My Little "M.J."

Ok...Ryan has FOUND his sport!  He is a little Michael Jordan in the making.  I L-O-V-E watching him play basketball!!  He is so smooth and he reads the court like no other.  ...AND he's only in 7th grade.  Oh there are good things to come for him.  I can just feel it!

The 7th graders played their first game at Wray on Tuesday.  They won(!) 30-24.  Ryan scored 20 of the 30 points!  On Thursday they played Yuma and lost 37-18 (I think) - Ryan had 7 points.  He really is doing well. 

Unfortunately, basketball in Burlington isn't a real big deal.  I mean the high school team does okay...but no one teaches them the "fundamentals" of basketball.  I remember when we (my brother Jeff and I) were kids we went to a "Shot Doctor" camp.  We learned the correct way to hold a ball, handle a ball, and shoot a ball.  Well, I think that the Shot Doctor must have died, because the basic fundamentals seem to be a thing of the past for most kids.  What I wouldn't give to see ALL of the kids on the team know how to square up and shoot, follow through, follow their shot, and use the backboard.  Some of the teams we will face have worked on fundamentals - and those are the teams that will beat us.  In the meantime, while I'm not "coach" material, I will continue to encourage Ryan to work on his ball handling skills, shoot correctly, and LEARN the sport.  The potential - if he works on these things - is endless! 

Now...don't get the idea that I'm all "into" Ryan and have forgotten about Tyler...NO...that's not it at all.  (I just really love basketball...and always have.)  Tyler is doing AWESOME in football.  Tomorrow they will play Wray in a first-round playoff game.  We beat Wray earlier in the season - pretty easily.  Wray has gotten better - but so have we.  I expect it will be a really good game tomorrow. 

Tyler plays on the line.  Everyday in practice he has to line up against the biggest and the toughest guys on the team.  He gets drilled, and beat up, and run over, but he is becoming a great football player because of it.  I keep telling him that next year he will be one of the big tough guys on the varsity side of the ball.  Then he will be the one that the freshmen and sophomores get tired of defending.  It's so amazing to watch him - actually both of my boys - grow and change every day.  They are athletes, they are students, they are friends, they are brothers, but my favorite of all is that they are mine.  I'm SO proud of both of them!