When Isabelle told us she wanted to sign up for basketball we were not only surprised, we were a bit amused as well. How in the world would she dribble the basketball? Would she be aggressive enough to actually touch the ball? And although basketball was the sport of both mom and dad's choice growing up, we figured a season of co-ed soccer in the fall may be an easier beginning to the wide world of sports...where all you really have to do is run and maybe occasionally kick the soccer ball.
Luckily Jelly's great little friend Madeline was planning to sign up for her first season as well so we joined forces and became members of the YMCA Killer Bees! At first we were bummed when we learned we had the Friday evening practice slot, but quickly realized this was a blessing since it is the only day of the week we can almost rely on Ben being in town! So for 10 Fall weeks, Friday evenings became a soccer date night for Jelly and Ben!
To our surprise, little Jelly LOVED every minute of the 2010 soccer season. She looked forward to her practices and worked on her skills at home too! And she was thrilled each Saturday for her games. We never had to encourage her to participate and when Coach Welborn yelled to her to "go in" she put on her game face and charged the field. Of course she was not even close to one of the more aggressive players and she was gracious and waited her turn to kick the ball most of the time, but she got better and better as the season went on and near the end enjoyed the victory of her 1st and 2nd Killer Bee goals! One funny thing to watch was how hard Jelly tried to listen to both her dad and coach yelling from the sidelines, guiding her on what to do. She would often miss the play because she was so focused on listening to her instructions!
Olivia was Isabelle's biggest cheerleader and loved being outside at the games. Grammie, Grandpa and Tara were able to make it to one of her games as well and the extra cheering gave Belle even more incentive to run and play her best. We then all enjoyed Smashburger for lunch with Belle's "Player of the Week" free kids meal!
And although the Killer Bee's were not so deadly after all, the greatest moment came at the end of the season when her coach called her name at the ceremonial dinner and presented her with a medal and a certificate. She was so proud and announced as soon as she got home That's it, I'm getting a hook to hang my medal!
Isabelle had such a positive experience that she has convinced her parents and starts YMCA basketball in January! And guess who her coach is...Ben!
2 comments:
So cute! I think soccer was just as much fun for us as it was for Ryan. I can't wait for Spring.
I LOVE that her team was the 'Killer Bees!" of course she would be a BEE!!!!
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