The Leopards had their third practice last night, and they had their first game today! There are five kids on the team. The K-2nd grade teams play three on three on a half-court. Starting in third grade they play five-on-five on a full-court. They don't officially keep score with the K-2nd game, but the kids on the team told Paul what the score was at half-time. They were keeping track! The Leopards won by a landslide! I doubt Nadia will score any points this season, but hopefully she will improve with her dribbling and passing skills. Defense is her strong point! The referee came over to me at one point in the game to compliment me on Nadia's defensive pose, and a grandmother of another child sitting next to me commented on how well that little girl (Nadia is the only girl on her team) was doing with defense. I was proud! The kids can earn different stars to be ironed on to their t-shirt, and Nadia earned two stars today - the green one for saying her Bible verse perfectly without assistance and a red one for defense.
Oliver lasted for 75 minutes (thanks in part to the goldfish crackers and juice I brought), but after that point he wanted OUT of my arms. Since I didn't want him crawling or walking out on the basketball court in the middle of the game, I took Ian and Oliver to the nursery. Nadia's game was scheduled to start at 11am, but they were running behind and the 10:00 game was only starting the second half of their game at 10:45. So the boys and I sat through half of a full-court girls' game and then through 2/3 of Nadia's game. We missed the last 12 minutes of her game. Then Paul met with his team in their "locker room" after the game so altogether we were there for 1hr 45 minutes. The lesson I learned is that in the future I'll take the boys in a different vehicle so that we don't have to be there quite that long. It was hard for me to take pictures with Oliver in my lap, but I did get a few. Their are also a few different cheerleading squads. The 10 girls that cheered during Nadia's game were really cute! Paul had the job of announcing his players names as they came into the gym. The kids were a little confused as to where to go. They were supposed to run in between the rows of cheerleaders and join the rest of their teammates.
Paul's parents planned to come to the game this morning, but then the weather forecast didn't look good. We didn't end up getting a single flake of snow much less the inches they called for! Oh well, there will be other games for them to attend. :) The kids play man-on-man defense, and to make it easier they wear a colored band. Nadia was wearing a green band so she needed to match up with the boy wearing a green band on the opposing team (#11 today). Paul was very pleased with how the team did. He said they far exceeded his expectations! Go, Leopards!
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