Very Nice

My middle son plays basketball in addition to the soccer that's the real focus of his efforts. He's pretty good, even though he's not really built for the game.

This season's been tough for a lot of reasons. Not many games won, but also head coach who isn't overly concerned with playing time. It hasn't been an issue for my kid, but some of the other parents have gotten frustrated.

It came to a head this weekend. The team was a low seed in the state tournament and in the first game two of the players may have played a combined total of four minutes. Even though we won, barely, in overtime, one boy's parents, friends of mine, said they weren't coming back for the rest of the games if things weren't going to change. When I left the gym on Saturday night they were engaged in a long discussion with the head coach that didn't seem to be going well.

This morning my son told me the two under-utilized kids weren't coming to the last day of the tournament. I might not have reacted the same way as a parent but I understood. Sports is competitive at this age, but still.

I was leaving on a business trip today and my Lovely Bride was studying so my boy got a ride from an assistant coach. Frankly, we didn't think too much about it. They'd made it past the first round and that in itself was a miracle.

He called shortly after his first game ended and said in a rush, "We won the game, I scored fourteen points, everybody was there, we all played, it was our best game all year, and now we're playing for the state championship!"

Studying or not, his mother needed to be there for that. She finished the paper she was working on, scooped up my youngest, and drove across the city to watch.

As I left town, I got text message updates from her.

"We're down 15-4."

"16-6 at the half."

"Everyone's playing. They look good."

Finally, unexpectedly and out of character, "Holy fuck, we won."

So they did. The state championship. Granted, it's the championship of a piece of a piece of a larger pie, but hey, it's a state championship. After months of struggling, of kids not getting a chance, these last two games everyone played and together they pulled it off.

Cool.