My 10-year-old daughter hasn't really any interest in athletics, so it was with great surprise that I watched her spin in circles worrying about missing her elementary school's basketball tryouts the other day.
She's busy...active...and she never seems to get tired. I thought that her angst over Thursday's first basketball tryout for fifth- and sixth-grade girls was the result of her having to make an appearance as vice-president of the student body. She was just beside herself trying to figure out how to work a 4:30 p.m. vocal lesson, a 5:30 rehearsal for "Grease" and the 3 p.m. hoop tryouts.
"What are you talking about? Why would you care if the tryouts are at the same time as your rehearsals?"
I'm rarely the dad who has absolutely no idea what's going on, but that day she lost me.
"I can't tryout for the team unless I skip the vocal lesson or something?" she said as, suddenly, my head began to spin and I felt like she could've floored me with a feather.
"You want to go to the tryouts and... TRY OUT? You want to play basketball? What kind of team is it if you ... I mean, you want to TRY OUT?!?!"
She's never been on an organized basketball team. I've had her shoot baskets with me at the gym a few times -- and four or five times in the last month. I'm interested in seeing how a young girl's hand-eye coordination changes without her paying any real attention to it, so we shoot and I think of creative reasons to get her to dribble. I've gently broached the idea of teaching her a little basketball because I've got this idea that kids can pick up a sport at 10 or 11 and be every bit as good as the kids who play on their first mini-hoops team at age 5.
I thought she was shooting baskets to amuse me, but there she was trying to squeeze basketball tryouts in her truly busy schedule. And, I bit my tounge when I started to belch, "What kind of team do you think YOU could play on? C'mon! Be serious!"
See, people told me that the bulk of a young girl's self esteem comes from her family and, particularly, from her dad. So, I've never missed a chance to tell my daughter that she's the cutest, smartest, funniest, most talented girl around. And, while I didn't really give it much thought, I did tell her that she had a nice little shot and that she dribbled sufficiently well that she could probably be a pretty decent basketball player if she took the game seriously.
I made the latter comment on Sunday Jan. 4. She came home fritzed out about trying out for the basketball team on Wednesday Jan. 7. She must listen really closely and take what I say to heart. She couldn't be taking it seriously, but she clearly thinks she IS a good enough player to make a team of girls her age.
We figured it out, rearranged schedules and the Sillanpaa Family Sports Machine kicked into gear. I called her three or four times from work with little pieces of information I thought she should know such as, "You can't dribble...stop...and then dribble again" and "You know you can't run with the ball, right?" She really doesn't know anything about the game that she hadn't heard me tell her brother.
Ah, her 13-year-old brother, who had basketball tryouts of his own going on in seventh grade was on the case. He offered to take her to the gym to shoot around and "coach" her. More surprisingly, she was willing to let him "coach" her. They get along really, really well...but, they don't generally bond over sports. She needed a ride to the gym at 7:30 at night and talked my oldest son into making the trip...still soaking wet in the clothes he'd worn running a baseball practice in the rain.
"I wasn't going to tell her I was too tired," Tyren said. "We've all wondered if she'd ever be interested in sports and...she is...so, I drove her."
He also stayed and joined his little brother in an hour-long session where they took turns thinking of tidbits of information to share with my daughter. Before they left, she peppered them with the tougher questions like, "What's a layup?" and "Where's the free throw spot?"
I have this long-held theory that kids who dress like players attract attention, they stand out, at any tryouts. I once selected Kristin Vandermolen No. 1 in the Eureka Hoopsters draft because she had expensive basketball shoes. I figured any 11-year-old girl with expensive shoes was serious about the game. So, I paid her a little extra attention and...she was a really good player.
It helps kids who aren't really good players to dress like good players. At some point, you have to show some skill, obviously. Still, in a gym filled with kids about the same size with about the same skill level...it pays to get in the front of every line, run whenever the coach calls for you and, moreover, dress like you're just coming back from the Nike/AndOne Scouting Combine.
So, my daughter...who hasn't been on a basketball team got together with her brothers and they coordinated a bitchin' basketball practice outfit. Under Armour beneath an Oregon basketball jersey...white/pink Starbury basketball shoes (those low-cost shoes NBA player Stephon Marbury markets), and some school's official basktball shorts. None of the stuff looked brand new so...when she showed up for tryouts with her hair in a ponytail like WNBA star Sue Bird wears, she looked like an experienced baller.
There are two simply amazing girls on that team of fifth- and sixth-graders. They're going to be high school stars. They are ... amazing talents, they can do it all. Then, there are two girls who can play some -- who wore street clothes to tryouts. After that, the 13-player was filled with my daughter and eight other girls with no really noticeable basketball skill.
All that my daughter has ever done is dribble in a straight line...pass the ball...shoot from maybe 8 feet out...and played a minimum amount of defense, usually while laughing at her brother.
Guess who somehow finished up two days of tryouts on top of the K.I. Jones Elementary School basketball world?
My daughter didn't do anything of note. She took my advice and shot her layups (that she'd learned the night before) without looking back to see if she'd made it. She didn't try to go 100 mph, but rather...controlled her body to minimize the small problem of having no real ballhandling skills. And, apparently, she made a couple shots ... at some point in the 90-minute session. Oh, and she was dressed like Sue Bird's little sister on her way to the Diana Taurasi Basketball Camp.
After Friday's tryouts, when it was announced that only eight of the 13 girls would make the squad, I talked to the coach. There was nothing I could say to help my daughter, but I did introduce myself and mention her name and my youngest son's name. The woman is an honor class teacher and she adored my son. It's a political game within a game, this business of making the team. I just told her I was happy Kyndall gave it shot and, the coach interrupted to say, "She's terrific! She's a starter as of now!"
So...my hunch paid off. My theory, if applied by a group of people who understand it, works. She learned the bare minimum about the game and hustled and smiled and listened -- made it clear she was having a blast playing ball. The basketball practice outfit, a bunch of stuff her brothers had worn over time, sold her as a real basketball player.
Amazing.
"If she makes that basketball team, it will be the crowning achievement of your life as a sports dad," my son Tyren said. "She hasn't even played before."
Well...I think those Starbury's dazzled 'em!
My guess has always been that dressing like a player attracts attention. When the coach looks at a kid in jeans making a mistake, they write the kid off as a non-player. My daughter made the same mistake, but got the benefit of the doubt because...she had to be a serious player, right, look at how she was dressed! And, when she made a couple shots, an achievement I can't fathom still, that sealed the deal...she wasn't just going to be the smallest, youngest kid on the team...she'd somehow joined those two eventual all-America girls as clear starters.
How we approach her continuing education as a player now so that she doesn't embarrass herself on the court is in question. Oddly, she's the most receptive of my kids to instruction so..who knows? If she listens, learns quickly and remains confident that she can do anything she sets her mind to...maybe she'll even play like "a starter."
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