Hoopin' and Hollerin'

Adah played her first season of basketball this year. The local recreation leagues start in 3rd grade. It wasn't as popular as soccer and baseball, and our town could only field two teams of 3rd and 4th grade girls. So the season consisted of playing the other White Salmon team and two teams from Stevenson (20 miles west).  We actually only got to play against the other WS team once, which was disappointing, but in the end, maybe better; those girls have to go to school together and be friends after the games, right?

Adah's team, the Tigers, did really well, only losing two games during the season. There was one team in particular that they played (not our local girls, of course) that had kind of rotten sportsmanship. Adah's team persevered as politely as they could.  The final week of the season was a make-up of the "Jamboree" that was supposed to have kicked off the season but got canceled due to the snow/ice storm-induced power outage in January. At the Jamboree, the Tigers had the satisfaction of winning both of their mini-games, including beating the poor sports who were roughing them up on the court.

You can see, here, that she's really into what the coach has to say.  Luckily, I think she had just been subbed out and needed her water more than the coach's next instructions.

 

The league had man-to-man defense rules, so the referees would have the players line up facing each other after substitutions or at the beginning of quarters so everyone knew who would be guarding who.

Going up for the rebound . . .

This was one of Adah's best games. She really was stuck like glue to her girl on defense.  Offense wasn't her forte--they actually had a really good ball handler on their team who could also be a little bit of a ball hog, so Adah didn't touch the ball much on offense--but she did score in her first and last games of the regular season.

 

Go, Team Tiger!

Cute little hoopster.