more fun to be on the blowout-win side, which we were a few times, but the blowout losses provide an insight into the psyche of the players.
There are some players who hate the losses. There are some who aren’t happy about it. Then there are those who seem not to care one whit.
I don’t know which is the most healthy.
There were several highlights during the season, but one may stick with me longer than the others.
In our final games against PDS Monday night, we had a chance to keep our undefeated streak alive for the B-Team and end the A-Team’s losing streak.
The B-Team cruised to a big win and a lot of the young boys got to play a good chunk of the second half.
The A-Team went in the other direction, but instead of letting the younger boys play, I put five sixth graders on the court.
One, in particular, had a highlight I hope he won’t forget.
MJ Turner doesn’t always play a lot, but he really wants to get in the game.
With about one minute left, PDS’s coach called a timeout to sub in her younger players and I called the boys over.
“We’ve got to feed MJ,” I told them. “Get him the ball. MJ, no matter where you get the ball, you start shooting.”
The next minute went by quickly and MJ took several shots, but with about two seconds left on the clock he caught an in-bounds pass under the basket, tossed up a shot and watched his first two points go up on the board.
The boys cleared the bench shouting MJ’s name.
Jon Alverson is proud to be the publisher of the Delta Democrat-Times. Write to him at jalverson@ddtonline.com or call him at 662-35-1155.
