This is what rec is all about

[Mark Padgett]

Yesterday, I had a bunch of kids rec games. In one of them, a 5/6 grade girls game, one of the players is a neighbor of mine. Sometimes in the mornings, she'll be walking to the school bus stop when I'm walking my dog so we walk together and talk about school and basketball. Plus - she loves my dog and sometimes has a treat in her bag for him. Anyway, early in the game, there's an OOB play and I am administering and she is the inbounder. I hold the ball out to her and when she reaches for it, I pull it away. I would then hold it out, she would again reach for it and I would again pull it away. I did this about 3 times. She then looked at me, smiled and said, "That's funny, Mark". I looked over at her dad who was sitting just a few feet away and he was cracking up.

BTW - she's an excellent point guard but her team got beat, 18-8 (not that unusual a score in this league at that level). She had four points. After the game, I told her she played really well and that she should remember she scored half her team's points! She smiled and said she would do exactly that.

Later on in the day, I was walking my dog and she was getting out of her dad's car after shopping. She came over to pet my dog and thanked me for what I told her after the game. She said it made her feel much better.

This is the kind of stuff I try to think about when some coach or spectator is yelling abuse.