Sports for kids...Character building or Mom Fustrating?

Ok..So C2 is in basketball. A sport she loves. She is not the best at it. Dribbles the ball to high, to far out...isn't very agressive (she's only aggressive towards her brothers) and is a little out of shape.

However...wait...let me backup. In September of last year, C2 broke her tibia and was in a cast from thigh to toes, then short cast then a boot for three months. We figured that this years bb season was a bust. However, much to my amazement, she has played almost every minute the past two games and is not limping at all afterwords! Her first couple of games, she didn't even complete the games and was limping badly. So am I proud of her?? HELL YES!

So...She has worked hard to come back. She has had to learn how to shoot the ball again, since she has two good legs now. Her first couple of practices she was still in a boot and could not push off on both feet so she had to re learn how to shoot.

Anyway..She is not the best player on the team..But she loves it and has fun. There are a couple of other girls that are not the best players on the team. lets face it...if the best players on the team didn't show up, we would probably, maybe, lose by a lot. Hey...I'm just a realist!.

So...there is C2..a little out of shape, a little overweight...running her best, keeping up, defending the opponent like a wall! The ball get turned over and she runs as fast as she can to get down under the basket and OPEN. So...the players that stole the ball are the better players..they can dribble better, shoot better etc. I am not disputing that. However, here is my beautiful, red faced sweaty little girl, trying with all of her heart...standing UNDEFENDED under an OPEN basket yelling I'm open, I'm open. And what do the better players do? Pass it to the other better players and ignore my daughter and the other not so great players...but MY DAUGHTER IS OPEN UNDER AN UNGAUARDED BASKET.

Double edged sword here. We want to win..the girls want to win, but the girls have to learn. What is my daughter learning buy simply runing up and down the court, at one end waving her arms in front of an opponenet, at the other simply yelling i'm open, for 20 minutes of game play?

And here's me. Sitting on the sidelines...yelling (yes I am one of those) encourging words not only to our players to cheering the other team when they make a great play (I'm one of those too). I am not an agressive person. I do not like conflict..I like happy. I encourage happy. I believe that team sports is about FUN! I hate that they are allowed to steal the ball from eachother. I mean right from the others persons hands! I think that is rude! (I'm one of those also). But now....I am getting ANNOYED!

I want to stand up and shout....HEY STUPID GOOD PLAYERS....C2 IS STANDING THERE OPEN AND HAS BEEN THE ENTIRE FUCKING GAME! GIVE HER THE DAMN BALL BEFORE I TRIP YOU WHEN YOU RUN TO CLOSE TO ME!

Ok...yes, I think that but would NEVER do it. At least I dont think I would? I might have to go up to the coach and kick him in the shins. 'Hey Coach...isn't this a team sport!?'

See the other girls score so often, they dont even smile about it anymore..its like yeah I scored..but I'm good so big deal.

My daughter would beam ear to ear while I sit there clapping my hands raw screaming her name, with tears in my eyes.

So, Stupid Coach and Stupid good players...give me a chance to scream my daughters name and cry for her, while she smiles so large I can see her tonsils...give me a chance just once to experice this...to feel what you now take for granted...before I can no longer control myself and start tripping....no, I dont think I would ever do that.