Parents give standing ovation - no, not to me

[Mark Padgett]

Saturday morning 6th grade rec. One team had a boy on it who was (and I'm trying to be nice here) grossly overweight. Also, he was quite a bit shorter than all the rest of the boys. He was rather uncoordinated and committed many turnovers. He did take one shot in Q1 and it was an airball from about 7 or 8 feet out. Late in Q2, he had the ball in the corner and was being double teamed. One of the defenders hit him across the arm and I called the foul. His team was in double bonus, so he went to the line for two shots. The first one hit high up on the backboard and bounced away. However, the second one hit the front of the rim, then the backboard, then came down and bounced around the rim a little - then dropped in! That's when the parents from his team went nuts. They all jumped up and started shouting his name while clapping and stomping. The other team inbounded but then time ran out. The parents continued their antics for about two minutes into halftime before they gradually stopped.

I asked their AC what was going on. He told me this kid was in his third year in our program and this was the first point he had ever scored! These kids play 12 games per year and this was their second of this season so it was his 26th game.

He didn't score the rest of the game, although he almost made a shot with about one minute to go. My guess is that if it had gone in, the parents would have done the same thing again.

Of course, you could see how proud and happy the kid was from the time he scored. Good for him.