Claire's Lady Bulldogs!

Claire has had such a fun basketball season!  She looked forward to every practice and game and gave it her all every single time.  Once again, I was able to coach her and I loved every minute of it!  We were a team of all third graders playing in a league of third and fourth graders.  We were challenged every single game and I have to say the girls rose to the challenge!

Last year, Claire was one of the oldest and tallest girls in the league so she could do whatever she pleased.  This year, playing against girls as tall and taller- she needed to adjust in order to be successful.  By the end of the season, she had developed a whole new side of her game in order to be successful against taller, older, and quicker girls.  It was awesome to watch and be a part of!

All season long, the goal was to have fun.  Trust me, I am pretty darn competitive but when it comes to kids, you have to keep them in a positive place in order to keep them interested in the sport and move them forward.  Too much pressure and they will likely crumble.  We had tons of FUN!

Our last game was the best of the season!  The team we played was pretty well matched with us and the game was really exciting.  Claire did great!  She certainly saved the best for last and made me so proud!  My most favorite moment of the game was when Claire's teammate Isabella scored her first basket ever!  Up to this point- she had never made a goal in soccer or a basket in basketball in four years!  You can only imagine the energy that gym felt when she scored.  I about jumped out of my body!

We had a frozen yogurt party for the team after the game and when it came time to talk about Claire, I had a lot of wonderful things to say about my little girl.  Of course, I talked about how well she did this season and how she is an amazing teammate.  But what I said that I hadn't really thought about before was that Claire was amazing at having a Mom for her coach.  When we stepped on the floor, she allowed me to hang up the Mom title and really be her coach- no strings attached.  We never had an argument, she respected my knowledge of the game, and because of that- the season was a huge success.  Great job, Clairey!